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Stuffedhaggis

New Around Here
Hi all

I am new to the forum and to Asuswrt Merlin FW.

Currently I have Asus RT 87U flashed with Merlins great FW.

What is the best solution for Ad blocking via the router if possible ?
 
Stuffedhaggis said:
Hi all

I am new to the forum and to Asuswrt Merlin FW.

Currently I have Asus RT 87U flashed with Merlins great FW.

What is the best solution for Ad blocking via the router if possible ?
Click to expand...

I would like to also hear about positive experiences here.

Logically, it would be inferior. To the bad, if it were effective there would be no way to whitelist those sites you want to let in if you were just applying a list with no means to edit it. Some web sites you want / will want to use don't work if blocked. Also, it misses some you want to get. Also, are you blocking in / out/ or both?

I tried an ad blocker list using pfBlockerNG on my pfSense router and noticed no difference on 'in' and unreadable pages with 'in / out'. Of course, this is one person in one environment. I downloaded adblocker onto android and it was a massive improvement over no blocker. I had to bypass the android safeties to install it. Ad blockers at the browser level are well known and work pretty good. Whitelisting is easy.

Edit: just looked at the hosts file programming noted in the link above. While it offers both whitelists and blacklists, again, logically, if it were easy or effective, as opposed to available, it would be common to see implemented. Of course, I would never begrudge someone for trying something out as a hobby endeavor.
 
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I use the combined hosts method on my 87u, and for a long time on my 66, with both blacklisted and whitelisted sites. Nifty all around.

The only problem is that some sites, like nytimes.com, use the same domain to serve up ads, videos and news.
 
@AdvHomeServer
As stated in the intro of my adblocking setup: It is a simple but effective way to block ads on the router level.
As you can customize it with the black/whitelist files it is to me and many others on this forum fully satisfying of what it does.

In none of my browsers have I installed additional adblockers.
My adblocking script works so well for me, I have no need to install resource hungry addons in the browsers of my devices.

A hosts file btw is still a standard way to do such things as redirecting to another machine or IP. Here, we just direct it to localhost of the router.

Edit: I use the same combined hosts file in all of my mobile devices. They are all rooted: Three Android phones, the iPad and iPhone.
 
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I've been using a variant of thelonelycoder's method for over a year now and can't imagine being without it. It's an excellent technique.

Admittedly it's not as complex or versatile as dedicated apps or Adblock Plus but it's blocks over 99% of ads which is good enough for me.

I like it because it's simple and easy. I'm not prepared to spend lots of time maintaining a more complicated setup just to block and additional 0.5% of ads. :)

PS You asked why it's not commonly implemented. Well RMerlin has stated that he is not prepared to build ad blocking into the firmware because this site exists courtesy of ad revenue.
 
ColinTaylor said:
PS You asked why it's not commonly implemented. Well RMerlin has stated that he is not prepared to build ad blocking into the firmware because this site exists courtesy of ad revenue.
Click to expand...

I whitelist this site for that reason. The ads here aren't intrusive and often relevant, so I'm happy to put in my 2 cents. Whitelisting and blacklisting are features of the TLC method. I wouldn't mind it at all if, if the method were incorporated in the firmware, this site was hardcoded into a whitelist.
 
ChikkSpot said:
It wouldn't be this "easy" if Android weren't a full-blown OS that comes with all kinds of application stacks and APIs.

Of course, feel free to port Android onto any router of your choice, it would be this easy!
Click to expand...


I m just thinking of something so simple like
2 host files one for black list and the other is for white list then the user loads them manually through the GUI.
 
thelonelycoder said:
@AdvHomeServer
As stated in the intro of my adblocking setup: It is a simple but effective way to block ads on the router level.
As you can customize it with the black/whitelist files it is to me and many others on this forum fully satisfying of what it does.
Click to expand...

By 'simple' I mean no coding or coder skills or interest in coding at all. Load and go by a motivated individual with technical skills.

'Effective' is a user defined word. To me, it means it works but is easy to fix if it messes up around the edges.

If coders want to hobby around and come up with amazing solutions to their problems, my congratulations to them. I used to do that. Amazing solutions can be developed by inquisitive people who do this. Lots of others like to see what other coders come up with. I used to, although my interests involved business applications. I'm older now and am only interested in solutions I can put to general use without the need to spend a lot or a lot of time on. Snort barely meets that objective and pfBlockerNG shows promise.

When I see lots of router oriented coding I see hobby coders and I see high level professional coders. I just want a solution that works without me going back to work as a coder again.
 
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AdvHomeServer said:
By 'simple' I mean no coding or coder skills or interest in coding at all. Load and go by a motivated individual with technical skills.
Click to expand...
I am tempted and motivated but I think I lack the skills for pulling that feat.
I wish for those not wanting to dig into the router's guts to be able to have the same ad free experience as I and others do.

Well, maybe I could do it if someone can point me to places that help me to figure it out. Does the router support Addon's or would that be a fork of Merlin's firmware?
 
elorimer said:
I whitelist this site for that reason. The ads here aren't intrusive and often relevant, so I'm happy to put in my 2 cents. Whitelisting and blacklisting are features of the TLC method. I wouldn't mind it at all if, if the method were incorporated in the firmware, this site was hardcoded into a whitelist.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately you cannot whitelist just this site with router DNS poisoning methods, its the 3rd party ad hosting sites that get blocked not the forum which I am sure are not specific to this site. Browser based methods such as adblockplus can be web page specific on/off.
 
thelonelycoder said:
I am tempted and motivated but I think I lack the skills for pulling that feat.
I wish for those not wanting to dig into the router's guts to be able to have the same ad free experience as I and others do.

Well, maybe I could do it if someone can point me to places that help me to figure it out. Does the router support Addon's or would that be a fork of Merlin's firmware?
Click to expand...
I think that's the problem. If the absolute requirement is to not edit any router files but just have a magic button in the router's GUI that can be turned on or off, then you'd have to fork the firmware.

So you'd end up being responsible for issuing updated versions every time a new release came out. As well, of course, as getting the blame for "breaking the wireless performance" even though that part hadn't changed at all. ;)
 
ColinTaylor said:
As well, of course, as getting the blame for "breaking the wireless performance" even though that part hadn't changed at all.
Click to expand...
Exactly, what now is a couple of questions every month could turn out to a couple of hours of support or coding a day. I am not sure my other activities would be happy about that (!)
But still...
 
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