AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[MarCoMLXXV]

Okay, thanks for clarifying!

 

[kingskib]

quick question: What might cause a wireless connection (win10 firefox) not to have ads blocked on the same site that a wired connection (win10 chrome) ?

No adblockers are running on either browser, just ABSol on the router.

 

[Xentrk]

I came across this post about blocking youtube ads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dropgoogle/comments/5tnjxl/block_youtube_ads_2017_hosts_file/

Some of the hosts already exist in ab-solution. Following are the ones I found that do not. I added them to my blacklist.

0.0.0.0 s.ytimg.com
0.0.0.0 www.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 clients1.google.com
0.0.0.0 clients.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 apis.google.com
0.0.0.0 www-googletagmanager.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 googleadapis.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 www.youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 ade.googlesyndication.com

Since I have several routers, I was able to test that it appears to work. It would be helpful if others on this thread can test as well and share your experience.

Update: I noticed that this broke a feature in gmail. In the upper right hand corner, there is an icon for the gmail user. When you click on it, it should give a drop down with the option to logoff. One of the entries above appears to break this function. I think the offending domain is apis.google.com. I removed it from the list and I get the gmail user icon working and the ads are blocked. Following is the revised list. AB will convert any IP to the one used by AB when batch copying into the file manually and then running the el / edit blacklist function:

0.0.0.0 s.ytimg.com
0.0.0.0 www.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 clients1.google.com
0.0.0.0 clients.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 www-googletagmanager.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 googleadapis.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 www.youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 ade.googlesyndication.com

 

[Xentrk]

In experimental settings es enable dnsmasq settings, then set cache-size to default, log--async to default and set domain-needed to on.
Next complete router stats with this setting in the weekly period will have these removed.

I made the change this morning. I get my emails on Friday. I will provide an update in 9 days.

 

[MarCoMLXXV]

quick question: What might cause a wireless connection (win10 firefox) not to have ads blocked on the same site that a wired connection (win10 chrome) ?

No adblockers are running on either browser, just ABSol on the router.

Do you have DNS Filtering in AIProtection turned on?

 

[Xentrk]

I subscribe to the lower tier C.B.S. All Access with ads so I can watch the new upcoming Star Trek series. With ABS, I was not getting the ads which was a nice benefit. But I started seeing ads again. Looking a the dnsmasq log file, I suspect that dai.google.com is the reason. This is google's Dynamic Ad Insertion technology. You can read more about it here:

http://marketingland.com/google-dfp-dynamic-ad-insertion-tv-173976
https://support.google.com/dfp_premium/answer/7278560?hl=en&ref_topic=7258182

In looking at some forums, it looks like CBS and other sites were blocking the AdPlus adblocker browser plug-in. in the recent past. But AdPlus Adblocker users eventually found a way to block the ad blocker in the game of ad blocking wack-o-mole.

I blacklisted dai.google.com. But doing so prevents on-demand video from streaming. I may have to step up to the ad free version if I decide I can't live without it.

Anyway, I just wanted people to know about google's Dynamic Ad Insertion and expect more to come.

nslookup dai.google.com
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    www3.l.google.com
Addresses:  2607:f8b0:4004:804::200e
          172.217.5.238
Aliases:  dai.google.com

 

[MarCoMLXXV]

I came across this post about blocking youtube ads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dropgoogle/comments/5tnjxl/block_youtube_ads_2017_hosts_file/

Some of the hosts already exist in ab-solution. Following are the ones I found that do not. I added them to my blacklist.

Since I have several routers, I was able to test that it appears to work. It would be helpful if others on this thread can test as well and share your experience.

Update: I noticed that this broke a feature in gmail. In the upper right hand corner, there is an icon for the gmail user. When you click on it, it should give a drop down with the option to logoff. One of the entries above appears to break this function. I think the offending domain is apis.google.com. I removed it from the list and I get the gmail user icon working and the ads are blocked.

Awesome, thanks for sharing! Will add them and let you know my findings.

On a whole different subject: Inspired by you and your voluntary work at school , I signed up yesterday as volunteer on my son's school to manage their network. They hired a new, overpriced company which has made a complete mess of the entire network and apparently needed over two months to get things sorted finally last Tuesday. Education is one of our governments primary targets for budget cutting (completely lacking a view for the future of our country) so I decided to sent a mail to the school's principal with some more advice on additional security measures as I have no trust in this external network management company, as it seems they don't have a clue as to what they're actually doing, so I figured I might contribute as a volunteer. I'm partially disabled and bored to death, as there's no fitting job to be found (yet) which matches what I am able to do and this is something I can do, something that's relevant to our youth and future society and unfortunately many, many schools have way too little knowledge of the importance of network security and content filtering. Thanks for the inspiration Obi-Wan @Xentrk!

