AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[DonnyJohnny]

It should block even at medium.
Do you manually configure dns server in your devices? Need to point them to router ip or use auto.

Maybe can do a router config check in ab-solution. Are u able to access the servstats HTML page? http://your.pixelserv-tls.ip/servstats
There should be some statistic there.

 

[XIII]

Sometimes you have to unplug and plug the USB so that the router picks up the new name. Worth a try.

Yes, that worked. Thanks!

 

[OOo]

First off, AB Solution is awesome!

Couple of issues I have run into
1)Linkedin.com gets blocked - can someone point me to clear instructions on how to white-list? I see on the interface there is an option but what I want to know is what I will need to get and how from Linked In. I guess I am curious too why Linked-In is almost completely blocked? I am not a super user tech wise in this area.
2)On my phone I receive a lot of red Certificate warning pop ups. Can I white-list those?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[iManuB]

Hi! I recently finished installing the new 384.3 Alpha firmware on my brand new RT-AC86U and took the opportunity to install Ab-Solution, Pixelserv-tls and Skynet. I have divided the 8GB USB stick like this:

1) Swaps (2.50GB)
2) AB-Solution (2.00GB)
3) Entware (2.00GB)
4) Skynet (1.12GB)

My question is: I was wrong to make 2GB of Swap? Should you have a smaller Swap?

Thanks so much!

 

[Xentrk]

Just a friendly reminder: Filter lists do not work in AB-Solution.
https://www.ab-solution.info/use/hosts-files.html

Good catch. I noticed that right after I posted. Some of those providers do supply lists in the host file format used by ABS though. I updated the post.

 

[Devante]

It should block even at medium.
Do you manually configure dns server in your devices? Need to point them to router ip or use auto.

Maybe can do a router config check in ab-solution. Are u able to access the servstats HTML page? http://your.pixelserv-tls.ip/servstats
There should be some statistic there.

Thanks for the reply again.

So I went to the servstats and getting all 0's. I'll attach a screenshot below.

Also, my devices are pointing to my ASUS router automatically, but I tried manually setting my laptop just to be sure and it still got ads on PB.

When I follow the log, nothing shows up.

Here's my setup:
AT&T wireless modem/router with my ASUS Router connected to the modem and then set in the DMZ of the AT&T modem/router.

I also tried disabling Connect to DNS Server automatically and manually set them to Google DNS.

Lastly, I checked the AB-Solution router check and it passed.

It seems like requests are going through AB-Solution/pixelserv even though I have it enabled.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Protik]

Thanks for the reply again.

So I went to the servstats and getting all 0's. I'll attach a screenshot below.

Also, my devices are pointing to my ASUS router automatically, but I tried manually setting my laptop just to be sure and it still got ads on PB.

When I follow the log, nothing shows up.

Here's my setup:
AT&T wireless modem/router with my ASUS Router connected to the modem and then set in the DMZ of the AT&T modem/router.

I also tried disabling Connect to DNS Server automatically and manually set them to Google DNS.

Lastly, I checked the AB-Solution router check and it passed.

It seems like requests are going through AB-Solution/pixelserv even though I have it enabled.

Thanks for any advice!

View attachment 11628

I think you have to configure your AT&T modem so that it passes the IP to the Asus router. Otherwise the Asus router is passing all traffic to the AT&T modem. That's what I had to do for my AT&T modem/router. I followed the instructions here: https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Inte...n-bridge-mode-or-as-close-as-you/td-p/3552057 .

The instructions here is little bit outdated, but you will get the idea of what to do.

 

[Devante]

I think you have to configure your AT&T modem so that it passes the IP to the Asus router. Otherwise the Asus router is passing all traffic to the AT&T modem. That's what I had to do for my AT&T modem/router. I followed the instructions here: https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Inte...n-bridge-mode-or-as-close-as-you/td-p/3552057 .

The instructions here is little bit outdated, but you will get the idea of what to do.

Thank you.

There's no IP Passthrough on my AT&T modem but according to everything I've read online, putting the ASUS router in the DMZ (called DMZ Plus on there) should be the same thing.

So I changed the IP of the pixelserv from 192.168.2.5 to 192.168.2.2 and it seems like it's working now. I assumed I could use any IP as long as it wasn't in the DHCP scope.

Two things:
1) Now PB is being completely blocked, even on AdsBeGone level.
2) I'm getting stats on my servrstat page now. The two highest being # of rejected HTTPS requests (missing certificate) and # of dropped HTTPS requests (client disconnect without sending any request)

Thanks for the help guys. I'll have to figure out the PB being completely blocked thing but other than that, seems to be working great on all my devices now.

