Disgruntled Gamers Find Ways To Block Ads On Xbox 360 Dashboard

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Earlier this week, Microsoft rolled out a brand new dashboard for the Xbox 360. The new dashboard update adds a bunch of new and intriguing features, but apparently, it has also added a few things that gamers are taking issue with. One of these things is a change to Xbox 360′s EULA that prevents the end user from suing Microsoft should things go awry, but perhaps the most annoying new feature is the introdcution of video ads.

Intrusive video ads have invaded the Xbox 360 dashboard, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why players don’t want to be bombarded with ads when they simply want to play a game or browse the marketplace. Thankfully, a few clever Reddit users have discovered some workarounds for these ads and have listed the steps you need to take in order to have an ad-free Xbox 360 experience.

The simplest way to rid yourself of Xbox 360 ads is by going into your router settings and blocking Microsoft’s ad server – rad.msn.com – from accessing your router. If you can’t do this, then you’ll have to use a slightly more complex method that uses the OpenDNS service. Here are the steps you need to take, straight from Reddit:

• Sign up for an OpenDNS account (it’s free).
• Add a network for your current IP address.
• Go to Advanced Settings and next to ‘Domain Typos’, check the box ‘Enable typo correction’ if it’s not already checked and apply.
• Got to Web Content Filtering settings and set the filtering level to ‘None’, and under ‘Manage individual domains’, put rad.msn.com and select ‘Always block’ and then click ‘Add domain’. Screenshot.
• On your Xbox, go to System Settings -> Network Settings -> (your connection) -> Configure Network -> DNS settings -> Manual, and enter the OpenDNS IP addresses for the primary and secondary DNS servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
• You may need to clear your hard drive cache before ads disappear entirely: System Settings -> Storage -> Hard Drive -> press Y -> Clear System Cache (note that you’ll have to re-download any title updates for any games you play after doing this).
• No longer pay to be advertised to.

That last step is the real kicker. Most people expect to see ads when they’re using a free service, but many are taking issue with the fact that they’re seeing ads on a console they paid a lot of money for while using a service that requires an annual subscription. Needless to say, it leads many people to wonder what they’re paying for if Microsoft is going to continuously play those annoying Chuck Norris World of Warcraft ads anyway.

What does everyone think? Have the video ads proven to be an annoyance, or don’t you really mind them? Is anyone out there refusing to update their Xbox 360? Head down to the comments section to sound off!