Diversion Diversion - the Router Ad-Blocker

[Dancing Lemur]

This may be a Diversion question or Merlin. I'm new to the forum.

I have a RT-AC3100 that's running Merlin and operating as a router. I'm running Diversion on it after having run AB solution previously.

I also have a RP-AC68U repeater that's running the latest stock firmware (as I don't believe there is Merlin available for that).

Some history:

To get my first RP-AC68U repeater to work, I had to assign it a static IP address of 192.168.1.100. However, my repeater would periodically reset/reboot. Sometimes when this happened, the boot up procedure wouldn't work properly. The repeater would stay at 192.168.1.1 and cause all sorts of havoc with IP contention. When I managed to logon via the web interface, I saw the repeater also had it's default time in the system log. Devices connecting to the repeater could sometimes access the internet but it appeared some ports/services on the devices did not work properly. ASUS technical support was abysmal and finally they said to RMA the repeater.

With the new repeater, for some reason I have not been able to manually assign it an IP address -- I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong MAC Address for it although it seems right. ASUS told me to try making my repeater 192.168.1.1 and my router 192.168.1.100. That seemed odd but I gave it a try. The router appeared to function properly with devices connecting to it accessing the internet. I could access the repeater's web page via my network. Devices were able to connect to the repeater but for some reason they could not connect through to the Internet.

With everything else the same, I changed the IP address of the router back to 192.168.1.1. It caused all sorts of IP contention but when I managed to connect a device to the repeater, it was able to access the Internet.

I wasn't sure if this was an issue with Diversion or Merlin -- usually when i mention to ASUS that I have Merlin installed they stop being as helpful even if it's on the router and not the repeater.

ASUS technical support hasn't been very helpful so I was hoping to see if people have suggestions here:

1. How can I confirm the MAC Address of the repeater and statically assign it to 192.168.1.100 in my Merlin Router?
2. Or if that doesn't work, is there a reason that the router at 192.168.1.100 does not work?
3. Are there settings in Diversion that I'm not configuring correctly?
4. Any other suggestions/debug?

If this should be in a different forum, please let me know

Thank you,

Lemur

 

[Xentrk]

Damn you CBS All Access!

Looks like CBS All Access made a change this weekend. You now have to whitelist pubads.g.doubleclick.net to play videos. They did this over a year ago as well, then one day in testing, I removed it from the whitelist and was able to play videos okay. Looks like they reintroduced some code to block videos on Friday if they don't get a reply from pubads.g.doubleclick.net. This is even required with the premium Ad Free version. I was able to duplicate the issue on Asuswrt-Merlin and my pfSense appliance. There are a few other CBS whitelist entries required in addition to the one listed above. But the one above is also used by other sites.

I used to have the lower tier ad version and was able to block ads. But it now appears that if CBS does not detect a response, they don't display the video. You can still browse around the App. Does not impact the movies in the Movie menu selection.

 

[PeterR]

This may be a Diversion question or Merlin. I'm new to the forum.

I have a RT-AC3100 that's running Merlin and operating as a router. I'm running Diversion on it after having run AB solution previously.

I also have a RP-AC68U repeater that's running the latest stock firmware (as I don't believe there is Merlin available for that).

Some history:

To get my first RP-AC68U repeater to work, I had to assign it a static IP address of 192.168.1.100. However, my repeater would periodically reset/reboot. Sometimes when this happened, the boot up procedure wouldn't work properly. The repeater would stay at 192.168.1.1 and cause all sorts of havoc with IP contention. When I managed to logon via the web interface, I saw the repeater also had it's default time in the system log. Devices connecting to the repeater could sometimes access the internet but it appeared some ports/services on the devices did not work properly. ASUS technical support was abysmal and finally they said to RMA the repeater.

With the new repeater, for some reason I have not been able to manually assign it an IP address -- I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong MAC Address for it although it seems right. ASUS told me to try making my repeater 192.168.1.1 and my router 192.168.1.100. That seemed odd but I gave it a try. The router appeared to function properly with devices connecting to it accessing the internet. I could access the repeater's web page via my network. Devices were able to connect to the repeater but for some reason they could not connect through to the Internet.

