[Release] AB-Solution 3 - The Ad Blocking Solution

[thelonelycoder]

Even AB3 can't resurrect itself when the entire contents of the adblocking folder disappear.

ab-solution-3.sh: line 1: can't create /tmp/mnt/data/adblocking/.config/ab-solution.cfg: nonexistent directory

Once i deleted the now empty adblocking folder, AB3 reinstalled ok without issue.

I'll just pretend to never have seen your error. Likely the folder descriptor (or whatever that's called) was wrong.

 

[tomsk]

I'll just pretend to never have seen your error. Likely the folder descriptor (or whatever that's called) was wrong.

Yes the syslog i posted earlier caught that filesystem fault at boot, and sda2 partition contains the adblocking folder. Everything unmounted cleanly beforehand, so it didn't corrupt due to that ... will see if it happens again, otherwise just put it down to gremlins......

 

[punkinduster]

Just an FYI for the lonelycoder:
I bought an Eero system and it is working very well in my 2 story house. BUT, I missed your ad blocker so much I am running it in a double nat configuration behind my Asus-rt66ac just so I could use your script. The only thing I use the Asus router for currently is to give the Eero an IP address and a gateway to the Internet plus DNS. Thanks for a great job on your ad blocker...

 

[thelonelycoder]

Just an FYI for the lonelycoder:
I bought an Eero system and it is working very well in my 2 story house. BUT, I missed your ad blocker so much I am running it in a double nat configuration behind my Asus-rt66ac just so I could use your script. The only thing I use the Asus router for currently is to give the Eero an IP address and a gateway to the Internet plus DNS. Thanks for a great job on your ad blocker...

Wow, AB-Solution has come full circle. This project started with the goal to eliminate the Untangle, pfSense, ClearOS or Zentyal box I was using at that time.
I tried them all but they all were overkill, running on a Shuttle K45 Barebone (that is my Plex Server now, running CentOS).

So I started copying and pasting code and strung it together into AdBlocking with combined hosts file. That has now evolved into AB3.
And it eliminated one hardware component in my LAN. You just did the reverse. Full circle.

But there's a deeper meaning to it and it is very heartwarming for me to hear and read it.
You just added a piece of hardware into your LAN for one job: Ad-Blocking.
The reason why you did it makes me really proud.
It is a X-Mas Story I would tell my family and friends. If only they would understand the significance and technical details...
Thank you @punkinduster.

 

[sfx2000]

And it eliminated one hardware component in my LAN. You just did the reverse. Full circle.

Cool! - note that pfSense could have done similar with their solution..

Tinkering about - my so-called DNS solution was always external

ole sw/hw wasn't about ad-blocking, we targeting different markets, but to "stimulate" DNS records...

Celebrating your success - here's a demented disco ball

 

[thelonelycoder]

Celebrating your success - here's a demented disco ball

While Benedetto Bufalino does some interesting artwork in my neighboring country, it is unclear to me what your words are meant to convey.

 

[FTC]

Hi, is there any way to have router DNS filtering AND ad blocking working together ? it would be then a very good solution. I have had AB solution running for a few months but recently wanted to set a DNS fitering policy for the network and found that one bypasses the other...

 

[thelonelycoder]

Hi, is there any way to have router DNS filtering AND ad blocking working together ? it would be then a very good solution. I have had AB solution running for a few months but recently wanted to set a DNS fitering policy for the network and found that one bypasses the other...

You could possibly achieve this by changing the DNS Server(s) in the WAN Section.
Any other method you select in the AiProtection tab bypasses local DNS Resolution.
Without it, AB-Solution is unable to offer it's services on your router.

 

[tomsk]

Some of the DNScrypt resolvers can do "family filtering" if thats what you are looking for. That could be combined with AB3, but not sure if that combination would still qualify as "router" DNS option in AiProtection?

 

[FTC]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately if I change the the WAN page DNSs my iptv services have problems.. Time to look for the DNScrypt resolver thing.. any pointer on where to start learning about this ?

 

[thelonelycoder]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately if I change the the WAN page DNSs my iptv services have problems.. Time to look for the DNScrypt resolver thing.. any pointer on where to start learning about this ?

Johns Fork has it built in in the latest beta (stickied post).
But I suggest to try this installer:
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/release-dnscrypt-installer-for-asuswrt.36071/

 

[tomsk]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately if I change the the WAN page DNSs my iptv services have problems.. Time to look for the DNScrypt resolver thing.. any pointer on where to start learning about this ?

