AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[john9527]

I'm thinking a lot of people would be willing to have their WAN clients use the VPN DNS servers so all their clients can use AB-Solution.

and @Xentrk
Thinking about this.....this should work for VPNs with public DNS servers (I didn't know about TorGuard's private servers, that would require some scripting). The only thing required is that you manually enter your VPN DNS servers.

- On the WAN page, set 'Connect to DNS servers automatically' to 'No', and manually enter your VPN DNS server addresses as the DNS servers.
- On the VPN client page, set 'Accept DNS configuration' to 'Disabled'

 

[2992]

@thelonelycoder , any idea how to configure ABS to automatically search for updates, and then just update itself automatically? (i.e. check every night and perfrom the update automatically).
It would be nice to have such option configurable (on/off), in case some users would like to alywas have the latest version, but without going to everyday manually search and perfrom the update. Or is such option already integrated, but I haven't found it yet?..

I am looking for such option, as I want to configure a router for my folks, and I am trying to make its maintenance as automatic as possbile. So far is working fine with the filters, but I am not sure how is working with the ABS itself, when the version is not going to be updated for some time: can it still get the filters and use them correctly? I do not want to have the router working for example for couple of months, then stop working, as I have no option to remotely maintain it myself.

 

[thelonelycoder]

@thelonelycoder , any idea how to configure ABS to automatically search for updates, and then just update itself automatically? (i.e. check every night and perfrom the update automatically).
It would be nice to have such option configurable (on/off), in case some users would like to alywas have the latest version, but without going to everyday manually search and perfrom the update. Or is such option already integrated, but I haven't found it yet?..

There is a check built in for updates but no auto installer.
AB is somewhat complex, not just a single script when installing or updating. If something goes wrong during an update you may be left with incomplete files and a non-functioning ad-blocking or other services AB offers.
For this reason no auto-updater is available.

I am looking for such option, as I want to configure a router for my folks, and I am trying to make its maintenance as automatic as possbile. So far is working fine with the filters, but I am not sure how is working with the ABS itself, when the version is not going to be updated for some time: can it still get the filters and use them correctly? I do not want to have the router working for example for couple of months, then stop working, as I have no option to remotely maintain it myself.

The basic and most sought after functionality of AB-Solution - ad-blocking - never changed with all the version updates:
It downloads a bunch of hosts files, strips them down to the bare blockingIP-domain pair lines, combines them, removes duplicates and whitelisted domains and adds the file to dnsmasq to act upon.

I did change the way I do this from version to version to be more efficient or add or remove certain domains to whitelist by default but these are minor changes and have practically no effect on ad-blocking.

The updates AB receives are mostly in the region of additional functionality to manage white and blacklisting or new services you'd have to configure anyway.
Being unable to do that on routers you have no access to, these AB updates are more or less useless on such routers.

That said, once AB is installed on a router, it will run and perform the same no matter what version you have installed.
The blocking file auto-updates weekly in any case, independent of the version installed.
From that perspective, an auto-update of AB-Solution itself does not make sense.
The version I'm working on now is no exception, it does the same as the stable released version, just in a different way.

 

[XIII]

This is more or less the same theme as in AB3: blue_on_white:

Again: This is a preview of AB-Solution 4.0 and NOT available to users outside the four walls I live in.

Now I know why I did recognise this... I actually use the "Blue on white" scheme, but "blue" is purple on my PC (PuTTY)...

Which SSH client do you use? What colors/scheme of that client?

 

[thelonelycoder]

Which SSH client do you use? What colors/scheme of that client?

To modify PuTTY colors and font (say, to a more pleasant DejaVu Sans Mono) look here:
https://looselytyped.blogspot.ch/2013/02/zenburn-pleasant-color-scheme-for-putty.html

To do all this with a much better and intuitive interface, use Xshell, there's a free version for non-commercial use:
https://www.netsarang.com/products/xsh_overview.html
This is what I use along with some other great free software:
https://www.ab-solution.info/use/development-tools.html

 

[XIII]

To modify PuTTY colors and font (say, to a more pleasant DejaVu Sans Mono) look here:
https://looselytyped.blogspot.ch/2013/02/zenburn-pleasant-color-scheme-for-putty.html

I actually learned about this yesterday and tried Solarized, which did not look good either.

Come to think of it, I might try my custom iTerm 2 (macOS) scheme (based on Solarized).

 

[fearz]

Why cant we install this on Asus stock firmware?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[2992]

There is a check built in for updates but no auto installer.
AB is somewhat complex, not just a single script when installing or updating. If something goes wrong during an update you may be left with incomplete files and a non-functioning ad-blocking or other services AB offers.
For this reason no auto-updater is available.

The basic and most sought after functionality of AB-Solution - ad-blocking - never changed with all the version updates:
It downloads a bunch of hosts files, strips them down to the bare blockingIP-domain pair lines, combines them, removes duplicates and whitelisted domains and adds the file to dnsmasq to act upon.

I did change the way I do this from version to version to be more efficient or add or remove certain domains to whitelist by default but these are minor changes and have practically no effect on ad-blocking.

The updates AB receives are mostly in the region of additional functionality to manage white and blacklisting or new services you'd have to configure anyway.
Being unable to do that on routers you have no access to, these AB updates are more or less useless on such routers.

