Blocking the Advertising
IGA's advertising system seems to have two servers involved in the process:
- A master server, which the game automatically contacts on starting.
- A content server, where the game downloads advertising from.
To block the ads, you should block the servers from being accessed by the software. You should not just block the port numbers that the software uses, otherwise this may block certain other software from accessing the internet - as the ports are not ratified.
Common
Block the following subnets from accessing the internet:
- 72.3.184.144/28 (72.3.184.144 - 72.3.184.159)
- 72.32.5.0/28 (72.32.5.0 - 72.32.5.15)
These two netblocks are allocated to IGA Worldwide, the provider of the advertising. You cannot use a HOSTS file to block them - that will have no effect.
Blocking Massive Incorporated's servers will also have no effect on IGA-using games. This includes Battlefield 2142, as Massive only provide the advertising for the XBox 360 version of the game.
Windows XP SP2 Support Tools
Windows XP SP2 Support Tools includes (in the full installation only) a tool called ipseccmd. This allows you to increase the power of the Windows XP SP2 inbuilt firewall.
Please note: If you are using a third-party firewall software, like ZoneAlarm or Norton Internet Security, you shouldn't use this method.
To block out the ad servers, use the following batch files: block.cmd and unblock.cmd.