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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

#61

Post by ikeboy »

legohead wrote: post #48
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…

Ad blockers do a lot more than just block domains. They look for and remove divs/DOM elements that contain known ad naming schemes and remove them from the page. And if a site decides to start combating the ad blockers, the adblock list providers will update their rules specifically for the site in question. Adblock users get upset whenever they see ads, and report them pretty quickly. The business I work for tried b…

Start loading essential content via AJAX?

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

#62

Post by Xylakant »

SamBam wrote: post #44
Bedon292 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would just block *.addomain.com at that point. Which is already what is being done on many of the blockers. There will always be domains to block, even if they add new domains, the blockers will probably be able to block them just as fast.

How about if they load them through *.google.com? Sure, you could whitelist www.google.com, mail.google.com, etc, but couldn't they keep ahead of you if they were ok with using their main domain? They could even start using www.google.com/ad-id

You really wouldn't want them on google.com/something since restricting cookies to sub-uris is a painful mess. Subdomains is slightly easier, but also easier to block.

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

#64

Post by bitJericho »

Bedon292 wrote: post #55
SamBam wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People greatly overestimate their ability to completely ignore ads, and to make purchasing decisions free from influence. Sure, I believe that I am pretty much completely unaffected ads, but then so does almost everybody else .

True. I am not meaning to say I am perfect (or that anyone can be), the hunch is just the expected click through rate of someone such as myself is likely much lower than someone who doesn't even know what an ad blocker is.

You're more likely to look at an ad if you have an ad blocker. That makes you a prime target.

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

#65

Post by jcfrei »

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…

The most promising front against ad blockers is forcing users to access your content with an application you control. That's why more and more websites want you to install their apps (Google search is installed by default on lots of android devices). It's very unfortunate that the incentives of users and content creators / advertisers aren't aligned very well and we will probably end up with most content creators dumbing down their web experiences in favor of better mobile applications.

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

#66

Post by strictnein »

dmbass wrote: post #21
ckastner wrote: post #12

The installation shortcut given is curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash and one is expected to execute this as root. Yes, I know this is supposed to be a convenience thing, but I wish people wouldn't actively encourage this pattern.

from the article: > Our code is completely open, but piping to bash can be dangerous. For a safer install, review the code and then run the installer locally.

The compounds in this medicine are public knowledge, but taking them could be dangerous. For a safer experience, review all medical literature pertaining to these compounds before consuming.

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

#67

Post by j_s »

ce4 wrote: post #59
j_s wrote: post #18

You may have missed the precursor discussion this past weekend, a walkthrough of setting up pihole on VPS: Set up a cheap cloud hosted adblocker in an hour for $2.50 a month https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13852109 Of particular added value there was mention of Android apps that can be setup to self-host an ad-blocking VPN / hosts filtering without rooting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13853408 https://g…

Alas the plugin that does host-based blocking is not available in the play store version, it's/was a paid feature for the version on GH only. (edit: Don't know the current state though. remember from some time ago when I last checked it).

Sounds like this is still true.

Optionally block ads using a hosts file (not available if installed from the Play store)

I re-linked NetGuard as the most user-friendly, but https://github.com/julian-klode/dns66 was also mentioned.

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

#68

Post by sosborn »

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #27
ckastner wrote: post #12

The installation shortcut given is curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash and one is expected to execute this as root. Yes, I know this is supposed to be a convenience thing, but I wish people wouldn't actively encourage this pattern.

> but I wish people wouldn't actively encourage this pattern Why do you care so much about what people do or don't do? Edit: We're talking about blocking ads, right? If people encouraged everyone to block ads what would happen to the economy?

The discussion is about the installation method. Piping to bash can be dangerous.

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

#69

Post by noja »

Gaelan wrote: post #20
ckastner wrote: post #12

The installation shortcut given is curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash and one is expected to execute this as root. Yes, I know this is supposed to be a convenience thing, but I wish people wouldn't actively encourage this pattern.

Unless you've audited the source, a manual install isn't any better.

No. With a curl install, you cannot audit the source. You cannot know if you have been served the same content as someone else.

You cannot look at version history, check a signed package, etc. etc.

If someone wants to root just a few select machines, you would want people to do a curl install.

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

#70

Post by benologist »

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 think Google can save ads about as effectively as AOL can save dialup. Probably their plan is to just milk advertising until the last Windows 95 computer dies too.
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