My impression from the article is that the ad-blocking is done at the client, wh...

boq · on Jan 7, 2013

Free, as well as all major ISPs in France, rents you a router when you subscribe. This is where the filtering is done, using lying DNSs it seems.

chii · on Jan 7, 2013

in this day and age, requiring installation of software from the ISP to get online is very suspicious, and should be frowned up on.

I would explain to a non-technical person by analogy - imagine the telco needed you to use _their_ particular telephone when you make/recieve calls.

qbrass · on Jan 7, 2013

It shouldn't be hard to imagine for a lot of people who lived before the mid 80's.

The Bell monopoly required you to not only use their handsets, you usually had to lease the phone from them.