AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[sentinelvdx]

@thelonelycoder

I’m still chasing a gremlin, at this point I’ve pulled my USB. No more Gremlins, at least none with water on them. Everything has been running fine ever since I removed it. (Router wise). Guess I’ll be popping in somewhere to grab a pack, so I can get everything back up and running.
It’s evidently more than a format as I’ve tried that twice and swapped the USB for another. (Same brand etc, purchased together)
Guess I’m choosing another mfg.

Many thanks for all you do.

Same here... I finally replaced the USB drive... although it does not present any error at all using different disk checks, something seems not going well in it.
Now with a new drive same brand and model, everything has been working without any kind of troubles

 

[thebatfink]

Is there a recommendation on speed of the attached USB storage? Does it have any impact to latency / throughput on WAN?

 

[sentinelvdx]

Is there a recommendation on speed of the attached USB storage? Does it have any impact to latency / throughput on WAN?

So far haven't noticed any speed/latency impact using a common USB drive on 2.0 port

Sent from my SM-G935FD using Tapatalk

 

[thelonelycoder]

Is there a recommendation on speed of the attached USB storage? Does it have any impact to latency / throughput on WAN?

As @sentinelvdx writes, the read/write speed is not so important.
The blocking file and blacklist are read in by dnsmasq and kept in RAM, hence the increase of memory size when ad-blocking is enabled.
When logging is enabled, dnsmasq handles the write process, using a cache if writing is slow.
So, these two do not affect latency or throughput.
What a really slow device might affect is if you open a lot of new https sites, forcing pixelserv-tls to generate and write the site specific certificates. But even that is a matter of miliseconds.

With or without ad-blocking the internet speed or througput is the same.

 

[thebatfink]

Thanks both. Grabbed a cheap usb drive to plug in. Hopefully be able to give it a whirl tomorrow.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Thanks both. Grabbed a cheap usb drive to plug in. Hopefully be able to give it a whirl tomorrow.

It'll work. If it fails, the re-install on a new device is a matter of minutes.

 

[Protik]

Today I tried to update entware packages from the AB menu. Using: ps > 5 > 6. It seems no package was updated, but still pixelserv-tls was restarted.

 What do you want to do?   ps
____________________________________________________

 Manage pixelserv-tls info:
 This manages your Entware and pixelserv-tls
 installation.

 Note: To check the pixelserv-tls stats, enter
 192.168.2.2/servstats
 into your browser. If you can see the stats,
 pixelserv-tls is running. It also shows the
 installed version number.
 ---------------------------------------------------

 1. pixelserv on/off [on]
 2. Add or remove pixelserv switches
 3. Purge generated pixelserv certificates
 4. Restart pixelserv
 5. Manage Entware packages
 6. Reset pixelserv settings, change PS IP

 Select what to do [1-6 e=Exit] 5
 ---------------------------------------------------

 This updates installed Entware packages

 Installed versions:
 opkg version 0.1.8
 
 ---------------------------------------------------

 1. show pixelserv info
 2. show installed packages
 3. update pixelserv
 4. update and upgrade pixelserv
 5. update installed packages
 6. update and upgrade installed packages

 Select what to do [1-6 e=Exit] 6
Downloading http://bin.entware.net/armv7sf-k2.6/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /opt/var/opkg-lists/entware

 writing the pixelserv-tls startup script
 restarting pixelserv-tls to apply changes
 Shutting down pixelserv-tls...              done.
 Starting pixelserv-tls (AB-Solution)...              done.

The new version of pixelserv-tls uses cache to store certificates in the memory and it performs better when it is running for a long time. So a restart means pixelser-tls will read from the disk and the cache is generated from the scratch.

Is it possible to check for if pixelserv-tls was changed or not and doing the restart only when the version is changed? I think AB already has the version info of current pixelser-tls.

 

[DonnyJohnny]

Today I tried to update entware packages from the AB menu. Using: ps > 5 > 6. It seems no package was updated, but still pixelserv-tls was restarted.

 What do you want to do?   ps
____________________________________________________

 Manage pixelserv-tls info:
 This manages your Entware and pixelserv-tls
 installation.

 Note: To check the pixelserv-tls stats, enter
 192.168.2.2/servstats
 into your browser. If you can see the stats,
 pixelserv-tls is running. It also shows the
 installed version number.
 ---------------------------------------------------

 1. pixelserv on/off [on]
 2. Add or remove pixelserv switches
 3. Purge generated pixelserv certificates
 4. Restart pixelserv
 5. Manage Entware packages
 6. Reset pixelserv settings, change PS IP

 Select what to do [1-6 e=Exit] 5
 ---------------------------------------------------

 This updates installed Entware packages

 Installed versions:
 opkg version 0.1.8
 
 ---------------------------------------------------

 1. show pixelserv info
 2. show installed packages
 3. update pixelserv
 4. update and upgrade pixelserv
 5. update installed packages
 6. update and upgrade installed packages

 Select what to do [1-6 e=Exit] 6
Downloading http://bin.entware.net/armv7sf-k2.6/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /opt/var/opkg-lists/entware

 writing the pixelserv-tls startup script
 restarting pixelserv-tls to apply changes
 Shutting down pixelserv-tls...              done.
 Starting pixelserv-tls (AB-Solution)...              done.