There is a list of resolvers here
https://github.com/jedisct1/dnscrypt-proxy/blob/master/dnscrypt-resolvers.csv
There are a few different ways of getting a DNScrypt-proxy on your router, not all of them straightforward.. you may want to look at @bigeyes0x0 installer script. Im not sure if this will interfere with your iptv services or not , as the end result will be to route all upstream queries from DNSmasq internally to the DNScrypt-proxy and then onto which ever resolver you have selected

 

[Quiller]

I have absolution 3 and pixelsrv running on my AC88-U, but I still get youtube ads on mobile devices connected to my router. Maybe that has been asked before, but I couldn't find an answer to get rid of those ads on my mobile devices.

So how do I get rid of those annoying youtube ads on my tablets?

 

[sfx2000]

I have absolution 3 and pixelsrv running on my AC88-U, but I still get youtube ads on mobile devices connected to my router. Maybe that has been asked before, but I couldn't find an answer to get rid of those ads on my mobile devices.

So how do I get rid of those annoying youtube ads on my tablets?

Youtube uses the WebSockets API on the client for their interstitials, so that is a bit of a problem once the stream has started...

 

[sfx2000]

You could possibly achieve this by changing the DNS Server(s) in the WAN Section.
Any other method you select in the AiProtection tab bypasses local DNS Resolution.
Without it, AB-Solution is unable to offer it's services on your router.

What's fun is that one could actually white-list certain ad-domains and sites and monetize this...

Nobody would ever know, and a lot of the browser plugs would let it thru... just streamline the ad-domain thru a proxy...

 

[thelonelycoder]

I have absolution 3 and pixelsrv running on my AC88-U, but I still get youtube ads on mobile devices connected to my router. Maybe that has been asked before, but I couldn't find an answer to get rid of those ads on my mobile devices.

So how do I get rid of those annoying youtube ads on my tablets?

As @sfx2000 writes, these Ads are a hit and miss. I works for some, others have no luck.
May depend on where the content is served from. In Switzerland I get a lot less, depending on the viewed content also.

 

[Xentrk]

@thelonelycoder, I’ve upgraded to release 380.64 on an AC88U two days ago and all is running great. I’ve read through the posts on this forum and have a 4.0 GB USB drive formatted as ext2 and partitioned as absolution ready to go. I already have entware installed. All of my clients traffic are set up to use the OpenVPN client. I see you are working a new version. In order to provide feedback to the AB-Solution, should I go ahead and install the current version or wait for the next version to come out? Let me know what you recommend. Thank you!

 

[thelonelycoder]

@thelonelycoder, I’ve upgraded to release 380.64 on an AC88U two days ago and all is running great. I’ve read through the posts on this forum and have a 4.0 GB USB drive formatted as ext2 and partitioned as absolution ready to go. I already have entware installed. All of my clients traffic are set up to use the OpenVPN client. I see you are working a new version. In order to provide feedback to the AB-Solution, should I go ahead and install the current version or wait for the next version to come out? Let me know what you recommend. Thank you!

It'll work with your VPN Provider as is.
Unless your Entware folder is named 'entware-ng.arm' or you have some other seldom used packages installed, there is no need to wait for the release.
Go ahead.

 

[Mikey Dread]

Hello, Hope someone can help.

I had a working AB-Solution for a long time including version 3 on a RT-AC68U running 380.64. I had to do a NVRAM reset to fix a minor issue and reset up everything from scratch now I am unable to get AB-Solution 3 working again.

I get an error that says /etc/dnsmasq.conf is missing content. I have tried toggling ad blocking on and off as well as logging. The dnsmasq.conf exists seems ok.

Please advise, Thanks in advance.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Hello, Hope someone can help.

I had a working AB-Solution for a long time including version 3 on a RT-AC68U running 380.64. I had to do a NVRAM reset to fix a minor issue and reset up everything from scratch now I am unable to get AB-Solution 3 working again.

I get an error that says /etc/dnsmasq.conf is missing content. I have tried toggling ad blocking on and off as well as logging. The dnsmasq.conf exists seems ok.

Please advise, Thanks in advance.

The check is looking for entries that AB adds in the file:
hosts-adblock
and / or
log-facility
If they are not found, dnsmasq is restarted in the hope they are then present.
If still not found, then your error message is presented.

It is likely that the file /jffs/scripts/dnsmasq.postconf is not complete.
It would have these entries:

#!/bin/sh

# DO NOT EDIT this part of the file #
# generated by AB-Solution 3
if [ -d "/tmp/mnt/<YOUR DEVICENAME>" ];then
    source /tmp/mnt/<YOUR DEVICENAME>/adblocking/scripts/ab_dnsmasq_postconf.sh
    logger "AB-Solution linked dnsmasq.postconf to ab_dnsmasq_postconf.sh"
fi
# end of DO NOT EDIT #

If they are there, reboot the router first and see if AB is up and running.
If not, or partially missing, delete the file and enter 11 in AB, this will regenerate the file.