With everything else the same, I changed the IP address of the router back to 192.168.1.1. It caused all sorts of IP contention but when I managed to connect a device to the repeater, it was able to access the Internet.

I wasn't sure if this was an issue with Diversion or Merlin -- usually when i mention to ASUS that I have Merlin installed they stop being as helpful even if it's on the router and not the repeater.

ASUS technical support hasn't been very helpful so I was hoping to see if people have suggestions here:

1. How can I confirm the MAC Address of the repeater and statically assign it to 192.168.1.100 in my Merlin Router?
2. Or if that doesn't work, is there a reason that the router at 192.168.1.100 does not work?
3. Are there settings in Diversion that I'm not configuring correctly?
4. Any other suggestions/debug?

If this should be in a different forum, please let me know

Thank you,

Lemur

I would create a new topic in the forum for your questions, you'll get more input.

 

[thelonelycoder]

To get my first RP-AC68U repeater to work, I had to assign it a static IP address of 192.168.1.100. However, my repeater would periodically reset/reboot. Sometimes when this happened, the boot up procedure wouldn't work properly. The repeater would stay at 192.168.1.1 and cause all sorts of havoc with IP contention. When I managed to logon via the web interface, I saw the repeater also had it's default time in the system log. Devices connecting to the repeater could sometimes access the internet but it appeared some ports/services on the devices did not work properly. ASUS technical support was abysmal and finally they said to RMA the repeater.

When your repeater resets itself, it defaults to 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Try setting your Router to a non default IP so that when the repeater defaults, It will not break your main router. 192.168.2.1 should work. I do the same with my main router for this reason. Whenever I reset one of my test routers it defaults to 192.168.1.1 and will therefore not cause havoc in my LAN.

3. Are there settings in Diversion that I'm not configuring correctly?

Diversion is not the cause of the odd behavior of your repeater, AFAIK.
Just remember if pixelserv-tls is installed (Diversion Standard uses it) then the reserved IP may change when changing the routers IP. Adjust the IP Pool address range and change the pixelserv-tls IP in Diversion so that it can listen on the new IP.

 

[Joe Doe]

Today I added another wildcard blacklist item and diversion told me that a dnsmasq entry was detected, which was not from Diversion. Meanwhile I didn't change any settings or installed any other script/software however. I am a bit clueless about what happened and how to fix it

i This follows the Dnsmasq log file (tail -f)

1. Unfiltered log
2. Unfiltered log extra highlighted
3. Filtered by blocked domains
4. Filtered by term

Enter selection [1-4 e=Exit] e

✖ Dnsmasq entry detected,
redirecting hosts to 127.0.0.1
! Be aware that log file entries with '127.0.0.1'
are from another script, not Diversion

! Press [Enter] to acknowledge ​

 

[thelonelycoder]

Today I added another wildcard blacklist item and diversion told me that a dnsmasq entry was detected, which was not from Diversion. Meanwhile I didn't change any settings or installed any other script/software however. I am a bit clueless about what happened and how to fix it

i This follows the Dnsmasq log file (tail -f)

1. Unfiltered log
2. Unfiltered log extra highlighted
3. Filtered by blocked domains
4. Filtered by term

Enter selection [1-4 e=Exit] e

✖ Dnsmasq entry detected,
redirecting hosts to 127.0.0.1
! Be aware that log file entries with '127.0.0.1'
are from another script, not Diversion

! Press [Enter] to acknowledge ​

That's a general warning, some setting or script is set to listens on that IP to resolve domains. That means some entries in the Dnsmasq log file are not related to Diversion but that other 'thing'.

 

[Joe Doe]

Considering that I haven't changed anything and I am running on a platform with Merlin, Diversion 4.07, Entware and Stubbdy DNS 103, what could possibly be the other thing that caused the issue? StubbyDNS? Where can I read the entry with '127.0.0.1' using sf? Is it dnsmasq.conf ? (couldn't find it..)
Sorry

 

[dave14305]

Considering that I haven't changed anything and I am running on a platform with Merlin, Diversion 4.07, Entware and Stubbdy DNS 103, what could possibly be the other thing that caused the issue? StubbyDNS? Where can I read the entry with '127.0.0.1' using sf? Is it dnsmasq.conf ? (couldn't find it..)
Sorry

You should be able to find it in /etc/dnsmasq.conf somewhere.