The new version of pixelserv-tls uses cache to store certificates in the memory and it performs better when it is running for a long time. So a restart means pixelser-tls will read from the disk and the cache is generated from the scratch.

Is it possible to check for if pixelserv-tls was changed or not and doing the restart only when the version is changed? I think AB already has the version info of current pixelser-tls.

I think the current installation script is based on entware package and kivc have not pull them into entware as it is still in beta stage.

 

[Protik]

I think the current installation script is based on entware package and kivc have not pull them into entware as it is still in beta stage.

I am not talking about entware or pixelserv-tls.

AB has an option to update entware packages which restarts the pixelserv-tls service after running "opkg update; opkg upgrade" regardless of any updates to the entware installation. I am talking about that feature. If pixelserv-tls is not updated, the service restart is not necessary.

 

[thelonelycoder]

AB has an option to update entware packages which restarts the pixelserv-tls service after running "opkg update; opkg upgrade" regardless of any updates to the entware installation. I am talking about that feature. If pixelserv-tls is not updated, the service restart is not necessary.

I read kvic's comment and added this to my todo list for AB4 to check if a restart is necessary after an AB-issued opkg update.
It's quick and easy to query the version number of pixelserv-tls 2.0.1 and later. That was not the case with KK and older without invoking a restart or SIGHUP.
There is a version number formatting change coming up with the next pixelserv test and stable version and I plan to back-port the AB4 code into AB 3.11 soon.

 

[Raphie]

Here is what I do
1. I update pixelserv running Kvic’s script
2. I run the manual restart command at the end of the script
3. Pixelserv, restarts but in ab-solution I still see the old version
4. I restart via the PS option as well and all is good

It seems some ab-solution process, prevents a manual pixelserv restart from the command line, it’s not a big problem once you are aware.

 

[thelonelycoder]

It seems some ab-solution process, prevents a manual pixelserv restart from the command line, it’s not a big problem once you are aware.

The pixelserv-tls version reported in the AB UI is pulled from the config file, done so for reasons explained in the post above yours.
Many AB installations still have version KK installed and a version query on those is not as simple as in KL and later versions.
To trigger AB to re-check the installed pixelserv version one only needs to open the ps menu and exit from it. The current installed version will then show up.

 

[Raphie]

Ah! good one, never checked that, assumed restarting in PS did the trick, but even better when it's just popping in and out

 

[snixel]

@thelonelycoder, thanks you the fast support and updates related to entware!

I'm currently using Medium+ setting as blocking file and was wondering if it also includes no-coin lists as well. Like the adblock no coin list for example (https://github.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list/) to disable the increasing popularity of browser based miners?

 

[thelonelycoder]

Ah! good one, never checked that, assumed restarting in PS did the trick, but even better when it's just popping in and out

I'll back port the AB4 code to AB3 with the coming update, with the caveat that it will only report the correct version for KL and later.
For version KK and older it will say "likely vKK" or some such.
It will query the version every time the AB UI is opened, as it does in AB4.

 

[thelonelycoder]

@thelonelycoder, thanks you the fast support and updates related to entware!

I'm currently using Medium+ setting as blocking file and was wondering if it also includes no-coin lists as well. Like the adblock no coin list for example (https://github.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list/) to disable the increasing popularity of browser based miners?

It does for the glaringly obvious and commonly used domains. Shady websites using dynamically generated domain names cannot be blocked.

 

[thelonelycoder]

@thelonelycoder, thanks you the fast support and updates related to entware!

I'm currently using Medium+ setting as blocking file and was wondering if it also includes no-coin lists as well. Like the adblock no coin list for example (https://github.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list/) to disable the increasing popularity of browser based miners?

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

 

[sentinelvdx]

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?

Sent from my SM-G935FD using Tapatalk

 

[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?

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

 

[thelonelycoder]

AB-Solution 3.11.2 is now available
Use cu to update to this latest version.

What's new in version 3.11.2
Compatibility updates due to upcoming pixelserv-tls v2.1.x changes.
- AB-Solution UI now shows the currently installed version. For pixelserv-tls v35.HZ12.Kk and older the version is shown as "likely v.Kk"
- Updating or upgrading Entware packages through the AB UI only restarts pixelserv-tls if a newer version has been installed
- Version compatibility changes due to an upcoming pixelserv-tls version numbering change
- Added support for pixelserv-tls -c and -A switch (version 2.1.x and higher only)