AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[sentinelvdx]

Wildcard blocking will be a feature in AB4, while wildcard whitelisting will remain unavailable in both versions.

Why whitelisting no?

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[PeterV]

Hello.
At first - thanks for the ab-solution.
At second - small proposition regarding "shell history" option.
On AC86U (at least) you can use ln command instead of copy.

For example how it is look now in my post-mount

[ -f /tmp/mnt/entware/.ash_history ] && ln -nsf /tmp/mnt/entware/.ash_history /root/.ash_history

And history is fully working without any problems. The same command can be used with jffs ...

 

[skeal]

This is working awesome @thelonelycoder !
A B - S O L U T I O N A D - B L O C K I N G
AB-Solution 3.11.2 beta by thelonelycoder
----------------------------------------------------
RT-AC3100 (armv7l) fw-384.4 @ 192.168.14.1
----------------------------------------------------
396,838 blocked domains 10 hosts files in use
56,167 t 5,929 w 7 n ads since Mar 09 11:15
----------------------------------------------------
beta URL ab-solution.info/beta Beta hosts [on]
i AB-Solution [/mnt/EXT2]
cu check for updates
un updates notify [off]
bu backup to email [off]
a ad-blocking [on]
l logging [on]
rs router stats [on] [to file] [Sun @ 1:30]
ps pixelserv-tls [192.168.14.4] [v2.1.0-test.1]
entware device [/mnt/EXT2]
b blocking file [Medium+] [Sun @ 2:00]
u update blocking file
el edit white or black list
f follow the logfile
ac update ads counter
e exit AB-Solution sm sub menu
____________________________________________________
Done beta hosts files set to: on
What do you want to do?

 

[sentinelvdx]

This is working awesome @thelonelycoder !
A B - S O L U T I O N A D - B L O C K I N G
AB-Solution 3.11.2 beta by thelonelycoder
----------------------------------------------------
RT-AC3100 (armv7l) fw-384.4 @ 192.168.14.1
----------------------------------------------------
396,838 blocked domains 10 hosts files in use
56,167 t 5,929 w 7 n ads since Mar 09 11:15
----------------------------------------------------
beta URL ab-solution.info/beta Beta hosts [on]
i AB-Solution [/mnt/EXT2]
cu check for updates
un updates notify [off]
bu backup to email [off]
a ad-blocking [on]
l logging [on]
rs router stats [on] [to file] [Sun @ 1:30]
ps pixelserv-tls [192.168.14.4] [v2.1.0-test.1]
entware device [/mnt/EXT2]
b blocking file [Medium+] [Sun @ 2:00]
u update blocking file
el edit white or black list
f follow the logfile
ac update ads counter
e exit AB-Solution sm sub menu
____________________________________________________
Done beta hosts files set to: on
What do you want to do?

How do you access beta versions?

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[thelonelycoder]

Why whitelisting no?

I'll get back to you on that later.

 

[skeal]

How do you access beta versions?

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There is a separate beta forum thread for this script. Rather than explain here just read up on it.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/beta-ab-solution-3-x.42167/

 

[thelonelycoder]

Hello.
At first - thanks for the ab-solution.
At second - small proposition regarding "shell history" option.
On AC86U (at least) you can use ln command instead of copy.

For example how it is look now in my post-mount

[ -f /tmp/mnt/entware/.ash_history ] && ln -nsf /tmp/mnt/entware/.ash_history /root/.ash_history

And history is fully working without any problems. The same command can be used with jffs ...

A LOT of the code in AB3.x has potential for improvement.
That is the reason why I work on a complete rewrite of it which will eventually be released as AB-Solution 4.0
The ash history code has also been completely rewritten and looks thus in my development version, using a linked file just as you figured out:

sort_ash_history(){
    [ -f "/jffs/.ash_history" ] && cat /jffs/.ash_history | sed '/ab-solution/d; /^$/d' | sort -urb >/tmp/.ash_history || >/tmp/.ash_history
    echo 'ab-solution' >>/tmp/.ash_history
    mv -f /tmp/.ash_history /jffs/.ash_history
    ln -sf /jffs/.ash_history /home/root/
}

 

[thelonelycoder]

How do you access beta versions?

Beta and release channel offer the exact same version: 3.11.2
There is nothing to test in the beta channel ATM.
Please do not enable the beta channel unless I offer and announce a new beta version in the dedicated thread.

 

[vango44]

Any idea why I am getting these in my router log (AC86U)

Mar  9 10:34:59 pixelserv-tls[19790]: Cannot use /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/_.sharethrough.com
Mar  9 10:34:59 pixelserv-tls[19790]: Cannot use /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/_.myfonts.net

Seems to have started after updating to 3.11.2
Just those 2 files every few minutes

 

[thelonelycoder]

Seems to have started after updating to 3.11.2

This is pixelserv-tls territory. I have no idea what triggers that error. Ask in the pixelserv thread.
The update to AB 3.11.2 cannot and has not caused this.

 

[skeal]

@thelonelycoder How do you return back to the old version of pixelserv-tls from the kvic 2.1.0-test.1 ? I installed the beta through amtm.

 

[thelonelycoder]

@thelonelycoder How do you return back to the old version of pixelserv-tls from the kvic 2.1.0-test.1 ? I installed the beta through amtm.

Run it again in amtm, it will give you the choice to update to the latest beta or reinstate the prevois version.
BTW, this is kvic's script doing.

 

[skeal]

Run it again in amtm, it will give you the choice to update to the latest beta or reinstate the prevois version.
BTW, this is kvic's script doing.

Thank you! I have to think a bit longer before getting into beta testing and ask if its worth it. I'm an idiot...

