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Instructions on how to block Xbox Dashboard ads pop up online

Stephany Nunneley-Jackson avatar
News by Stephany Nunneley-Jackson News Editor
Published on

The new update to the Xbox 360 Dashboard has ads, and while you may feel there is nothing you can do but just sit there and suck it up, Reddit has found a way for you to get rid of the ads - at least until Microsoft fixes it to where you can't.

According to site user Absurdlyobfuscated, here is what you need to do in order to be ad-free:

  1. Sign up for an OpenDNS account (it’s free).
  2. Add a network for your current IP address.
  3. Go to Advanced Settings and next to ‘Domain Typos’, check the box ‘Enable typo correction’ if it’s not already checked and apply.
  4. Got to Web Content Filtering settings and set the filtering level to ‘None’, and under ‘Manage individual domains’, put rad.msn.com and select ‘Always block’ and then click ‘Add domain’. Screenshot.
  5. On your Xbox, go to System Settings -> Network Settings -> (your connection) -> Configure Network -> DNS settings -> Manual, and enter the OpenDNS IP addresses for the primary and secondary DNS servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
  6. You may need to clear your hard drive cache before ads disappear entirely: System Settings -> Storage -> Hard Drive -> press Y -> Clear System Cache (note that you’ll have to re-download any title updates for any games you play after doing this).
  7. No longer pay to be advertised to.

Again, this workaround will probably only work until coders at MS apply a fix to prevent it, but at least it should provide you with a few days of relief.

Thanks, GameFront.

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