AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[thelonelycoder]

More than happy to join the group of beta testers. Haven't beta tested AB before, as I'm only recently the proud owner of an RT-AC68U WHITE, after years of running dd-wrt on a huge pile of Netgear equipment. Currently running Merlins 380.66_6, upgrading to .67 beta 2 in a few days, awaiting the first results of other users. Have been beta testing for several other platforms over the years though. Oh, and email.cfg works like a charm. It's even saying nice things to me when mailing me .

Welcome aboard, seats are limited.

 

[visortgw]

Very good, all of them on .67 beta?

Yes, sir!

 

[steelskinz]

Got the same xvortex version with R7000 too if two is better than one.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Got the same xvortex version with R7000 too if two is better than one.

Thanks, only one spot left for beta testing.

 

[pattiri]

just after dnsmasq restarted I've seen logs below on AB-Solution.

Jul  3 09:58:22 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 236160
Jul  3 09:58:23 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 278080
Jul  3 09:58:24 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 400932
Jul  3 09:58:24 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 431845
Jul  3 09:58:25 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 541425
Jul  3 09:58:26 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 677309
Jul  3 09:58:27 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 761912
Jul  3 09:58:27 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 762496

and I've checked the line 236160 on the file and it's

I'm using AB-Maximum and tried updating blocking file already but, only line numbers changed there is still lines with wrong coding. possibly because of the blocking file and it's a minor case. I just want to inform

 

[thelonelycoder]

just after dnsmasq restarted I've seen logs below on AB-Solution.

Jul  3 09:58:22 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 236160
Jul  3 09:58:23 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 278080
Jul  3 09:58:24 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 400932
Jul  3 09:58:24 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 431845
Jul  3 09:58:25 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 541425
Jul  3 09:58:26 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 677309
Jul  3 09:58:27 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 761912
Jul  3 09:58:27 dnsmasq[10296]: bad name at /tmp/mnt/entware/adblocking/blocking_file line 762496

and I've checked the line 236160 on the file and it's

View attachment 9707


I'm using AB-Maximum and tried updating blocking file already but, only line numbers changed there is still lines with wrong coding. possibly because of the blocking file and it's a minor case. I just want to inform

Ignore these entries in the Syslog, just as Dnsmasq jumps over them, only producing this helpful message.
Dnsmasq does not support these foreign characters, nothing you can do about it. I can but it's a bit of coding, I'll see what I can do.

 

[truglodite]

I have discovered an interesting problem... tenforums.com and sevenforums.com showed as a pixel. I looked at the absolution logs while trying to access those sites, and nothing showed up. An iPad pops up with an 'insecure certs warning', in which the details show a pixelserv cert. To stab in the dark, I tried whitelisting both. Ab-solution said it found exact matches in its list, and appeared to whitelist them as usual. The sites still came up blank.

Then I disabled using a, and accessed the site fine. I expected it to not work when I reenabled with a... but now it works?!

Does this indicate a critical problem with my setup, or is this expected behavior. If not, what should I do... reinstall everything... somehow clear some 'bad certs'?

Kev

 

[thelonelycoder]

I have discovered an interesting problem... tenforums.com and sevenforums.com showed as a pixel. I looked at the absolution logs while trying to access those sites, and nothing showed up. An iPad pops up with an 'insecure certs warning', in which the details show a pixelserv cert. To stab in the dark, I tried whitelisting both. Ab-solution said it found exact matches in its list, and appeared to whitelist them as usual. The sites still came up blank.

Then I disabled using a, and accessed the site fine. I expected it to not work when I reenabled with a... but now it works?!

Does this indicate a critical problem with my setup, or is this expected behavior. If not, what should I do... reinstall everything... somehow clear some 'bad certs'?

Kev

On the iPad now, both sites come up blank here. You might have the dreaded cache interference occurance (DCIO error) on your device's OS and browser.
Hint: Force reload the page by hitting CTRL-F5, and/or clear the OS DNS cache.

The blocking file gets read in new by sending a SIGHUP after the white or blacklist edits. This clears the dnsmasq cache and reloads the blocking file. The router or AB may not be part of that DCIO conspiracy.

 

[Xentrk]

I have discovered an interesting problem... tenforums.com and sevenforums.com showed as a pixel. I looked at the absolution logs while trying to access those sites, and nothing showed up. An iPad pops up with an 'insecure certs warning', in which the details show a pixelserv cert. To stab in the dark, I tried whitelisting both. Ab-solution said it found exact matches in its list, and appeared to whitelist them as usual. The sites still came up blank.

Then I disabled using a, and accessed the site fine. I expected it to not work when I reenabled with a... but now it works?!

Does this indicate a critical problem with my setup, or is this expected behavior. If not, what should I do... reinstall everything... somehow clear some 'bad certs'?

Kev

I also experienced this issue as well. I was googling for a solution to a technical issue with hyper-v the other day and could not acccess the sites contents and got the cert error. I saw this in recent past as well, I thought maybe the sites were blocked on purpose, click bait perhaps? I will try the posted suggestions.

On my iPad, both sites are blank as reported by @thelonelycoder.

 

[truglodite]

By blank do you mean absolution is blocking them? Are those in the blocking file? I didnt look for them since like I said absolution said 'exact match found in block list when I whitelisted.

I tried clearing dns cache... no change... tenforums still works, and sevenforums does not.

Fyi, I did not try accessing seven forums with absolution disabled (this seems to have fixed tenforums). I am pretty sure I could get it working like tenforums, but I left it as is to help diagnose the problem.

...another datapoint...
I rebooted the router, and now tenforums is once again blocked...weird behavior

 

[thelonelycoder]

By blank do you mean absolution is blocking them? Are those in the blocking file? I didnt look for them since like I said absolution said 'exact match found in block list when I whitelisted.

