Diversion Diversion - the Router Ad-Blocker

[EmeraldDeer]

Hi,

Since I've installed Diversion and Skynet, I have noticed very little negative (erroneous) impact on my website viewing, with one exception: the Montreal Gazette's website. While not totally crippled, it's getting close. I don't want to play with Whitelists and such without knowing what I'm doing. Does anyone know why this website is being negatively (I assume) impacted by Diversion or Skynet?

https://montrealgazette.com/

Anton

Diversion is blocking postmediamontrealgazette2.files.wordpress.com

 

[L&LD]

I don't see an issue with that website? Stories load normally, videos play. No ads.

 

[Raphie]

I’ve got the same on some newspaper sites, the video’s are funneled through click agents which are blocked.
Those agents display commercials before the video. In my case it’s all raunchy clickbait anyway so nothing I’m missing. But for everyone with issues: Follow the log, put it on blocked activity only. You will find the offending domains in no time. Then it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it to let that crap enter your house.

 

[Treadler]

And if i activate DNS Filter and don't add any client to list, will it force ALL clients? Or i have to manually add all clients on my network to DNS Filter list?

Welcome to the forum.
1) yes. (Global filter mode, set to “router”).
2) no.

 

[maghuro]

Thank you for all your help.
Working as expected now!

 

[maghuro]

Just another question - I have statistics installed too.
How to fully reset the statistics?

Thank you!

Edit: Found it! Thanks anyways

 

[consorts]

so while everyone's away on spring break and i have the router to myself, i installed diversion, hassled with disabling pre-define, got blocking list custom working with winhelp2002's long established list, restarted diversion so that list would "plus" sync with skynet, and diversion skynet entware swap.file appear to be working (no evil notices in my log, cpu is calm). it does not block as many ads as i'd like to avoid, but it does not disable as much of the web as i need, so at minimum it's working as a basic ad blocker for devices on my intranet that may not have one (smartphones, pads, streaming boxes). i'll keep things this way and wait for the family to come back and give me feedback before trying something more, so thanks everyone the last few pages of this thread who took the time and posted their own custom approach at avoiding diversions too comprehensive default lists, imho

i do have one question for anyone intimate with how diversion works;
i set diversion to update weekly (program and lists)
will it actually check the winhelp2002 link in case that list has updated to something new,
download and update the new list?
will it also automatically sync plus with skynet's lists?
or will i have to do all this manually every month or two.
i don't mind, i simply want to know what is truly automatic
now that i choose to avoid diversion's own default lists.

 

[5stringdeath]

it does not block as many ads as i'd like to avoid, but it does not disable as much of the web as i need,

I'm confused by your needs. You state you think Diversion default list(s) are too comprehensive, yet you also state the above regarding the custom list you've chosen to use. Diversion doesn't "disable the web" -- if anything that is something Skynet might do if it was too restrictive. The only thing Diversion does is block ads.

Personally I think Diversions Standard+ list works great and it does update automagically. I get that all of our use cases are different but I'm trying to understand what you're looking for.

 

[Asad Ali]

will it actually check the winhelp2002 link in case that list has updated to something new,
download and update the new list?

Yes.

will it also automatically sync plus with skynet's lists?

I believe so because Diversion and Skynet work in harmony but since I don't personally use Skynet I can't give you a concrete answer.

 

[consorts]

I think Diversions Standard+ list works great and it does update automagically.

it does -
if you stick with mostly commercial programs and services,
thus it's perfect for office lans trying to cover their liability.

once you internet into gray areas like referral link based sales,
and side loaded (not play store vetted) overseas ad paid apps,
and p2p or m3u, that's when diversion defaults muck things up.

 

[Raphie]

But then again, all that should not be on the internet. I told my wife to never expect the paid top google results (the boxes) to work, scroll down to where the list of free results start. If you want to use my network change your browsing behaviour, happy to educate, but I’m not giving in to the ignorant....
“Honey, the internet is not working?!?” “It’s working better than ever dear “

 

[Mircica]

What's the output of "df -h" command?

