AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[thelonelycoder]

Next question ...

I've used pfsense/Shalla's list in the past, then Ciscos (OpenDNS) Family Shield DNScrypt provider, but that wasn't working as I wanted. AB Solution is a great fit, but i'd like to add a blacklist of pr0n/violence websites into the blacklist.

First question is: does anyone know of any reasonably sized blacklists? I took Shallas and modified it to work with dnsmasq's config but it was 28MB. It was overkill, so I need a reasonable list without it being all-encompassing.

Second question is; Can I add sites manually to the blacklist, and just go into the blacklist editor and "process" the list, or do I need to add them through the gui for it to get processed properly?

If you have a compatible hosts file provider that serves the file, you can use the url to add it to AB. This way it gets updated with the weekly update.
Compatible are all files that contain 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 as blocking IP, like so:
0.0.0.0 pricegrabber.com
0.0.0.0 anotherdomain.com

All you need to do is activate the custom hosts list in (b), pre-fill it with one of the blocking files and then edit the file so that it includes the direct download link of the hosts file you want to add.
Then run (u) to test it. Be aware that some hosts file servers will block you for the day if you download the files too often in one day.

Adding a large number of hosts to the blacklist is not a wise idea as this list never gets updated once it is created.

 

[thelonelycoder]

The FAQ section on the website now has a few common questions answered, feel free to suggest more helpful content for it.
I'm afraid the THE MANUAL will have to wait a little longer as I want to make it as thorough as possible.

 

[Coipu]

sorry for being dumb, but can i add a dubious ip address to the blacklist or does it not block ip addresses?

 

[tomsk]

sorry for being dumb, but can i add a dubious ip address to the blacklist or does it not block ip addresses?

No sir.... AB solution blocks by hostname

 

[Coipu]

ahh as I suspected, tyvm.

 

[tomsk]

The FAQ section on the website now has a few common questions answered, feel free to suggest more helpful content for it.

How much space do i need?/can't i install it on jffs? , Can i run AB in A/P mode?

 

[thelonelycoder]

ahh as I suspected, tyvm.

https://www.ab-solution.info/use/faq.html

 

[thelonelycoder]

How much space do i need?/can't i install it on jffs? , Can i run AB in A/P mode?

That is all planned for the manual, thanks!

 

[Coipu]

Doh, easy to miss with a bunch of windows open i shall go look for those "other tools" of which you speak. Sorry

 

[thelonelycoder]

Doh, easy to miss with a bunch of windows open i shall go look for those "other tools" of which you speak. Sorry

TBH, I added this to the FAQ when I read your Question...

 

[thelonelycoder]

Here is a website that has block-lists that can be used with the popular Ublock add-on.
Maybe there are some interesting lists that are missing/can be used in AB-Solution.

https://filterlists.com/

Thanks, but some of these are NOT compatible with AB.
Only hosts files with hosts list and blocking IP of 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 will work.
Apart from that, this is up to you to add them yourself if you so desire in the custom blocking file.
AB has it covered with the 6 types I believe.

 

[finite9]

Make sure you have one empty line at the end of the file.
The next version of AB will do that on it's side, just to rule out user error. But for now this is important. Otherwise, if you have no new line, the last line of your script and any additional configs, like AB's, start at the end of your last line.
Meaning it makes that complete line incompatible for dnsmasq and it will ignore it.

Hi.

thanks for the tip about the blank line in dnsmasq. this seemed to fix the problem and now torproject.org and ask.fedoraproject.org work fine even after a day.

 

[thelonelycoder]

bump

Edit: This never happened before, but the previous thread gets resurrected.
I'm having it locked by the admins.

 

[Makaveli]

bump

Edit: This never happened before, but the previous thread gets resurrected.
I'm having it locked by the admins.

Yes please it appears some don't read before they post.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Really not important, but a small mistake I just noticed in the recently updated addon file update-hosts.add.
The hosts file counter when updating in manual mode (u) does not show the file number.
I have silently fixed this and re-uploaded the file.
There is no version change, running (cu) will NOT show it.

But you can enter 12 in the AB UI and it will re-download and integrate all used addon files without further prompts.

Sorry about that.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Part of the first three chapters of the v3.6.5 manual are now online.

 

[Denna]

@thelonelycoder,

What is the difference between AB-Solution and ad blocking functionality in unbound and dnscrypt-proxy ?​

 

[thelonelycoder]

@thelonelycoder,
What is the difference between AB-Solution and ad blocking functionality in unbound and dnscrypt-proxy ?

DNSCrypt is 'A protocol to improve DNS security'.
Unbound is the standard DNS Resolver on a PFSense Box.
Both usually run on hardware that is far more capable than your average wireless router.
Both can use hosts lists to block ads, but usually they are converted specifically to work with the DNS resolving.
As these can be installed on a fairly powerful box, the possibilities are endless of what you can add.

AB-Solution uses the Asuswrt-Merlin built in capabilities to block ads with hosts based lists.
If you so desire, you can install the pixelserv-tls addon which enables it to block HTTPS ads as well and fill out the gaps that blocked ads sometimes leave in the browser.
What AB and your router can do compared to the two (of many) 'alternatives' is limited, because of processor performance and memory availability.

But for a consumer grade wireless router, I would go as far as saying AB-Solution is the best that can ever happen to your router and your LAN clients.
And to your web experience, of course.

 

[Ubimo]

Is it possible to have an option to auto-update ab-solution? (eg. every few days)
Now we have to follow the news for new updates. I don't want to worry about doing updates manually.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Is it possible to have an option to auto-update ab-solution? (eg. every few days)
Now we have to follow the news for new updates. I don't want to worry about doing updates manually.

While AB is very stable and the update runs 99.9% error free, there is always an exceptional case that could break it.
Minor versions update could run automatically, but major versions require user input to make sure all settings are updated.

I also don't want to take the burden of being responsible if it does not work properly.
What I could do is build in a send mail function if there is an update available.
This is as far as I would go.