I tried clearing dns cache... no change... tenforums still works, and sevenforums does not.

Fyi, I did not try accessing seven forums with absolution disabled (this seems to have fixed tenforums). I am pretty sure I could get it working like tenforums, but I left it as is to help diagnose the problem.

...another datapoint...
I rebooted the router, and now tenforums is once again blocked...weird behavior

Adding a domain to the whitelist only removes the exact entry - by design. In your case you need to add the www domains as well.
www.sevenforums.com and www.tenforums.com.
Both these domains are in the hpHosts hosts file.

Also, if you use Skynet or another firewall script, you have to whitelist both there as well.

 

[Xentrk]

Adding a domain to the whitelist only removes the exact entry - by design. In your case you need to add the www domains as well.
www.sevenforums.com and www.tenforums.com.
Both these domains are in the hpHosts hosts file.

Also, if you use Skynet or another firewall script, you have to whitelist both there as well.

entering the fully qualified domain name with the www in the whitelist enabled the site for me. I had to open a new browser tab though for it to work. Vielen Dank (Many Thanks) @thelonelycoder.

 

[thelonelycoder]

entering the fully qualified domain name with the www in the whitelist enabled the site for me. I had to open a new browser tab though for it to work. Vielen Dank (Many Thanks) @thelonelycoder.

Why these sites are blocked is a bit of a mystery to me. The look legit, altough I have not opened them with adblocking off.
I dread every overloaded ad-infected website. Can't tell why tough

 

[truglodite]

I was just off by a .www, and feel dumb for not checking that. Thanks again... all works as expected. I rarely visit ten/sevenforums myself, but they have had some good bits of Windows info I've used in the past. They don't seem ad heavy to me either, but maybe they have been up to some shenanigans that earned them a spot on the list.

After getting a few absolution email summaries, I see that the majority of requests were actually for ad servers, mostly google... not surprising. With absolution I can easily invest in Google and block their ads... win/win lol.

Kev

 

[thelonelycoder]

I was just off by a .www, and feel dumb for not checking that. Thanks again... all works as expected. I rarely visit ten/sevenforums myself, but they have had some good bits of Windows info I've used in the past. They don't seem ad heavy to me either, but maybe they have been up to some shenanigans that earned them a spot on the list.

After getting a few absolution email summaries, I see that the majority of requests were actually for ad servers, mostly google... not surprising. With absolution I can easily invest in Google and block their ads... win/win lol.

Kev

Well, these sites may still be better then the unhelpful and unnecessary complicated "solutions" Microsoft offers on their help site.

 

[MarioCaires]

I haven't figured out yet how to whitelist a domain... I'm trying to whitelist androidpolice.com to support them as the adds are being blocked by default. When trying to add this domain to the whitelist through the GUI, it says something along the lines as "no exact match found so no need to add it", so I have added manually editing the whitelist file and processing the list afterwards, however the adds are still being blocked! Could someone shed me some light?
I am using Skynet too and I have also whitelisted the same domain there just in case.

 

[Adamm]

I haven't figured out yet how to whitelist a domain... I'm trying to whitelist androidpolice.com to support them as the adds are being blocked by default. When trying to add this domain to the whitelist through the GUI, it says something along the lines as "no exact match found so no need to add it", so I have added manually editing the whitelist file and processing the list afterwards, however the adds are still being blocked! Could someone shed me some light?
I am using Skynet too and I have also whitelisted the same domain there just in case.

Whitelisting specific domains will only show ads hosted on said website. If they are hosted on an external provider (which most are) they will still be blocked. I am not sure the functionality you are looking for is possible with a DNS based ad-blocking solution.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I haven't figured out yet how to whitelist a domain... I'm trying to whitelist androidpolice.com to support them as the adds are being blocked by default. When trying to add this domain to the whitelist through the GUI, it says something along the lines as "no exact match found so no need to add it", so I have added manually editing the whitelist file and processing the list afterwards, however the adds are still being blocked! Could someone shed me some light?
I am using Skynet too and I have also whitelisted the same domain there just in case.

If you want to whitelist the domains that serve ads on the androidpolice.com website, you might as well uninstall AB-Solution.
My ad-blocker does not work on a per domain basis not-to-block.
Rather it blocks the domains that serve the ads, globally for every content that goes through your router to your devices.
The Android Police Website uses common ads domains. White listing these domains would mean you'd practically disable ad-blocking.

Hence, there's no use to add androidpolice.com to the whitelist and AB declined to do so because that domain is not blocked in AB.

 

[Mr_Doughboy]

I'm having issues with pixelserv-tls, I've installed Ab-Solution and enabled the additional pixelserv-tls plugin and correctly installed. However, when the ads are blocked I'm still getting large white gaps were the ads are meant to be, they are not being filled with anything so the webpages have large gaps which is kinda annoying.

Am I not correct in thinking pixelserv should remove the gaps in the pages where the ads are usally meant to be, so the webpages look complete as if no ads were there?

 

[thelonelycoder]

I'm having issues with pixelserv-tls, I've installed Ad-Solution and enabled the additional pixelserv-tls plugin and correctly installed. However, when the ads are blocked I'm still getting large white gaps were the ads are meant to be.

Am I not correct in thinking pixelserv should remove the gaps in the pages where the ads are usally meant to be?

The gaps may or may not be gone. That depends on how the ad would be served.
In the old days (a few years ago) ads were mostly images. Replacing that image with a 1x1 pixel image (hence the name) usually removed the gaping hole.
Nowadays, ads are served dynamically through scripts and may no longer only be an image. The remnants are still there, but the ad is gone.