 

[MarCoMLXXV]

@Xentrk or @thelonelycoder: just to make sure I'm adding them the correct way...

I can manually paste @Xentrk's list of servers at the end of blacklist.txt by running

nano blacklist.txt

pasting the list and modyfing it in the format below

0.0.0.0 s.ytimg.com
0.0.0.0 www.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 clients1.google.com
0.0.0.0 clients.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 www-googletagmanager.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 googleadapis.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 www.youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 ade.googlesyndication.com

Save the changes by hitting CTRL-X to close, Y to confirm saving changes, follow by Enter for saving as blacklist.txt and then exit,

followed by firing up

ab-solution

and choose 'el' from the main menu, followed by '2. Edit blacklist.txt' and then '3. Process blacklist.txt', right?

I've read it somewhere with the DMCA-case against a (collection of) blacklists but my memory is gaping hole, so I can't seem to find that post now Usually I add these kind of posts to Google Keep, but apparently I didn't on this occasion.

Thanks in advance!

 

[thelonelycoder]

@Xentrk or @thelonelycoder: just to make sure I'm adding them the correct way...

I can manually paste @Xentrk's list of servers at the end of blacklist.txt by running

nano blacklist.txt

pasting the list and modyfing it in the format below

0.0.0.0 s.ytimg.com
0.0.0.0 www.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 clients1.google.com
0.0.0.0 clients.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 www-googletagmanager.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 googleadapis.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 www.youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 ade.googlesyndication.com

Save the changes by hitting CTRL-X to close, Y to confirm saving changes, follow by Enter for saving as blacklist.txt and then exit,

followed by firing up

ab-solution

and choose 'el' from the main menu, followed by '2. Edit blacklist.txt' and then '3. Process blacklist.txt', right?

I've read it somewhere with the DMCA-case against a (collection of) blacklists but my memory is gaping hole, so I can't seem to find that post now Usually I add these kind of posts to Google Keep, but apparently I didn't on this occasion.

Thanks in advance!

Yes, the function "edit blacklist" will immediately convert the IP to the one in use.
Processing the blacklist will restart dnsmasq which re-reads the new file.

 

[MarCoMLXXV]

Yes, the function "edit blacklist" will immediately convert the IP to the one in use.
Processing the blacklist will restart dnsmasq which re-reads the new file.

Thanks for confirming that! Processing now...

 

[Xentrk]

Thanks for confirming that! Processing now...

I thought about the batch update method after I posted. I will edit the post when I get home and include the pixelserv-tls IP address so others can copy and paste into the blacklist.txt file rather than manually adding the entries one by one.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[Xentrk]

Awesome, thanks for sharing! Will add them and let you know my findings.

On a whole different subject: Inspired by you and your voluntary work at school , I signed up yesterday as volunteer on my son's school to manage their network. They hired a new, overpriced company which has made a complete mess of the entire network and apparently needed over two months to get things sorted finally last Tuesday. Education is one of our governments primary targets for budget cutting (completely lacking a view for the future of our country) so I decided to sent a mail to the school's principal with some more advice on additional security measures as I have no trust in this external network management company, as it seems they don't have a clue as to what they're actually doing, so I figured I might contribute as a volunteer. I'm partially disabled and bored to death, as there's no fitting job to be found (yet) which matches what I am able to do and this is something I can do, something that's relevant to our youth and future society and unfortunately many, many schools have way too little knowledge of the importance of network security and content filtering. Thanks for the inspiration Obi-Wan @Xentrk!

Helping out at the school helps make me feel relevant now that I am not working. Gives me a sense of satisfaction. For next steps, I need to learn more about windows server 2016 and implement role based permissions and prevent unauthorized downloads of questionable software.

On Tuesday, I am making a presentation to the Chiang Mai Geeks computer club about how to supercharge your router using Merlin FW, ab-solution, skynet, entware and vpn client and server.

