Diversion Diversion - the Router Ad-Blocker

[RMerlin]

He has a commercial interest in being a naysayer

He is repeating what I have always heard for years from other sources: blocking Youtube ads is not realistic, because the ads are served from the same hostnames as regular content. The fact that you can block an ad serving hostname now does not mean that in the future, that same hostname won't be solicited as well for serving actual content.

 

[grub]

He is repeating what I have always heard for years from other sources: blocking Youtube ads is not realistic, because the ads are served from the same hostnames as regular content. The fact that you can block an ad serving hostname now does not mean that in the future, that same hostname won't be solicited as well for serving actual content.

Nothing is being blocked. I see the same hostnames being reused and going to the IPs in the generated hosts file. No ads, no YouTube breakage.

 

[jsbeddow]

He is repeating what I have always heard for years from other sources: blocking Youtube ads is not realistic, because the ads are served from the same hostnames as regular content. The fact that you can block an ad serving hostname now does not mean that in the future, that same hostname won't be solicited as well for serving actual content.

Yes, early results are promising as it does seem to work well for now, but I guess we will all find out in a week or two if there are negative side effects (blocking actual content), and/or a loss of ad-blocking ability.

 

[grub]

Yes, early results are promising as it does seem to work well for now, but I guess we will all find out in a week or two if there are negative side effects (blocking actual content), and/or a loss of ad-blocking ability.

Yeah I've had it going for a couple of weeks and it's been amazing. Waited for a couple of days before letting it out in the Pi-hole forum for testing as I wanted to ensure our n=1 results weren't an anomaly. The way the ads would roll immediately after a lookup kind of tipped me off, then a lot of network dumps later and here we are.
I have another method that's working just as well, but am waiting to see how long this current one lasts.

 

[Mutzli]

I have 301 domains collect still able to pull youtube just find.

I probably have to reset Diversion to its default blocking list. I running 10 additional blocking lists that could have interfered with the YT blocking or a combination thereof.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Its behaviour is not to block, but to redirect from a host where an ad is ready to fire from an "ad gun".

The Gitlab page for the original is here.

edit: should note that I'm the original author. Surprised to see it taking off so well, but the results speak for themselves.

Yes I know this is the default behavior.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

I probably have to reset Diversion to its default blocking list. I running 10 additional blocking lists that could have interfered with the YT blocking or a combination thereof.

why, the youtube list is just a redirection. it does not officially block anything.

 

[heysoundude]

Way off topic, but @thelonelycoder mentioned Bitcoin as a payment option...showing my age likely.....any recommendations on service provider (Canadian based say)....

for bitcoin? Shakepay.com will have you up and running in very short order. DM me if you'd like a referral code so we can both get rewarded for you signing up and verifying

 

[CriticJay]

Yeah I've had it going for a couple of weeks and it's been amazing. Waited for a couple of days before letting it out in the Pi-hole forum for testing as I wanted to ensure our n=1 results weren't an anomaly. The way the ads would roll immediately after a lookup kind of tipped me off, then a lot of network dumps later and here we are.
I have another method that's working just as well, but am waiting to see how long this current one lasts.

Cool stuff. Let's hope Google doesn't send their Advertising Assassins after you

 

[Asad Ali]

@grub Hey, in your testing, did you also see a DNS query AFTER the ad finished rolling?

 

[grub]

@grub Hey, in your testing, did you also see a DNS query AFTER the ad finished rolling?

Queries happen all the time. The thing that got me wondering about the ads was that immediately before (~200ms here) an in-video ad rolled there was a lookup. 100% of the time. That doesn't mean a lookup is a set up for an ad, but an ad is always preceded by these.
I called it an "ad gun", for lack of a better term, where the host was waiting to fire the ad at you the moment you connected. I wondered what would happen if you instead stayed with the currents IPs which brings us to now.
Went through a few hundred MB of tcpdump logs to trace it out.
The script in its current incarnation was really a proof of concept. I'm redoing it where it will work with IPv6 and update the forced IP with some regularity.

 

[Asad Ali]

Queries happen all the time. The thing that got me wondering about the ads was that immediately before (~200ms here) an in-video ad rolled there was a lookup. 100% of the time. That doesn't mean a lookup is a set up for an ad, but an ad is always preceded by these.
I called it an "ad gun", for lack of a better term, where the host was waiting to fire the ad at you the moment you connected. I wondered what would happen if you instead stayed with the currents IPs which brings us to now.
Went through a few hundred MB of tcpdump logs to trace it out.
The script in its current incarnation was really a proof of concept. I'm redoing it where it will work with IPv6 and update the forced IP with some regularity.

Okay and the lookup before the ad always returns a different IP? Or it can be same as before as well?

 

[martinr]

....I left Peppa Pig running for a few hours.....
.

welcome to the forum and, of course, many thanks for this brilliant piece of magic.

What is it with Peppa Pig? I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the only here not watching Peppa Pig all day long. Guess I’ll have to find out what I’ve been missing all these years.

 

[grub]

Okay and the lookup before the ad always returns a different IP? Or it can be same as before as well?

The lookup before the ad always returned a different IP.

 

[grub]

welcome to the forum and, of course, many thanks for this brilliant piece of magic.

What is it with Peppa Pig? I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the only here not watching Peppa Pig all day long. Guess I’ll have to find out what I’ve been missing all these years.

Peppa Pig is a kids show. My own are too old for it, but I heard it was an ad-laden series which is why it makes for good testing.

Anyhow, I don't want to hihack @thelonelycoder 's thread, just wanted to clear up a few things for people.

 

[Ro berto]

What is it with Peppa Pig?

it's a 4 eye monster, stay away from it

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

 

[CriticJay]

What is it with Peppa Pig? I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the only here not watching Peppa Pig all day long. Guess I’ll have to find out what I’ve been missing all these years.

Kiss your IQ goodbye!

 

[majnu]

Good luck! Before I released this we tested for a while (using Pi-hole) on Apple TVs, iPhones, Samsung TV, etc. and it just worked. I left Peppa Pig running for a few hours, it is usually packed with ads. During that test the occassional ad would appear, but after a while only the odd pre-roll ad would appear.

I'll leave gaming videos running all day and get nothing other than a rare pre-roll, absolutely nothing in-video.

Makes me happy seeing people use Peppa Pig to test for ads. Twirlywoos, Daniel Tiger, Night Garden, Pocyo are all equally heavy with ads too.

 

[heysoundude]

Is it just me, and things settling in since I switched on the YouTube option (and dnsmasq), or does anyone else’s network/connection seem less...fluid? Mine seems jittery, like when I’ve had too much coffee. Just a bit, mind you, but I can definitely see it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ninko]

Hi,
Are you planning on adding a GUI?

Thanks