"I can't see the banners on the front page!" is one of the more often-heard complaints about the SmackJeeves site. 90% of the time this problem is caused by the user's firewall / ad blocking program. Because comic banners are the same size and located in a typical directory that advertisement banners are, many security programs misread comic banners as advertisements. Norton is perhaps the biggest culprit in all of this, though other ad blocking programs might also be at fault here. This article will help walk you thorough changing your firewall permissions in Norton so that you can see SmackJeeves banners, without having to drop your ad blocker or heaven help us, your entire firewall to do so. While this tutorial is specific for Norton Security 2005, the basic concept is the same for ANY ad blocking software you might have on your computer.

First, you need to open up your security center. In Windows, you should be able to find the icon on the lower right hand side of your task bar at the bottom of your screen. It should look something like Figure 1; if it doesn't, specifically, if you see a lot of red instead of green... well, you had either better update your firewall or call your parents and ask them to check it for you.

Figure 1: Norton Security Center

Notice that the 'AntiSpam' tab of the security center is activated. From here, select 'Ad Blocker' and choose to 'configure' it. You should see a screen that looks something like Figure 2.

Figure 2: General Ad Blocker Preferences

Click on the 'Advanced' button to open up the next window, which should look similar to Figure 3.

Figure 3: Advanced Ad Blocker Preferences

Here, click on the tab in the lower left hand side of the window that reads 'add site.' This will open up a little pop up window asking you for a URL. Type in (either) www.SmackJeeves.com or just SmackJeeves.com. This will add the SmackJeeves site to the column of websites you can pick and choose from in the left column of your window. Those websites are listed in alphabetical order, so if you typed in 'www' you'll find the SmackJeeves site listed at the very end of the column!

Select the newly added SmackJeeeves site from the list. Once that is highlighted, look at the right hand side of the window for the 'Add' button. This will bring up a new small popup window with a text field and two radio buttons with the option to either 'allow through' or 'block' whatever you type into that text field. Here you should add permission to see banners from SmackJeeves by typing in /banners/ into the box. Make sure you have the option to 'allow' banners checked! See Figure 4 for details.

Figure 4: Allow banners from SmackJeeves

When you've done all of that, when you look at the SmackJeeves site, there should now be a little notation in the right hand window that reads "/banners/" with a green lantern shining next to it, sort of like in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Banners from SmackJeeves are allowed

Now all you have to do is click 'OK' on all of the security boxes (don't just close them, click OK to apply the changes!), and you're home free! Open up SmackJeeves in your browser and you should see the comic banners even if your ad blocker is still up.

- Enkida