Diversion Diversion - the Router Ad-Blocker v4.2.x (see new thread for 4.3.x)

[KevyMatts]

@underdose Thank you I got it installed.

But doesnt seem to work unless have set it up wrong i choosed lite version

 

[Ellsworth]

Reboot your router and see if the problem remains. If so, consider using a new USB device. Or you could first try by enabling the disc check feature in amtm with dc. After enabling it, reboot the router so it can do the check. Then in amtm check with dcl if the check had something found to fix.

Yes, it was a bad USB device. After I replaced it, my menus worked properly instead of taking 4-5 minutes. Thanks thelonelycoder.

 

[SignOut]

In addition to running diversion, I also have a pihole, and my laptop has a host file + ublock. As I understand, query to webpages go through ublock first, then the host file, followed by the pihole, and finally diversion. I need to keep host + ublock on my laptop since sometimes I need to work off site, and not all of my internet connections are done via the browser. I also know that pihole and diversion do not completely duplicate each other, and I'm curious to know the relative blocking performance of pihole vs diversion. In my case, typically pihole blocks about 10-15% of queries, occasionally up to 20%.

Question: Is there a way for me to measure how many queries are blocked by diversion? I have also installed pixelserv-tls; does that require a separate count, or is it combined with diversion? (either way is fine, although I'd be curious to know what got blocked by pixelserv).

Thanks!

 

[laajr]

I've been running Diversion standard on a AC86 with firmware prior to 386.4. I was unaware of any issues with pixelserv-tls. I updated to a AX86 and loaded 386.4. Reading through the forum, I see some are having issues with Diversion standard w/ pixelserv-tls and Trend Micro. Could you clarify if this is still an issue? The new router is up and running and have not loaded Diversion as yet. Is the Lite version recommended at this point? Thanks.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

In addition to running diversion, I also have a pihole, and my laptop has a host file + ublock. As I understand, query to webpages go through ublock first, then the host file, followed by the pihole, and finally diversion. I need to keep host + ublock on my laptop since sometimes I need to work off site, and not all of my internet connections are done via the browser. I also know that pihole and diversion do not completely duplicate each other, and I'm curious to know the relative blocking performance of pihole vs diversion. In my case, typically pihole blocks about 10-15% of queries, occasionally up to 20%.

Question: Is there a way for me to measure how many queries are blocked by diversion? I have also installed pixelserv-tls; does that require a separate count, or is it combined with diversion? (either way is fine, although I'd be curious to know what got blocked by pixelserv).

Thanks!

You can get "relatively" the same performance from diversion that you can with Pihole. The latter being that diversion is limited to the functionality of dnsmasq+the routers performance, when using pixelserv-tls it is dnsmasq+pixelserv-tls+the routers performance. I used the term "relatively" because with dnsmasq on the router, it heavily depends on the size of your block list, where as with pihole you could have a much more massive list, but still blocking the same amount of "visual ads" that you normally could simply using diversion. Otherwise, when the same size were to be used on diversion, the router may go abit crazy (especially with pixelserv-tls enabled). All in all, if all you are concerned with is blocking "visual ads", diversion and pihole come pretty close for performance. It is when you start block "extra" past the first few million advertising domains on the router that will make dnsmasq(+/-pixelserv-tls) start going crazy.

 

[elorimer]

Question: Is there a way for me to measure how many queries are blocked by diversion? I have also installed pixelserv-tls; does that require a separate count, or is it combined with diversion? (either way is fine, although I'd be curious to know what got blocked by pixelserv).

yes, sure. Diversion tracks that and can send you a weekly email about it, and what exactly it is blocking. Pixelserve is entirely different: what diversion blocks it sends to pixelserv. Right there it is 1:1. The second question is how pixelserv responds. Does it give back right away a 1X1 pixel that is accepted, or does it time out, the way things would be without it, or does it give back right away a 1x1 pixel that is rejected. Mostly now, the last of these, but still better than without it. Pixelserv lets you track how much is in bucket 2 and how much in bucket 3, but the starting point is still diversion.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

yes, sure. Diversion tracks that and can send you a weekly email about it, and what exactly it is blocking. Pixelserve is entirely different: what diversion blocks it sends to pixelserv. Right there it is 1:1. The second question is how pixelserv responds. Does it give back right away a 1X1 pixel that is accepted, or does it time out, the way things would be without it, or does it give back right away a 1x1 pixel that is rejected. Mostly now, the last of these, but still better than without it. Pixelserv lets you track how much is in bucket 2 and how much in bucket 3, but the starting point is still diversion.

