Is it just me or are pop-up ads getting completely out of control? Some sites spawn 5-6 windows the moment you visit. Even closing them spawns more. X10 camera ads everywhere.

Is there any way to block these? I'm about to lose my mind.

The Google toolbar has a built-in popup blocker that works pretty well. It's free and actually useful — shows you how many popups it's blocked.

Try the Proxomitron — it's a local proxy that filters all kinds of web garbage including popups, ads, and tracking cookies. Advanced but incredibly powerful.

Opera has built-in popup blocking. Another reason to switch from IE. It also blocks those horrible interstitial ads.

The X10 camera ads are a plague upon the internet. I don't even know what the camera does, I just know I hate it.