That said, once AB is installed on a router, it will run and perform the same no matter what version you have installed.
The blocking file auto-updates weekly in any case, independent of the version installed.
From that perspective, an auto-update of AB-Solution itself does not make sense.
The version I'm working on now is no exception, it does the same as the stable released version, just in a different way.

That's reassuring, thanks much for explantions @thelonelycoder!
I am now happy to know that once I'll set that router up, I can leave it there for long time not being worried that it will eventually stop working just because is not having the latest s/w version on it.

 

[RMerlin]

Why cant we install this on Asus stock firmware?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Because stock firmware does not support the various custom scripts used as hook points for this software.

 

[fearz]

Because stock firmware does not support the various custom scripts used as hook points for this software.

Thanks


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[sentinelvdx]

Hi,

I've installed it and after setting up a hotmail account (because my gmnail one uses T2A), I'm unable to send out test e-mails to enable the weekly report...
Any idea what could be?

User/pass are correct and double checked the smtp and port...

Also, I have a site I use to proof ad blocking, and some are blocked others not with file lvl4.
How can I see through ssh the stats and top 10 devices if I want to check it before e-mail arrives?

Finally, I have noticed one of my PC's with ESET NOD32 A.V. keeps telling me since installation of pixelserv that pages I access "Chrome is trying to connect over a channel encrypted by untrusted certificate" even on known secure sites.

All sites are shown as using an unsigned "Pixelserv CA"

Thanks!

Sent from my SM-G935FD using Tapatalk

 

[thelonelycoder]

I've installed it and after setting up a hotmail account (because my gmnail one uses T2A), I'm unable to send out test e-mails to enable the weekly report...
Any idea what could be?

First of all, the curl error would help that is shown when sending the testmail.
Maybe these posts help to get it working with your account:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...king-solution-v3-11.37511/page-60#post-341411
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...king-solution-v3-11.37511/page-70#post-346099

 

[thelonelycoder]

Finally, I have noticed one of my PC's with ESET NOD32 A.V. keeps telling me since installation of pixelserv that pages I access "Chrome is trying to connect over a channel encrypted by untrusted certificate" even on known secure sites.

All sites are shown as using an unsigned "Pixelserv CA"

See the section "Import ca.crt into Clients" here:
https://github.com/kvic-z/pixelserv-tls/wiki/Create-and-Import-the-CA-Certificate
The ca.crt is stored at: /opt/var/cache/pixelserv/ on your router. You can use the backup function in AB-Solution to mail it to you. Read the text in the email.

 

[sentinelvdx]

Thanks! I'll check everything and come back
About the curl error I've got:

Sent from my SM-G935FD using Tapatalk

 

[thelonelycoder]

Thanks! I'll check everything and come back
About the curl error I've got:

Sent from my SM-G935FD using Tapatalk

The links I posted will solve it.

 

[Blind@Spot]

oha. Installed 1st time & looks good.

I have a question to ask,
can i block some certain word urls from loading? for example
i want to block below image url because it contains the word of "advr"
static.someurl.com/assets/uploads/advr_ xxxxxxxxxxx.png

but images from static.someurl.com/assets/uploads/xyzbcd.png should be loading normally. ( that doesn't contain advr word)

 

[sentinelvdx]

E-mail problem got solved with your link, Thanks!
The CA I added it to Windows PC's and also to NOD32, but for some reason I'm still getting the alert from NOD32... I'll have to contact them to see why it's still bothering [emoji58]

Devices without the CA installed will have any kind of impact when browsing? Thinking on guest devices...

Sent from my SM-G935FD using Tapatalk

 

[thelonelycoder]

I have a question to ask,
can i block some certain word urls from loading? for example
i want to block below image url because it contains the word of "advr"
static.someurl.com/assets/uploads/advr_ xxxxxxxxxxx.png
but images from static.someurl.com/assets/uploads/xyzbcd.png should be loading normally. ( that doesn't contain advr word)

No, AB-Solution can only block by domain. Blocking by certain words in a URL is outside the capability of the underlying software it uses.
Use an in-browser ad-blocker for that.

The CA I added it to Windows PC's and also to NOD32, but for some reason I'm still getting the alert from NOD32... I'll have to contact them to see why it's still bothering

You'd have to ask Eset for the reason why the self-generated ca.crt is not honored.

Devices without the CA installed will have any kind of impact when browsing? Thinking on guest devices...

Some users will see an error when clicking on affiliate links that redirect to another page. Train them not to do that.

 

[Blind@Spot]

No, AB-Solution can only block by domain. Blocking by certain words in a URL is outside the capability of the underlying software it uses.
Use an in-browser ad-blocker for that.

Another quick question,
if i want to block www.someurl.com, adding "someurl.com" into the blocklist (without www) is enough or do i need to add the full "www.someurl.com" ? including www part

 

[thelonelycoder]

Another quick question,
if i want to block www.someurl.com, adding "someurl.com" into the blocklist (without www) is enough or do i need to add the full "www.someurl.com" ? including www part

They could and in some cases are two different hosting locations. Your router treats them as two separate domains and so does AB-Solution.