what I find extremely annoying is a website FULL of ads. but I don`t really
feel like buying a pop-up blocker, or having my computer filled with a
zillion of free blockers that don`t work, and sometimes even bring more ads
than block them.

Now I know most commercial advertisements are done from a single server, and
then anyone can link to that server.
for example, if you place a banner on your website, you don`t have the
banner yourself, but you place an object that`s linked to the advertisement
server.

for this, I want to know how I can completely block access from and to that
server.
in other words, I want to invoke a "manual" ad-block.

however, from what I`ve been searching around on google, the only thing
about blocking seems to be about blocking clients from a server (but I want
it the other way around) or blocking with the help of an internet server (and
I`m not going to buy a professional business server just to block a few
banners).
putting them in restricted sites in internet explorer doesn`t really seem to
do the trick. and I`m not sure how to block things using LMHosts.
The windows firewall only restricts ports and programs, but no access to
specific points.

summarised:

I got windows XP SP3

I`m annoyed by content on more than one website, which mainly comes from 1
server.

And I want to block out this single server. simply blocking the DNS name or
IP adress. This is a problem, because I can`t seem to figure out where and
how to do this.

-
Conclusively it would mean, that if I ban access to an ad-server, it would
mean that when I enter sites with banners, I can see anything but the
banners, because they are linked to that specific server. (it will probably
generate errors since the banners won`t be able to retrieve the information
from the ad server this way, but I don`t care, as long as it`s blocked)

is it possible to enter ip adresses or dns names somewhere to block them?
will changing things in LMHosts  work? and how?
is there something in network settings I should change? or in
policies/security settings?

Probably the best question I should ask, since I couldn`t find any answers
by googling it :
Is it actually possible to do this, without the need to buy servers or
server-kind of software?  
I mean, it`s a simple thing I`m asking... but I`ve also seen alot of simple
yet powerfull tools being discarded. I hope whatever I need isn`t one of them.