Nice coverage of the extra features!

 

[here1310]

Hello, can someone please explain the function b, 10 in more detail (lan blocking ip address)...I just came across it and couldn't find it in the forum...

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Hello, can someone please explain the function b, 10 in more detail (lan blocking ip address)...I just came across it and couldn't find it in the forum...

...... you found the secret option........... actually it is for if you are running pixelserv-tls on a separate device such as a raspberrypi, instead of the router. When you tell diversion the ipaddress that pixelserv-tls is hosted on, diversion then uses the ipaddress specified for handling all advert transactions.

 

[Livy]

Hi. I have just installed diversion on my ac86, however on some click through links. I keep getting an error that my connection is not secure
Is this because diversion is blocking due to an ad.
Or have I misconfigured something.
Using latest merlin and latest diversion. Fresh install and no other add-ons.

Edit. Have installed the CA.crt and now get a white screen. Is there anyway to get passed these refferal type links without whitelisting the domains.

This is the link I was trying to access.

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

lm.facebook.com

 

[TheLyppardMan]

Hello

I've just installed Diversion and it seems to be working OK, but Kaspersky showed a warning message about Pixelserv certificate when I had Outlook open and I'm not sure what precisely I need to do in order to stop it happening. Can anyone advise please? I'm uploading a screenshot, although I accidentally blurred the part showing the Pixel certificate details, so sorry about that.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

I've just had this as well...

 

[dave14305]

Hello

I've just installed Diversion and it seems to be working OK, but Kaspersky showed a warning message about Pixelserv certificate when I had Outlook open and I'm not sure what precisely I need to do in order to stop it happening. Can anyone advise please? I'm uploading a screenshot, although I accidentally blurred the part showing the Pixel certificate details, so sorry about that.

See the recommendation in this thread:

Two questions about Diversion

I remember trying "Diversion" when it was called "A B Solution" but I ran into a couple of problems. The first was, my antivirus (Kaspersky at that time I think) and Firefox kept throwing up errors about untrusted certificates and secondly, my daughter told me that a few of the sites she visited...

www.snbforums.com

 

[TheLyppardMan]

See the recommendation in this thread:

Two questions about Diversion

I remember trying "Diversion" when it was called "A B Solution" but I ran into a couple of problems. The first was, my antivirus (Kaspersky at that time I think) and Firefox kept throwing up errors about untrusted certificates and secondly, my daughter told me that a few of the sites she visited...

www.snbforums.com

Thanks for that. I've imported the certificate, so hopefully that will solve the problem.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

I did have another warning message on my other laptop, literally a minute or so after installing the security certificate, but could that have been because I hadn't had chance to reboot the computer? I'll report back with an update if I receive any more warnings

 

[TheLyppardMan]

On a different subject, can anyone remind me what all the colours mean in the Diversion log (the red one is obvious, but not sure about the green/yellow/blue & grey entries)?

 

[bluzfanmr1]

I did have another warning message on my other laptop, literally a minute or so after installing the security certificate, but could that have been because I hadn't had chance to reboot the computer? I'll report back with an update if I receive any more warnings

I believe you have to close out the browser first and when you restart it, it should be fine.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

In the last few hours I have found and enabled the youtube ads function, but at the moment I don't really know how it works or whether I am supposed to do anything else. I don't watch a lot of youtube stuff, partly because I soon lose patience in having to wait for the ads to finish, so if I could get this to work on my two Fire TV sticks, which is what I mostly use, that would be great.

 

[woznme]

Ijust let my youtube premium expire today as i thought i'd try to get the youtube blocking on diversion setup...guess I haven't got it right yet, still ads showing. I'll let you know how i go @TheLyppardMan

 

[TheLyppardMan]

Ijust let my youtube premium expire today as i thought i'd try to get the youtube blocking on diversion setup...guess I haven't got it right yet, still ads showing. I'll let you know how i go @TheLyppardMan

I'm still seeing ads at the moment, so I don't know whether it takes some times for this to have any significant effect or whether there is something else I need to do to get it working. I'm hoping that someone who knows a lot more about this can advise me and others like yourself who are trying out this feature.