Zone Alarm Pro: ad blocker gives Garbled HTML code?

Infopackets Reader Les M. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

Firstly, well done and many thanks for a most informative newsletter. Today I am writing you because I have a most annoying and frustrating problem with web pages not displaying properly. I use Windows XP (Home Edition), and have recently upgraded to broadband (with AOL 9.0) ...

[What is happening is that] web pages are loaded through Internet Explorer with at least a paragraph of garbled HTML code at the top, followed by other odd elements of the page scattered randomly, and sometimes repeated 3 or 4 times down the page. I suspected that the problem may have something to do with Microsoft's security updates, having looked on the MS web site. Unfortunately, the hot fix I suspected was listed as 'unrecoverable once installed', so I formatted my system drive and reloaded everything again.

... I've tried the MS web site without much luck, I've looked at my Internet security settings (both IE & AOL) and also my Zone Alarm Pro 5.0 settings and I'm still getting nowhere. I wonder if you have ever encountered a similar problem before and could give me any pointers as to where to look next, as I've run out of ideas. "

My response:

Yes, I ran into this exact same problem before (it drove me nuts, too).

My problem went away when I disabled the ad blocking technology (and perhaps the cookie control) in Zone Alarm Pro. I'm sure if you do the same, your problem will subside. And by the way, a *much* more effective way of blocking web browser-based ads is to use a modified Hosts file (described in depth in my PC Security Guide).

New PC Security Tutorial