RT-AC66U-AF68:/tmp/home/root# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 8.4K 8.4K 0 100% /
/dev/root 8.4K 8.4K 0 100% /
tmpfs 701.7K 6.0K 695.7K 1% /tmp
devfs 701.7K 0 701.7K 0% /dev
/dev/mtdblock5 192.0K 8.8K 183.2K 5% /jffs
/dev/sdb1 22.1M 13.4M 7.6M 64% /tmp/mnt/Entware
/dev/sda1 22.0M 439.1K 20.5M 2% /tmp/mnt/Data
Vqxyswq3@RT-AC66U-AF68:/tmp/home/root#

 

[Asad Ali]

RT-AC66U-AF68:/tmp/home/root# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 8.4K 8.4K 0 100% /
/dev/root 8.4K 8.4K 0 100% /
tmpfs 701.7K 6.0K 695.7K 1% /tmp
devfs 701.7K 0 701.7K 0% /dev
/dev/mtdblock5 192.0K 8.8K 183.2K 5% /jffs
/dev/sdb1 22.1M 13.4M 7.6M 64% /tmp/mnt/Entware
/dev/sda1 22.0M 439.1K 20.5M 2% /tmp/mnt/Data
Vqxyswq3@RT-AC66U-AF68:/tmp/home/root#

Okay and output of "fdisk -l"

(That's small letter L)

 

[consorts]

never expect the paid top google results (the boxes) to work, scroll down to where the list of free results start.

diversion default lists don't only kill paid results, they ruin most shopping.google.com links as well, and that can be a useful money saving tool that's ruined even while linking to trusted commercial sites like newegg and walmart. so while i get your point, on how people should learn to avoid some plain html links like they would ad banners, i don't want a solution that's going to render money saving web sights like slickdeals to uselessness.

btw, a few pages back someone posted a link to a pure anudeepND/whitelist we could import into skynet and share/plus/sync with diversion. i tried it - it only makes matters worse, and actually broke parts of amazon's own websight, so i had to reverse that initiative and go back to only using "custom" winhelp2002 hosts file with diversion. i know this makes no sense since a white-list by definition should include more, but that's what happened. sorry i don't have the patience to trouble shoot why, i'm just posting this cautionary tale for others who may want to attempt it.

 

[HairyA00]

I use Diversion's hosted whitelist option with this URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/whitelist/master/domains/whitelist.txt

Where did it break part of Amazon's website? Mobile phone Android Shopping app? Are you running pixelserv-tls?

You always have the option to filter out devices by their MAC addresses using DNSFilter. It'll bypass Diversion altogether.

Diversion doesn't muck anything up; it sinkholes the domains you give it. Standard+ is usually a pretty good balance since it uses one of the most popular HOSTS formatted blocklists. Trying scaling back to Small+, see if that's any less aggressive.

anudeepND also offers two other whitelists, one for referral websites like you're referencing. Build your own, post it to dropbox, and host the whitelist. See if that helps.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I whitelisted montrealgazette.com That had no effect that I can tell.

If montrealgazette.com is displayed in the browser, then this domain is not blocked by any of the hosts lists or blacklist entries you may have added.
Therefore, adding that domain to the whitelist is pointless. Diversion cannot and does not automagically whitelist associated (ad-)domains from a website when added to the whitelist. The router does not have that info, only the devices app itself, like a browser. Diversion is a router ad-blocker.

 

[AntonK]

If montrealgazette.com is displayed in the browser, then this domain is not blocked by any of the hosts lists or blacklist entries you may have added.
Therefore, adding that domain to the whitelist is pointless. Diversion cannot and does not automagically whitelist associated (ad-)domains from a website when added to the whitelist. The router does not have that info, only the devices app itself, like a browser. Diversion is a router ad-blocker.

Thanks for the clarity, I appreciate it.

Anton

 

[Ubimo]

I need help to wrap my head around this:
My phone is connected wia WLAN to my router.
On my phone, I've set private DNS to 1.1.1.1
Diversion, unbound, Skynet is running on my router. (DNS Filter=router)
I'm seeing ads on my phone. Is this due to private DNS on my phone?

 

[Jack Yaz]

I need help to wrap my head around this:
My phone is connected wia WLAN to my router.
On my phone, I've set private DNS to 1.1.1.1
Diversion, unbound, Skynet is running on my router. (DNS Filter=router)
I'm seeing ads on my phone. Is this due to private DNS on my phone?

Yes.

 

[Asad Ali]

I need help to wrap my head around this:
My phone is connected wia WLAN to my router.
On my phone, I've set private DNS to 1.1.1.1
Diversion, unbound, Skynet is running on my router. (DNS Filter=router)
I'm seeing ads on my phone. Is this due to private DNS on my phone?

As per design if you've set the global filter mode to Router, it should still force redirect the clients DNS to router.