I have used many different popup/banner blocking tools, but I did not like any of them. Except one. That program is Ad Muncher.
Ad Muncher will automatically block popups, it gives you many options to do it, including deciding when to prevent the popups (on site load, on site close, etc.). It also allows you to block those Messenger Service popups.
You can also completely remove banners with Ad Muncher. It comes with a huge server-supplied list with 1,648 strings found in advertisements to find them and remove them. It also lets you add your own strings to the list. Any text banners found will be removed and replace with Munched, and that can be changed. Image banners and other blocked images will be replaced with their alternate text. It can also remove music from the page.
Ad Muncher will also allow you to use proxies to IP Scramble your address. You give it a list of proxies and it will then use a random one each time you switch pages. It allows you to test a list of proxies to see if they're working in the program also.
The best feature about Ad Muncher is it works for almost all browsers! Without any configuration, it will work for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firebird, Netscape Navigator and many others. It will also block banners and popups on KaZaA, ICQ, and others! You can other programs to the list if it's not already on there also.
Ad Muncher is distributed as shareware, and can be tested free for 30 days. While using the trial version, you cannot download updates for Ad Muncher. Registration costs $25 USD.
All this is in a 157kb installation file with no spyware. Amazing.
Ad Muncher website: http://www.admuncher.com
Sources:
My brain