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Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

pi-hole.net

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Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#211

Post by promofaux »

dmix wrote: post #204
promofaux wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pi-hole Dev here. The only domains added to the whitelist are the domains on which the source lists are themselves hosted. It's probably complete over-kill, but the reasoning behind it is just in case one list tried to blacklist another. Compare the "automagical" whitelist entries ( http://imgur.com/a/rxgsC ) to the Default whitelist here: https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/blob/master/adlists.defau... Edit: The code…

Looks like your comments were getting killed with [dead] automatically. Maybe because of a new HN account combined with linking to the same site a couple times cause it to flag some spam detector? I vouched for your comments so they appear. Thanks for the project!

Ah! I did wonder what was going on.. :) I've heard of HN before, but never actively participated, hence only signing up today!

Thanks for vouching for me :)

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#212

Post by promofaux »

mrstone wrote: post #118
zakk wrote: post #113

Stupid question: how does it work when the majority of traffic is through SSL, making a request to an ad and a request to actual content indistinguishable? I don't think all websites serve ads from a different host. Do they?

As far as I can tell, it doesn't; they don't support blocking SSL traffic. Makes it kind of useless, I think.

Of course it can! If it has a domain name, it can be blocked. What you may see is the browser grumbling about it.

Essentially all that is happening is a client asks for a domain (e.g ssl.google.com) and if it is on the blacklist, then it returns it's own local IP address for that domain instead of the real one. Which is where you will find the browser complaining. All we return is a blank page/blocking information page, but not via https.

Of course, we could probably get around that by generating self-signed certificates on install, but the user would then need to install that certificate on all of their client machines (I think, I'm not massively proficient in this area!) which makes it an extra, and not vital, step that may scare off the more novice users.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#214

Post by dghughes »

7ewis wrote: post #161
nkkollaw wrote: post #30

With all the ad blocking technologies that are coming up, I wonder if Google is devising something to counteract these efforts. For instance, since browser-based ad blockers work from what I know by blocking known domain names, couldn't Google create random subdomains and serve the code from a different subdomain every day or even every few hours, as well as change the way their JavaScript and HTML looks? Even someth…

I believe Pi Hole have tried to block YouTube Ads but Google randomise the domains they serve those ads from, and also from what I have read, they also serve some fundamental features via those domains too. So if you kill the ads, you kill YouTube.

I used a PiHole for a while and when using it YouTube had no ads at all zero ads but I wasn't sure if it was the Samsung TV YouTube app or Google.

Before that I would be bombarded by ads for every video and then in the middle of any video that ran more than 30 minutes.

I don't mind a few ads I get the concept but 95% of the ads were just two companies Wix and Grammarly over and over.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#215

Post by JoshMnem »

problems wrote: post #151
JoshMnem wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen a way to root my phones without some risk of turning them into bricks. How would I quickly and safely get root access to a Galaxy Note III without risking the destruction of the device?

The Note 3 is not a Google-made device, it's made by Samsung. Google's own Nexus and Pixel devices allow it in a single button press, I'm unsure of other manufacturers except OnePlus which does the same as Google. As I said in my post, some devices are a lot better than others when it comes to this. Also, bricking doesn't just happen, if you understand what you're doing you'll be fine. That "some risk" isn't random,…

Thanks for the info. I will check out those devices when I replace this one.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#216

Post by JoshMnem »

cyphar wrote: post #149
JoshMnem wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen a way to root my phones without some risk of turning them into bricks. How would I quickly and safely get root access to a Galaxy Note III without risking the destruction of the device?

Samsung is an example of a manufacturer that doesn't make it easy. Oppo, One Plus and Google (LG) all have very easy to unlock bootloaders that have "official" instructions from the manufacturer (and it's two commands away). Can you still brick it? Yes. Is it likely if you type the two commands as you're told to on the website? No.

Thanks, I will look into one of those phones when I replace the Galaxy Note.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#217

Post by time4tea »

laumars wrote: post #190
nigifabio wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sound like an amazing setup, what about sharing all these scripts? How and why you build your browser?

It's just a shell script to manage dnsmasq running on my FreeBSD home server. It's not sophicated but equally it's written specifically for my server so no very portable either. I did think about writing something to share but projects like Pi-hole have done a better job serving the community than i could have. So i just share the sources i use instead incase any like-minded sysadmins find it useful.

You could also use py-hole which is a simple apt install of a bit of python that does the dnsmasq file creation and update.

Its pre alpha but may work for you

https://github.com/time4tea-net/py-hole

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#218

Post by acbabis »

Smudge wrote: post #200
zeta0134 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've maintained for a long time that the ad networks themselves are the problem, not advertising as a whole. There is a place for video advertising (around content that is also video), there is a place for audio advertising (on the radio, around podcasts, on music services), and there is even a place for animated, interactive advertisements, on sites that are expected to dance and move anyway, like online games. The…

There is a much bigger barrier to entry when it comes to monetizing via product placement and sponsorships. For smaller entities, developing dedicated advertising partnerships is just not on the table. So if the the ad networks themselves truly are the problem (and as a result adblocking is ever on the rise), it sounds like there is an opportunity for a better, more "organic" solution accessible to the long tail of s…

Adblock Plus has an "Acceptable Ads" program that allows non-animated, non-sound ads to remain on the page. People who think supporting the sites they visit is the right thing to do, can enable acceptable ads while blocking annoying ones.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#219

Post by derefr »

zeta0134 wrote: post #192
QuadrupleA wrote: post #186

I definitely hate ads like anyone, but it should be acknowledged that ads serve a purpose too, of creating an economy for free content and giving people an avenue to get some income in exchange for their efforts, and possibly be able to devote their full attention to a free project and not have to support themselves with other income. Ads give creators some incentive to create stuff - although the income generally is…

I've maintained for a long time that the ad networks themselves are the problem, not advertising as a whole. There is a place for video advertising (around content that is also video), there is a place for audio advertising (on the radio, around podcasts, on music services), and there is even a place for animated, interactive advertisements, on sites that are expected to dance and move anyway, like online games. The…

> ad networks themselves are the problem, not advertising as a whole

I would perhaps say that it's the way that ad networks interact with content sites that's the problem.

With the current "automated just-in-time auction of the eyeballs of the person-we-identified-using-the-site's-metrics, with the site itself just providing the rectangle of space to slot the result into" model, content providers are essentially entirely beholden to whatever the ad network thinks is the best thing to put on their page.

An ad network could instead be a sort of "marketplace" service that lets content providers browse ads from various sources (or get ads suggested to them, using the same algorithm they'd have used originally to force ads on users), and then approve for display the ones they find tasteful/in line with their brand.

That is, after all, the model for running ads in any other medium: the publisher gets to provide ultimate editorial judgement on whether a given ad belongs in their publication.

(Also, in such a model, the content provider would likely be the one hosting the resulting ads, so we'd be able to avoid the whole ads = tracking beacons problem we face today.)

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#220

Post by pavel_lishin »

Drumlin wrote: post #126
pavel_lishin wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they'll stop visiting the site.

Does it matter if they stop visiting the site? Considering that they are using resources without giving something back in return? I guess it could be argued that they might be promoting the site to other users. Other than that, they are essentially freeloaders and if a website has too many freeloaders it has to either get rid of them or convert them to something else. Or, I guess, the website could shut down complete…

> Does it matter if they stop visiting the site?

You can have all the ads you want, but if people aren't visiting your site - and sharing links to it, talking about what they read there, recommending it to others - they're not going to get you much revenue.

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