Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

optimal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 98 posts

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#61

Post by stordoff »

jsingleton wrote: post #57
stordoff wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One can achieve this locally, on a laptop/desktop, using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts I use this with DD-WRT to get network-wide filtering. It's not perfect (only updates on router boot), but good enough for me. Additional DNSMasq options: addn-hosts=/tmp/ad-hosts no-resolv strict-order server=8.8.8.8 server=8.8.4.4 Startup script: wget -qO /tmp/ad-hosts-v4 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host…

Network-wide is the way to go. Hosts files can be tricky to set up on phones and tablets. I run dnsmasq on a pi as my ISP router is pretty limited. You can't even change the DNS servers, so the pi has to do DHCP too. I use it to block other things like fixed banner overlays. With caching you can get it to work when you go off WiFi too [0]. Not sure I'd use Google's DNS servers though. Your ISP's are probably better f…

> Not sure I'd use Google's DNS servers though. Your ISP's are probably better for both speed and privacy. You can test the speed with an old Google project called namebench [1].

Unfortunately my ISP's (Sky, UK) DNS servers aren't particularly reliable. My devices are behind the DD-WRT router that forces its own DNS settings (other servers are intercepted), but the rest of the family connects directly to the ISP router[1]. Multiple times I've been browsing the Internet without issue, but other people have been unable to use the Internet. Changing their device to use Google's DNS server resolved the issue.

[1] Been meaning to merge the two for a while, but haven't got around to it yet

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#62

Post by aorth »

Adding another vote of confidence for running your own local DNS resolver with a block list. I use this script to generate a compatible hosts list for unbound:

https://github.com/jodrell/unbound-block-hosts

It's not terribly sophisticated, but every few weeks or whatever I just run this again:

  $ ./unbound-block-hosts --file=/opt/brew/etc/unbound/local-blocking-data.conf
  $ killall -HUP unbound

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#63

Post by nwrk »

benologist wrote: post #10
buro9 wrote: post #5

One can achieve this locally, on a laptop/desktop, using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts Or you can combine that with https://github.com/jlund/streisand to have a VPN service that happens to adblock (great for mobile). That said... I like that Optimal have made this too, because neither of the above can work for all devices in a household and more things in the house are tracking you and serving adverts (TV!). T…

If you want StevenBlack's hosts list to be network-wide I integrated it with an open source, self-hosted DNS server called https://pi-hole.net/ last week which adds a slick admin interface and browser extensions too, then I put it all in a Vagrantfile and set my router to use the VM as a DNS server. Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/ELL9CDu.png Vagrantfile: https://github.com/benlowry/pihole-extended-hosts

Nice! Thanks

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#64

Post by aphextron »

nherment wrote: post #7

Not sure what to think of it: An "ethical" ad blocking service launched Thursday that allows users to pay their favorite publishers not to show them ads. [...] With Optimal.com, users will pay a flat monthly fee (Leathern told Business Insider the exact amount hasn't been released, but it's likely to be a high single-digit number) to experience an ad free web. Source: http://uk.businessinsider.com/optimal-launches-su…

>"An "ethical" ad blocking service "

All ad-blocking is ethical. It's the advertisers job to make me aware of products in a way that doesn't anger me, and they're doing a really shitty job.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#66

Post by oliwarner »

stordoff wrote: post #52
buro9 wrote: post #5

One can achieve this locally, on a laptop/desktop, using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts Or you can combine that with https://github.com/jlund/streisand to have a VPN service that happens to adblock (great for mobile). That said... I like that Optimal have made this too, because neither of the above can work for all devices in a household and more things in the house are tracking you and serving adverts (TV!). T…

> One can achieve this locally, on a laptop/desktop, using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts I use this with DD-WRT to get network-wide filtering. It's not perfect (only updates on router boot), but good enough for me. Additional DNSMasq options: addn-hosts=/tmp/ad-hosts no-resolv strict-order server=8.8.8.8 server=8.8.4.4 Startup script: wget -qO /tmp/ad-hosts-v4 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host…

Urgh why do people have to be so POSIX about things. Here is the content of my /etc/cron.daily/adblock file:

    #!/bin/bash

    wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts \
    | sort -u \
    | awk '/^0/ {print;print ":: " $2}' \
    > /tmp/ad-hosts

    service dnsmasq reload
I know cycles are cheap but that doesn't mean we should be spaffing them up the wall when we can do things cheaper. This avoids double-processing the downloaded content.

dnsmasq config as above.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#67

Post by intrasight »

My strategy is to use OpenDNS to block sites, and uBlock Origin to block all 3rd-party access. Then I whitelist stuff. Whitelisting is more work than blacklisting but I'd claim it is more comprehensive. On my phone I just disable javascript.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#68

Post by textmode »

If there is strong demand I could put together a solution sor home networks that does not use a third party resolver, i.e., no tracking whatsoever. It could be run from an SD card or USB stick entirely in memory, i.e. no install needed. All you need is an extra computer; old is fine.

As for the "breaking" some websites, it depends on what you block. Speaking for myself, if blocking doubleclick.net makes one out of thousands hang, then that is acceptable. In fact it's desired because I want to know about such sites. What kind of website would do that? Doubleclick offers zero value to the user. I like this aspect of DNS blocking.

Also it's easy to "whitelist" or "blacklist" certain subdomains if that's what you need to do. Simply a matter of editing a text file, and this can be automated.

As for the comments about what effect this would have if practiced by the masses, I think it would bring these ad-supported search engines and social media sites to a day of reckoning.

Users would have all the power. At least one search engine claims it's focused on users. This would put that statement to the test. Users in control. As it should be.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#69

Post by hoopsho »

buro9 wrote: post #5

One can achieve this locally, on a laptop/desktop, using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts Or you can combine that with https://github.com/jlund/streisand to have a VPN service that happens to adblock (great for mobile). That said... I like that Optimal have made this too, because neither of the above can work for all devices in a household and more things in the house are tracking you and serving adverts (TV!). T…

Metiix Blockade blocks at the DNS level.... Locally on Windows or Linux or a raspberry pi if you want.
Post reply on HN