[userbinator]

ABP is filtering content that's already been retrieved over the network and read into the browser. With hosts, the blocked content never makes it into my machine, which saves bandwidth.

I think using both is better than either one alone. A hosts file to quickly remove most of the unwanted stuff, and ABP to finish off the rest that does get through.

[gorhill]

Regarding ABP, there are two kind of filters, the net request filters and the DOM content filters.

The net request filters do prevent net requests from being made.

[throwaway7767]

I thought that was only the chrome version, since google does not want to implement features to allow adblockers to stop requests.

Firefox does support it, and I know that in the past adblock did stop the requests rather than hide elements.

[Rusky]

Chrome has added an API to block requests: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/webRequest

[nitrogen]

Are you sure that the requests are still made?