Diversion Large Blocking File takes just a bit too much RAM

[martinr]

On my RT-AC68U, if I use Diversion’s large blocking list (instead of the medium list), after a day or so, I cannot rejoin any wifi network, the amount of free RAM having dropped to around 21MB. In contrast, I have run the router literally for years without a problem on the medium blocking list.



I also run Skynet and Unbound Manager, scMerlin, Yazfi, Scribe, nsrum, uiDivStats, uiScribe and YazDHCP.



I’m wondering whether any extra benefits of the larger blocking file would outweigh the loss of one or 2 lesser add-ons in order to free up, say 10 MB, which is more than enough to fix this?

Any recommendations?

 

[L&LD]

Hello @martinr!

The RT-AC68U will struggle with the large blocking list even when Diversion is used on its own without other scripts in use.

The best bet is to get a more powerful router (RT-AX68U, RT-AX86U, or GT-AX6000) and ideally one with more RAM than only 512MB.

Just curious, how big is the swap file you're currently using? What USB drive do you use?

If it's a USB thumb drive, I'm not sure if using an SSD in an external USB enclosure would be enough (or the right) kind of hardware to offset your router's inherent limitations today (a 9-year-old router, after all), but such a setup would be also suggested for any future RMerlin powered router too.

I haven't run the large blocking file in a long time, and it hasn't been missed. But I would miss any of the other scripts you're currently running (with no expected benefit, for your router hardware, either).

 

[martinr]

Hello @martinr!

The RT-AC68U will struggle with the large blocking list even when Diversion is used on its own without other scripts in use.

The best bet is to get a more powerful router (RT-AX68U, RT-AX86U, or GT-AX6000) and ideally one with more RAM than only 512MB.

Just curious, how big is the swap file you're currently using? What USB drive do you use?

If it's a USB thumb drive, I'm not sure if using an SSD in an external USB enclosure would be enough (or the right) kind of hardware to offset your router's inherent limitations today (a 9-year-old router, after all), but such a setup would be also suggested for any future RMerlin powered router too.

I haven't run the large blocking file in a long time, and it hasn't been missed. But I would miss any of the other scripts you're currently running (with no expected benefit, for your router hardware, either).

Hello L&LD,

And many thanks, because your final paragraph is powerful, expert confirmation of my gut feelings.

My swap file is indeed on an external SSD; its size is 2048MB, with 25MB used, and that switch from thumb drive to SSD was thanks to your recommendations many moons ago.

My RT-AC68U has been such a loyal and faithful friend over the years that I would only upgrade if I had no choice eg if Merlin stopped supporting it, or if it could no longer cope with these invaluable add-ons. I guess the day will eventually come, but it’ll be a sad one!

Once again, many thanks for your kind advice.

Martin

 

[New2This]

Any chance you could get yourself a raspberry pi and install Unbound along with pi-hole or Adguard ? That would free up some room

 

[martinr]

Any chance you could get yourself a raspberry pi and install Unbound along with pi-hole or Adguard ? That would free up some room

Thanks for the suggestion. Before Diversion, I did have a Raspberry Pi running something very similar to Pi-hole hanging off the router. It’s now much tidier without the Pi, and I’m not too keen to go back to that setup It’s so much nicer having everything inside the router.

The Medium blocking file has worked fine for me over the years, and L&LD’s comment concerning the possible extra benefits of the Large file have convinced me to leave well alone and to carry on with a setup that’s served me so well up to now.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Thanks for the suggestion. Before Diversion, I did have a Raspberry Pi running something very similar to Pi-hole hanging off the router. It’s now much tidier without the Pi, and I’m not too keen to go back to that setup It’s so much nicer having everything inside the router.

The Medium blocking file has worked fine for me over the years, and L&LD’s comment concerning the possible extra benefits of the Large file have convinced me to leave well alone and to carry on with a setup that’s served me so well up to now.

You could try adguardhome, there actually is a filter available for that large size blocklist Diversion uses. What the filter does is dramatically reduces the amount of common domains down to a handful for less memory intensive blocking. However, it also means you have to be ready to whitelist more. From my personal experience, there is not much difference between the large list used by diversion, and the filter version of the same list. Mainly because the maintainer of the lists washes out all most of the false positives before publishing the new list. Keep in mind, you may have to reduce the amount of features are are utilizing with unbound if you decide to keep that running as well (a.k.a. switching to unbound manager basic versus using unbound manager advanced). Mainly to give adguardhome extra memory space for updating the filter lists.

 

[martinr]

You could try adguardhome, there actually is a filter available for that large size blocklist Diversion uses. What the filter does is dramatically reduces the amount of common domains down to a handful for less memory intensive blocking. However, it also means you have to be ready to whitelist more. From my personal experience, there is not much difference between the large list used by diversion, and the filter version of the same list. Mainly because the maintainer of the lists washes out all most of the false positives before publishing the new list. Keep in mind, you may have to reduce the amount of features are are utilizing with unbound if you decide to keep that running as well (a.k.a. switching to unbound manager basic versus using unbound manager advanced). Mainly to give adguardhome extra memory space for updating the filter lists.

Thanks, I might give it a go for the sheer hell of it, just out of interest and just for the ride. But I have to say, I feel a great deal of loyalty to Diversion, so much so, that I’d expect I’d revert back to Diversion and its Medium list afterwards.

But I’m certainly tempted to explore it; there seems to have been quite a few additional add-ons put into AMTM since I was last around.

Thanks again.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Thanks, I might give it a go for the sheer hell of it, just out of interest and just for the ride. But I have to say, I feel a great deal of loyalty to Diversion, so much so, that I’d expect I’d revert back to Diversion and its Medium list afterwards.

But I’m certainly tempted to explore it; there seems to have been quite a few additional add-ons put into AMTM since I was last around.

Thanks again.

Hey I am loyal to Diversion as well, so I understand. I still have my diversion backups ready to go at a moments notice. Especially if my piholes fail.