Block ads without Adblock Plus

This was pretty much the best way to do it pre-Ad Block. I recall doing things like this in the late 90s and it worked rather well.

One of the caveats to this method is that it can limit you from accessing some CDNs.

MVPS Hosts is worth a look: http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

Also another solution from the early part of 2000s was to use Proxomitron: http://www.proxomitron.info/

It was handy because it was basically Greasemonkey in the form of a proxy server. However, it is no longer maintained and the original author has since passed away.