AB-Solution - The Ad Blocking Solution

[2992]

Xwrt-Vortex is closed source, the maintainer never released the source.
It is based on Asuswrt-Merlin, that much we know. Ask it's maintainer what these requests mean.

XVortex wrote: "It can belong to TrendMicro BWDPI or other Asus engines. IDK. Anyway I did not add anything."
Could it be Asus/TrendMicro doing those outbound connections?.. Maybe yes. Maybe no. Maybe XWRT is compromised, maybe not. I guess I will never really find that out, for as much as I like and enjoy WRT with ABS+Skynet+OpenVPN+DNSCrypt on it, I cannot stand having Asus/TrendMicro/anythingelse performing data exchange with my router behind my back, or without my knowledge or acknowledgement. So, I will go back to Tomato until I will find out (if ever) what's up with those IPs. Thank you all of you here for your help so far!

 

[Jack Yaz]

XVortex wrote: "It can belong to TrendMicro BWDPI or other Asus engines. IDK. Anyway I did not add anything."
Could it be Asus/TrendMicro doing those outbound connections?.. Maybe yes. Maybe no. Maybe XWRT is compromised, maybe not. I guess I will never really find that out, for as much as I like and enjoy WRT with ABS+Skynet+OpenVPN+DNSCrypt on it, I cannot stand having Asus/TrendMicro/anythingelse performing data exchange with my router behind my back, or without my knowledge or acknowledgement. So, I will go back to Tomato until I will find out (if ever) what's up with those IPs. Thank you all of you here for your help so far!

Google IP might be STUN - https://www.robtex.com/ip-lookup/74.125.143.127

EDIT: same for Amazon https://www.robtex.com/ip-lookup/54.172.47.69

 

[thelonelycoder]

XVortex wrote: "It can belong to TrendMicro BWDPI or other Asus engines. IDK. Anyway I did not add anything."
Could it be Asus/TrendMicro doing those outbound connections?.. Maybe yes. Maybe no. Maybe XWRT is compromised, maybe not. I guess I will never really find that out, for as much as I like and enjoy WRT with ABS+Skynet+OpenVPN+DNSCrypt on it, I cannot stand having Asus/TrendMicro/anythingelse performing data exchange with my router behind my back, or without my knowledge or acknowledgement. So, I will go back to Tomato until I will find out (if ever) what's up with those IPs. Thank you all of you here for your help so far!

If that's such a concern to you, why not block them in your upstream device?

 

[2992]

Google IP might be STUN - https://www.robtex.com/ip-lookup/74.125.143.127

EDIT: same for Amazon https://www.robtex.com/ip-lookup/54.172.47.69

If that's such a concern to you, why not block them in your upstream device?

It is a concern as long as it's not clear what are those used for. But for now, thanks to @Jack Yaz's finding above, I feel a bit better, and I will try to block them in the external firewall. I will keep them blocked like that for a while, until I can find how to disable them, as I think they are of no use for how I use this router.

(I really do not want to give up on this setup, as it does exactly what I need.)

 

[thelonelycoder]

(I really do not want to give up on this setup, as it does exactly what I need.)

There, saved another router from abandoning my small contribution to open source software!

 

[RMerlin]

Asus uses stun.l.google.com:19302 and stun.iptel.org as STUN servers when determining if your public IP is really public or a NATed one.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I changed the IP and everything worked. The solution was easy and I spent hours on it.. I'm gonna keep testing it and if I faced any problems, I'll report back.

Thank you very much!

I don't think using x.x.x.0 is a good idea.
You may face problems in your network as .0 and .255 are general broadcasting addresses.

Why did you not follow the on-screen advice and use 192.168.1.2 or 3 instead?
The instructions could not be more clearer.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I felt I did something wrong.. however when I was trying to take the addresses 2 & 3, they were reserved already by something else in the network so I took out the cables one by one until I reserved the IP, lmao. Now it's exactly like the instructions, I hope.

Thank you!

Did you do the change in the DHCP address pool as well?
Starting address in LAN/DHCP Server should now be 192.168.1.3.
If not, do it now.

 

[2992]

Asus uses stun.l.google.com:19302 and stun.iptel.org as STUN servers when determining if your public IP is really public or a NATed one.

Any idea how to disable those options/checks? Does is makes sense to disable them? (i.e. in my case, if I do not use such services so I would like to disable them)

I have managed to blocked those IPs with an external firewall, and the router works perfectly fine (so far).

 

[RMerlin]

Any idea how to disable those options/checks? Does is makes sense to disable them? (i.e. in my case, if I do not use such services so I would like to disable them)

I have managed to blocked those IPs with an external firewall, and the router works perfectly fine (so far).

They're compile time options, they can't be disabled by the end-user.

They are used to determine if your WAN interface has a real public IP, it's not related to services you are using. STUN is just a method to obtain that information.

 

[2992]

They're compile time options, they can't be disabled by the end-user.

They are used to determine if your WAN interface has a real public IP, it's not related to services you are using. STUN is just a method to obtain that information.

Thank you for the explanations! I will keep them blocked if they cannot be disabled, as the router works perfectly fine having those IPs blocked to reach the internet, and the OpenVPN client connects without any issue.

And I have to mention again how awesome ABS is!

 

[thelonelycoder]

Is there a way that I can insert a filter myself to AB-Solution? I noticed it doesn't block that much of ADs.

AB-Solution does not use filters. It prevents domain names to resolve to their real IP.

In your last screenshot I see you use AB-Maximum as the blocking file type.
If that is still the type you use then I wonder what you mean with 'doesn't block that much'.
This blocking file type blocks A LOT and I bet that it also blocks legitimate access to reputable services.
Hence the warning to be familiar with whitelisting.

When changing the blocking file type with b, you are also given the choice to select a custom type.
Here you can assemble your own hosts file providers.

Please make yourself familiar with AB-Solution by reading through its website, especially the Use section.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I hope in the future you can add filters that can be modified so we can mess with it as well. ;p

If I could and if it was possible on the router level it would likely already be built in.

 

[dirtyreturn]

@thelonelycoder , would you ever consider adding ddwrt to your support list?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[thelonelycoder]

@thelonelycoder , would you ever consider adding ddwrt to your support list?

I will look into supporting routers running DD-WRT after AB-Solution 4.0 is released. This will not be before 2018.

 

[razz88]

Is it better to use USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 for installation files? Does it affect performance?

 

[visortgw]

Is it better to use USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 for installation files? Does it affect performance?

I use USB 2.0 port so that USB 3.0 is available for larger USB 3.0 storage device. I do not notice any performance hit for AB-Solution.

 

[skeal]

Just a quick question..will this install and run on a am382.x installation?

 

[razz88]

I use USB 2.0 port so that USB 3.0 is available for larger USB 3.0 storage device. I do not notice any performance hit for AB-Solution.

Okay thanks for sharing. I've just installed AB-Solution, is there any source where to test?

 

[thelonelycoder]

Just a quick question..will this install and run on a am382.x installation?

AC88U/AC3100 --> compatible
AC86U --> only standard install, no pixelserv-tls compatible, confirmation needed, see post below