I took a break from learning Thai. But I need to pick it back up. I prefer doing computer projects.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[thelonelycoder]

I thought about the batch update method after I posted. I will edit the post when I get home and include the pixelserv-tls IP address so others can copy and paste into the blacklist.txt file rather than manually adding the entries one by one.

Use 0.0.0.0 as @MarCoMLXXV used. Although it does not really matter, AB will convert any IP to the one used by AB when batch copying into the file manually and then running the el / edit blacklist function.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Helping out at the school helps make me feel relevant now that I am not working.

Sounds familiar to me. Wanting to help others is a requirement in my opinion when doing free work, as I do with AB.

 

[MarCoMLXXV]

Helping out at the school helps make me feel relevant now that I am not working. Gives me a sense of satisfaction.

Sounds very familiar. I'm at home for over three years now (for the fourth time, and I'm 'just' 42) and getting a suitable job gets harder by the day, as my health isn't getting any better, it's actually degrading faster than I ever expected or anticipated. I'm not dying from this, but will get more and more handicapped as time will pass and there's no cure and little to no medication to ease the pain, unfortunately.

Doing work that matters as a volunteer, without any commercial targets pressuring you or other stress-causing matters, is wonderful. I always admired and respected people who spent there time unselfishly on others and now I am capable to do it myself (already doing another project on neighborhood security) which makes you feel part of society again, being appreciated, doing stuff that's relevant to others as well as to your own well being.

 

[kingskib]

Do you have DNS Filtering in AIProtection turned on?

No, it is turned off.

 

[thelonelycoder]

quick question: What might cause a wireless connection (win10 firefox) not to have ads blocked on the same site that a wired connection (win10 chrome) ?

No adblockers are running on either browser, just ABSol on the router.

Are those two the same device? If so, make sure the wireless adapter does not have any other entries for the Gateway and DNS Server in the settings (ipconfig/all).
Also, if you have IPv6 disabled on the router, make sure to not enable it on the devices adapters.
On Firefox, you can disable IPv6 in the about:config, just enter ipv6 into the search field, there are two settings that are set to on by default.

 

[kingskib]

Are those two the same device? If so, make sure the wireless adapter does not have any other entries for the Gateway and DNS Server in the settings (ipconfig/all).
Also, if you have IPv6 disabled on the router, make sure to not enable it on the devices adapters.
On Firefox, you can disable IPv6 in the about:config, just enter ipv6 into the search field, there are two settings that are set to on by default.

I will check those settings tonight. I have a feeling the wireless client was connected to their work VPN and was using that route for accessing the web.

Thank you for the reply and great tool.

 

[Xentrk]

I am curious why I am seeing this ad on beta.speedtest.net

View attachment 10248

Inspecting the element shows the source:

View attachment 10249
I added www.media.net is in the blacklist blocking file.

192.168.3.2 is my pixelserv IP address.

Replying to my own post here..

I was doing some more analysis last night as to why I am getting the one adchoices ad on beta.speedtest.net. I used Firefox to inspect the source code and the elements. No luck.

I came across the wikihow http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Adchoices.

So, I first installed AdwCleaner and ran it. It found nothing. I then installed Malwarebytes and it found a PUP called Maxutilities. This is a internet cache cleaner that I installed around mid June, which is the same time the ad starting appearing on beta.speedtest.net. Once I removed the PUP, the ad went away and has not reappeared over 24 hours later.

 

[MarCoMLXXV]

I came across this post about blocking youtube ads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dropgoogle/comments/5tnjxl/block_youtube_ads_2017_hosts_file/

<snip>

0.0.0.0 s.ytimg.com
0.0.0.0 www.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 clients1.google.com
0.0.0.0 clients.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 www-googletagmanager.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 googleadapis.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 www.youtube-nocookie.com
0.0.0.0 ade.googlesyndication.com

A (possibly premature) warning regarding the list above: Over the past few days I discovered some issues with several Google services, and basically the only thing I've changed (manually) is adding this list to blacklist.txt and process it.

Youtube stopped working on Chromecast and on AppleTV (3rd gen)

Google Keep doesn't work anymore as it did. I can still save snippets, pages or bookmarks to Google Keep, but opening keep.google.com gives me a crippled page without my 'kept' content and no usable buttons.

@thelonelycoder: If I hash out the listed IP's above en re-run 'Process blacklist' will that be sufficient to test whether that will restore functionality? Or do I have remove them and add them to whitelist.txt and process that?
I think I would have to test them one by one to see whether the functionality I need isn't broken.