 

[thelonelycoder]

Thank you! I have to think a bit longer before getting into beta testing and ask if its worth it. I'm an idiot...

Then I have been an idiot since about 1995, the year I signed (!) a dial up contract and went online for the first time.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Any idea why I am getting these in my router log (AC86U)

Mar  9 10:34:59 pixelserv-tls[19790]: Cannot use /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/_.sharethrough.com
Mar  9 10:34:59 pixelserv-tls[19790]: Cannot use /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/_.myfonts.net

Seems to have started after updating to 3.11.2
Just those 2 files every few minutes

I've seen kvic's reply in his thread, I'd have to double-check the AB3 code but it should set the owner of /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/ to "nobody".
As this seems to have fixed your problem I'll look into it and make sure the owner is rechecked regularly. In AB4 I already do that for this reason but maybe not (yet) in AB3.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Quick question, I have whitelisted a site such as aweber.com because someone I work use it for his marketing position, but today I have to add click.aweber.com because seems like subdomains of that site were still filtered.
How can I ensure subdomains are considered too?

To answer this and my previous post about your question and the subject:
Whitelisting with a wildcard as you request is not going to be a feature I offer in AB-Solution.
It used to be so in AB2.x and earlier. In the (private) beta thread for AB3 at the time we discussed this at length and I don't want to or have the time to look through that very long thread to look for all the reasons we came up with.

Let's just say that whitelisting *domain.com has a very high potential of being a frustration point and a certain generator of questions like "why is this or that not blocked in AB-Solution".
Additionally, wildcard whitelisting *domain.com would be impossible to do in Skynet. AB and Skynet work very well together and @Adamm and I made sure our implementation of the shared-*-whitelist works flawless and automatic between the two scripts.

If I were to add wildcard support for the whitelist it would trigger those (forgotten) reasons in the beta thread and also not work with Skynet.
Thus trigger even more questions like "I whitelisted this domain, why does it not work".

 

[thelonelycoder]

Any idea why I am getting these in my router log (AC86U)

Mar  9 10:34:59 pixelserv-tls[19790]: Cannot use /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/_.sharethrough.com
Mar  9 10:34:59 pixelserv-tls[19790]: Cannot use /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/_.myfonts.net

Seems to have started after updating to 3.11.2
Just those 2 files every few minutes

I have uploaded changes related to that error. It's a silent update, no version change.
Enter 1233 in the AB UI to re-download all files. The owner re-check on /opt/var/cache/pixelserv will silently run during the re-download procedure and subsequently every time the AB UI is started.

 

[Quoc Huynh]

Looks like the hosts file in your link has been updated regularly since first publishing 6 months ago.
I'll add it to the default list in AB4, for AB3 either add the content manually to the blacklist or use the Custom blocking file option to include the raw download url to have an always updated protection for your LAN.
The raw link to the hosts file is:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list/master/hosts.txt

Thank you @snixel for the suggesting host file and thank you @thelonelycoder for your instruction!

As I am not familiar with Unix, may my following steps are correct to add that host file to the Custom list?
(I am using Windows 10 Home, with Ext2Fsd and Notepad++ installed, AB-Solution with Medium+ and pixelsrv 2.0.1)
1. Disable JFFS custom scripts and configs in Admistration page, then restart router.
2. Unmount the USB stick.
3. Plug it in computer, open /adblocking/custom_files/custom_hosts_list.txt with Notepad++
4. Paste the content of the link https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list/master/hosts.txt into custom_hosts_list.txt file, then save it.
5. Plug the USB drive back in the router and Enable JFFS custom script.
6. Change blocking file type in AB-solution to Custom+ (with "pre-populate to Medium" to Yes).
Thank you in advance!

Edited: After searching the Internet, I have figured out how to edit the custom_hosts_list.txt file and Ab-solution is running flawlessly with added blocked domains. Thank you so much, @visortgw and @thelonelycoder! You are really awesome

 

[visortgw]

Thank you @snixel for the suggesting host file and thank you @thelonelycoder for your instruction!

As I am not familiar with Unix, may my following steps are correct to add that host file to the Custom list?
(I am using Windows 10 Home, with Ext2Fsd and Notepad++ installed, AB-Solution with Medium+ and pixelsrv 2.0.1)
1. Disable JFFS custom scripts and configs in Admistration page, then restart router.
2. Unmount the USB stick.
3. Plug it in computer, open /adblocking/custom_files/custom_hosts_list.txt with Notepad++
4. Paste the content of the link https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list/master/hosts.txt into custom_hosts_list.txt file, then save it.
5. Plug the USB drive back in the router and Enable JFFS custom script.
6. Change blocking file type in AB-solution to Custom+ (with "pre-populate to Medium" to Yes).
Thank you in advance!

Not exactly. The file that you want to paste the contents to is adblocking/blacklist.txt. No need to disable anything. "Simply":

1. ssh into the router.
2. cd to /tmp/mnt/????/adblocking.
3. Edit blacklists.txt -- I use nano.
4. Launch ab-solution. Use el to reload blacklists.

 

[Quoc Huynh]

Thanks @visortgw for your help! Since I am not Linux user, may I ask you some more questions:
1. Is "????" the label of my USB drive?
2. How can I go to that folder in ssh client (I am using Putty)?
And the reason why I would like to use the /adblocking/custom_files/custom_hosts_list.txt is that I want it to be updated when using the "u-update blocking file" in ab-solution, as thelonelycoder said. Therefore, I prefer to edit that file to the blacklist.txt.

Edited: After searching the Internet, I have figured out how to edit the custom_hosts_list.txt file and Ab-solution is running flawlessly with added blocked domains. Thank you so much, @visortgw and @thelonelycoder! Your are really awesome