Can’t see Google ads on any website

 

Why can’t I see Google ads on any website on my local machine

I can’t see Google ads on my local machine on any website.  However, I am working on Linux and Windows based Virtual machines, If I try to access the website from these Virtual machines, I could easily see Google ads on all websites.  The same thing happens when I work on other machines in the network, I can see Google ads on other machines also in the network, but, I can’t see Google ads on my local machine.

To fix this, you need to check Windows 7 ‘hosts’ file, that is present in this location: “c:windowssystem32driversetchosts”

This ‘hosts’ file contained references towards Google adv. sites and pointed them to local machine address 127.0.0.1.  That’s why, the URL didn’t pointed to Google servers, instead it was looking up in the local machine.  You need to remove all such references towards local machine address from this ‘hosts’ file.  If you find problem with editing ‘hosts’ file in Windows 7, see the following link:

Unable to edit the ‘hosts’ file in Windows 7

Besides this, you should also ensure that:

  • You don’t have any Ad-blocking software installed on your machine
  • The firewall and antivirus software should be checked, if it is preventing ads from being displayed
  • The cookie settings must be checked and must be allowed
  • The browser history may be cleaned as well the cookies
  • javascript must be enabled in the browser.

This shall fix the issue with Google ads not shown on the local machine.