 

[thelonelycoder]

So I changed the IP of the pixelserv from 192.168.2.5 to 192.168.2.2 and it seems like it's working now. I assumed I could use any IP as long as it wasn't in the DHCP scope.

Which you can but it probably was used by one of your devices anyway.

1) Now PB is being completely blocked, even on AdsBeGone level.

PB is blocked in two hpHosts hosts files, just whitelist the www and non www thepiratebay.org domain.

 

[thelonelycoder]

)Linkedin.com gets blocked - can someone point me to clear instructions on how to white-list?

Use el and add www.linkedin.com and linkedin.com to the whitelist. Then process the whitelist as it suggests.

2)On my phone I receive a lot of red Certificate warning pop ups. Can I white-list those?

Import the pixelserv-tls certificate into your devices, instructions are here:
https://github.com/kvic-z/pixelserv-tls/wiki/Create-and-Import-the-CA-Certificate
You need to get the /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/ca.crt off of the router.
To do that you can use the bu function and email it to you. Read the mail text.

 

[thelonelycoder]

My question is: I was wrong to make 2GB of Swap? Should you have a smaller Swap?

2 GB swap file is fine.

 

[iManuB]

2 GB swap file is fine.

Thanks, @thelonelycoder!

 

[Asad Ali]

I'm seeing a strange behavior with the Entware package update for pixelserv-tls which was released yesterday as pixelserv-tls 2.0.1-1.
I have posted an issue over at GitHub, we'll see what comes of it:
https://github.com/Entware-ng/Entware-ng/issues/850

Until this is resolved hold back on updating pixelserv-tls through AB-Solution.

Any updates on this? I did see the discussions you had with the developer and it looks like they don't consider it an issue so what should we do now? Wait for you to release an ABSolution update?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[thelonelycoder]

Any updates on this? I did see the discussions you had with the developer and it looks like they don't consider it an issue so what should we do now? Wait for you to release an ABSolution update?

I can understand the Entware maintainers reluctance to build in an exception for the version number hickup.
For those not aware, the latest pixelserv-tls version is 2.0.1, which is seen as older than its previous version 35.HZ12.Kk in the opkg package manager.

So, this needs a fix from @kvic with a version number that is seen as greater than 35.
This resolves the issue for all and noone has to build in a hack.
I pass the buck on on this one.

 

[elorimer]

The two highest being # of rejected HTTPS requests (missing certificate) and # of dropped HTTPS requests (client disconnect without sending any request)

I think the dropped HTTPS requests are an artifact of devices that don't have the .crt imported. You have to go to each of your windows PCs and import the crt into windows, and then again into firefox if you run it. Then each of your phones and tablets running ios or android, and import it there. There will be a certain number of devices, like Rokus and echos that may hit blocked sites and no ability to import a certificate, and they may still generate dropped requests. Since pixelserv fails them politely, unless someone complains that the internet is "slow" I don't think it matters.

 

[OOo]

Use el and add www.linkedin.com and linkedin.com to the whitelist. Then process the whitelist as it suggests.

Import the pixelserv-tls certificate into your devices, instructions are here:
https://github.com/kvic-z/pixelserv-tls/wiki/Create-and-Import-the-CA-Certificate
You need to get the /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/ca.crt off of the router.
To do that you can use the bu function and email it to you. Read the mail text.

Thank you @thelonelycoder!

Importing pixelserv-tls:
I struggled a bit but figured out that when I removed the ".txt" from the file name, I was then able to import into Android devices with no issues.

WhiteList:
Noticing that there are conservative political websites getting blocked by the host files(for example: dailycaller.com). Seems to be by design...as the whitelist add process found exact matches when I went to whitelist. I know that is not your doing. When managing a bunch of users I get accused of a bunch of things....

thanks again!

 

[thelonelycoder]

I struggled a bit but figured out that when I removed the ".txt" from the file name, I was then able to import into Android devices with no issues.

Hence my remark :

To do that you can use the bu function and email it to you. Read the mail text.

 

[thelonelycoder]

WhiteList:
Noticing that there are conservative political websites getting blocked by the host files(for example: dailycaller.com). Seems to be by design...as the whitelist add process found exact matches when I went to whitelist. I know that is not your doing. When managing a bunch of users I get accused of a bunch of things....

The revolution will not be televised...

 

[skeal]

Just a quick note....adds on snbforums not displaying at all.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Just a quick note....adds on snbforums not displaying at all.

Using Firefox?
Options --> Privacy & Security. Set Tracking protection to either only in Private mode or to never.
Clear OS and browser cache after.

Or maybe you are using DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials? Then set it to off or, well, there's no OR available.