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

Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 37 posts

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#21

Post by ghjklpoiuy »

betwixthewires wrote: post #19
ghjklpoiuy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only learned about it today. Sadly though it doeant sync with Firefox which on desktop is my primary browser

Well, there's another thing Firefox is doing wrong, it's got a tiny little feature sparse walled garden, when it should be using open standards. Question: I have never bothered syncing anything between browsers on different machines. What benefit would I get out of it if I decided to start? What all do you sync?

I like to sync bookmarks, tabs, and history, tabs so if I open a page on my browser and leave it open, my phone will tell me what I am working on on the other machine. Same for history and bookmarks. There's really no downside I can think of in this feature.

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#22

Post by AlbinoDrought »

nathcd wrote: post #6

This is the one extension I was really bummed to lose on Firefox for Android with the update last year where they started limiting installable extensions to a hand-selected group.

Needs a workaround, but you should be able to install a limited amount of any extensions using the "Custom Add-on Collection" option: https://web.archive.org/web/20211007060220/https://blog.mozi...

I've used this to install one of the otherwise-unsupported *Monkey Userscript extensions

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#23

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #12

In the case where I have to use popualr browsers, I use local DNS and a forward proxy to do what this extension does, i.e., replace URLs. Google/Mozilla/Apple/Microsoft/Opera have control over extensions to their browsers, but they have less/no control over a proxy server written by someone else.

Simplified setup, many variations possible

DNS: nsd or tinydns

listens on 127.8.8.1

query example.com @127.8.8.1

custom root.zone with wildcards

answer example.com IN A 127.8.8.2

Proxy: haproxy

listens on 127.8.8.2, returns user-provided certificate

replaces URLs, etc.

forwards to 93.184.216.34, verifies server certificate

To generate certificates, I wrote a "mkcert" script years before the one written in Go that is now being promoted by someone working for Google. That company's web browser has the majority share of users. Alas, that browser is unreasonably hostile to user-provided certificates for local addresses.1 Hence this is probably not a setup that is appropriate for everyone or every situation. For recreational web use, I like to manipulate and inspect traffic, this is more lightweight than popular alternatives (mitmproxy, etc.), so it works for me.

1. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7580508/getting-chrome-t...

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#24

Post by pretext »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #12

In the case where I have to use popualr browsers, I use local DNS and a forward proxy to do what this extension does, i.e., replace URLs. Google/Mozilla/Apple/Microsoft/Opera have control over extensions to their browsers, but they have less/no control over a proxy server written by someone else.

I wonder how to implement this with pi-hole.

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#25

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

pretext wrote: post #24
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #12

In the case where I have to use popualr browsers, I use local DNS and a forward proxy to do what this extension does, i.e., replace URLs. Google/Mozilla/Apple/Microsoft/Opera have control over extensions to their browsers, but they have less/no control over a proxy server written by someone else.

I wonder how to implement this with pi-hole.

Pi-Hole used dnsmasq and modified it. Pi-Hole encourages users to forward DNS queries to (so-called "upstream") third party DNS providers; I think it comes with presets for GoogleDNS and others. I try to avoid dnsmasq (it is often used by default on OpenWRT) as well as third party DNS. I love the idea behind Pi-Hole but I cannot get excited about the implementation.

If I were to make a "Pi-Hole", I would use nsd, tinydns and haproxy. There would be no need for third party DNS. For anyone that wanted to use third party DNS, optionally I would provide dnscache. It's easy to take public DNS blocklists and "import"^1 them into dnscache.

There are lots of other interesting "alternative Pi-Hole" ideas yet to be tried.

1. dnscache uses the filesystem for nameserver manipulation instead of lists. Each domain is a file in the root/servers folder. Each file contains the address of a (blackhole) nameserver.

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#26

Post by lemming »

gnicholas wrote: post #18
throwawaysea wrote: post #17

Is there a way to use this on a phone? Particularly to not have AMP links.

There’s an iOS extension for Safari that does this; I think it’s a $5 one-time purchase. The functionality is also available on Insight Browser (a YC company), which offers various other browsing enhancements.

Do you have a link to the extension? I looked for something like this a while back but couldn’t find one.

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#27

Post by betwixthewires »

ghjklpoiuy wrote: post #21
betwixthewires wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there's another thing Firefox is doing wrong, it's got a tiny little feature sparse walled garden, when it should be using open standards. Question: I have never bothered syncing anything between browsers on different machines. What benefit would I get out of it if I decided to start? What all do you sync?

I like to sync bookmarks, tabs, and history, tabs so if I open a page on my browser and leave it open, my phone will tell me what I am working on on the other machine. Same for history and bookmarks. There's really no downside I can think of in this feature.

Well, the downside is that you have to use the same browser on two different machines. And it doesn't have to be that way, and of all the companies you could expect, Mozilla shouldn't make it that way. But it is a useful feature.

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#28

Post by grapescheesee »

ghjklpoiuy wrote: post #15
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #12

In the case where I have to use popualr browsers, I use local DNS and a forward proxy to do what this extension does, i.e., replace URLs. Google/Mozilla/Apple/Microsoft/Opera have control over extensions to their browsers, but they have less/no control over a proxy server written by someone else.

Link please to your setup

Bump to this as well

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#29

Post by nathcd »

AlbinoDrought wrote: post #22
nathcd wrote: post #6

This is the one extension I was really bummed to lose on Firefox for Android with the update last year where they started limiting installable extensions to a hand-selected group.

Needs a workaround, but you should be able to install a limited amount of any extensions using the "Custom Add-on Collection" option: https://web.archive.org/web/20211007060220/https://blog.mozi... I've used this to install one of the otherwise-unsupported *Monkey Userscript extensions

Looks like that's only on Nightly? I'm glad there's a workaround, but I'm not missing Redirector quite that much.

Re: Redirector – Browser extension to redirect to privacy respecting front-ends

#30

Post by nathcd »

betwixthewires wrote: post #14
nathcd wrote: post #6

This is the one extension I was really bummed to lose on Firefox for Android with the update last year where they started limiting installable extensions to a hand-selected group.

Not to pick on you, but why do you just take it? I was bummed to lose it on Firefox mobile as well, which is why I stopped using it and started using Kiwi browser. Kneecapping my tools and then telling me the other guys are worse does not fly with me, and it shouldn't fly with anyone.

I'm sorry, but suggesting that I move to a no-name chromium fork maintained by one person because I miss a Firefox extension is absurd. Perhaps I should also leave my country because my local grocery store doesn't carry the cereal I like.

> why do you just take it?

Must be my insatiable masochism.

Post reply on HN