 

[Joe Doe]

You should be able to find it in /etc/dnsmasq.conf somewhere.

Could it be:
script-arp
server=127.0.0.1#5453
server=0::1#5453
server=/pool.ntp.org/1.1.1.1
?

 

[dave14305]

Could it be:
script-arp
server=127.0.0.1#5453
server=0::1#5453
server=/pool.ntp.org/1.1.1.1
?

That would do it.

 

[Joe Doe]

That would do it.

Do you have recommendations (for a beginner) to find the culprit?
Could it be a Merlin-Setting that the router changes upon restart? (I switch the router's power off in the evening)

I am just wondering why I occurs now for the first time, even though nothing has changed...

 

[dave14305]

Do you have recommendations (for a beginner) to find the culprit?
Could it be a Merlin-Setting that the router changes upon restart? (I switch the router's power off in the evening)

I am just wondering why I occurs now for the first time, even though nothing has changed...

That's from the install_stubby.sh script, needed to make Stubby work. Maybe @thelonelycoder can update the check to be more context-aware for Stubby?

 

[Joe Doe]

That's from the install_stubby.sh script, needed to make Stubby work. Maybe @thelonelycoder can update the check to be more context-aware for Stubby?

Thanks! +1

 

[thelonelycoder]

Considering that I haven't changed anything and I am running on a platform with Merlin, Diversion 4.07, Entware and Stubbdy DNS 103, what could possibly be the other thing that caused the issue? StubbyDNS? Where can I read the entry with '127.0.0.1' using sf? Is it dnsmasq.conf ? (couldn't find it..)
Sorry

So, no other scripts? Stubby places that entry.

 

[thelonelycoder]

That's from the install_stubby.sh script, needed to make Stubby work. Maybe @thelonelycoder can update the check to be more context-aware for Stubby?

Mine is just a warning that some log entries are not to blame to Diversion.
Nothing else for me to do.

 

[Joe Doe]

So, no other scripts? Stubby places that entry.

Yes, haven't installed any other script.

Maybe the Stubby developer can add a comment after adding the respective entry so that it's clear (for beginners):

server=127.0.0.1#5453 #StubbyDNS​

 

[thelonelycoder]

Yes, haven't installed any other script.

Maybe the Stubby developer can add a comment after adding the respective entry so that it's clear (for beginners):

server=127.0.0.1#5453 #StubbyDNS​

You only mentioned Diversion but obviously use amtm, Stubby and probably other scripts.

 

[QuikSilver]

Is there a way to "whitelist" an internal device to bypass the adblocking? I'm getting an error regarding time using PSvue on a firetv 2nd gen device. When I disable Diversion i no longer get the message. I have tried following the log as it populates but I feel like I am playing a game of "whack a mole".

 

[dave14305]

Is there a way to "whitelist" an internal device to bypass the adblocking? I'm getting an error regarding time using PSvue on a firetv 2nd gen device. When I disable Diversion i no longer get the message. I have tried following the log as it populates but I feel like I am playing a game of "whack a mole".

You can use DNSFilter in the LAN / DNSFilter tab. My recommendation is to set the Global mode to "Router" and then set your FireTV in the Client List to use any of the pre-defined DNS services or define your own by entering the DNS IP in Custom 1, 2 or 3 and selecting the Custom 1, 2 or 3 dropdown in the Client List.

Had to do that for my wife's iPhone while I figured out how to whitelist her favorite ad-supported App.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Is there a way to "whitelist" an internal device to bypass the adblocking? I'm getting an error regarding time using PSvue on a firetv 2nd gen device. When I disable Diversion i no longer get the message. I have tried following the log as it populates but I feel like I am playing a game of "whack a mole".

https://diversion.ch/faq-reader/how-to-exclude-a-client-from-ad-blocking.html