7 ms·

No-Ads: Millions of banner ads blocked since 1996

65 points by pqb 9y ago

piotrkubisa 9y ago
Personally, I am really satisfied using it in 2017 as a supplementary solution for blocking ads on my all devices with internet connection, especially which can't have uBlock Origin.
- jlv2 9y ago
  I'm glad to hear. What devices do you use this on? FWIW, I've personally never used it on mobile devices, but I'm pretty sure it would work. (I'm the author of no-ads)
  - piotrkubisa 9y ago
    I found your site when I was looking for some adblock my old BlackBerry Z10. Thanks to your great job I discovered PAC proxy, I get rid of ads in apps and in the built-in browser, which does not handle extensions. On mobile phones based on Symbian, BlackBerry 10, Android proxy is configured per network connection (i.e. single Wi-Fi AP) and it is system-wide configuration, which has been working flawlessly under all aforementioned platforms. As developer, I'd like to thank you for discovery of PAC proxy, because it has helped me many times to mimic or redirect network traffic, i.e when I needed to connect my phone with laptop using DNS names in the same local network. It is worth noting PAC proxy is superb to investigate or block traffic to servers where are collected usage metrics / telemetry on android phones by setting redirect to your own server. I would be grateful if you could answer on following question: How do you debug/test PAC proxy if given pattern works or not? Because I am using the method known by most of PHP developers - develop, refresh (reconnect) and check manually by sending request once again if new entry works or not.
lmm 9y ago
> This should work in any Gecko-based browser, such as Konqueror in KDE3. Minor correction: Konqueror was KHTML-based (recent versions use WebKit (edit to make clear: originally a fork of KHTML) which has essentially become the mainline of KHTML).
- tome 9y ago
  I'm not sure if you're hinting at this, but for those who are unaware, WebKit was KHTML to start with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit#Origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit#Origins
- j_koreth 9y ago
  Minor Minor Correction : By default konqueror comes with KHTML or Webengine (Chromium) depending on the distribution with the option to choose either one or also install webkit
- ginreaper 9y ago
  KDE3 Konq also has a gecko backend
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jlv2 9y ago
  At the time I wrote that comment, I thought it was correct. I'll just remove the Konqueror reference.
  - lmm 9y ago
    If it works in Konqueror that would be good to know. It's still my favourite browser.
PinguTS 9y ago
I have recently more problems with sites, that embedded a little Javascript, which tests if access to these ad farms are blocked and if so, then redirecting to a site on how to enable ads. Currently, I set uBlock Origin to block inline Javascript. But it becomes really messy, as that blocks also valid Javascript for slides show and so on. Not even talking about those site, which essentially work only with Javascript enabled at all.
- mynewtb 9y ago
  Try umatrix!
- dspillett 9y ago
  My response to that is to simply close that tab or hit the back button. If I really care about the content a quick search usually finds it somewhere else. Until very recently I didn't block ads, but after increasing occurrences of "reputable" sites (imgur, I'm looking at you) hosting adverts they auto-play video, try back-door installs, or just chew a significant chunk of CPU when I'm running on battery (not mining coins: just very very poorly written dom animations) I gave in and put pihole on my home network.
- TrinaryWorksToo 9y ago
  Is it possible to return an empty 200 response?
  - jonknee 9y ago
    They're usually not testing if the file loaded, but if the JS responds as it should.
- rightos 9y ago
  Try Anti-Adblock Killer, it's a greasemonkey script that replaces javascript on malicious sites like that with a fixed version. https://gitlab.com/xuhaiyang1234/AAK-Cont#anti-adblock-killer-continued https://gitlab.com/xuhaiyang1234/AAK-Cont#anti-adblock-kille...
- Nursie 9y ago
jasode 9y ago
A related question for HN... If I want a network-wide ad blocking device that understands wildcard host names that's cheap & low-wattage, is a Raspberry Pi with Pi-hole[1] the best option? The PAC proxy autoconfig in this article is fine for configuring individual browsers (especially when browsing on iPad/iPhone away from home such as airports) but I want a site-wide firewall at the DNS network level to block: - IoT like LG/Samsung tvs sending privacy data - MS Windows 10 telemetry data - smartphones/tablets ads where the proxy wasn't set - ...everything else I didn't think about [1] https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/
- olympus 9y ago
  Best, as in cheapest, or highest throughput, or easiest to configure? Your network type matters as well. A pi-hole works okay and is a low price option for a home network, but would get swamped on a work network. My suggestion: make a pi-hole, and see what you like about it. If it doesn't work for you, buy a real firewall from Cisco or similar. Then use the raspberry pi as a media machine or some other project.
- hnlmorg 9y ago
  AFAIK dnsmasq (which Pi-hole uses) doesn't support wildcards. However Pi-hole does import hugely extensive lists of domains so you'll unlikely to need wildcard matching anyway. Pi-hole is just dnsmasq plus a whole bunch of 3rd party curated lists of bad domains and some helper scripts. It's obviously the helper scripts that give Pi-hole its value but equally it's very easy to build your own equivalent. Which is useful if you think you need something beefier to host it than a Raspberry Pi. Disclaimer: I have built my own Pi-hole equivalent - a few years before Pi-hole was first released in fact. As for you questions about which content gets blocked, my server has successfully been blocking the stuff you described (see caveat below). In fact it was so successful at blocking IoT telemetry that it highlighted a weird bug on Sky+ HD set top boxes where they refused to boot if they couldn't phone home when connected over ethernet. Caveat: I don't run Windows so cannot comment about the Win 10 telemetry data.
  - jasode 9y ago
sametmax 9y ago
Would it have any pros/cons compared to ublock origin ?
- piotrkubisa 9y ago
  It is system-wide configuration, so also you block ads in apps.

65 points by pqb 9y ago

Personally, I am really satisfied using it in 2017 as a supplementary solution for blocking ads on my all devices with internet connection, especially which can't have uBlock Origin.

jlv2 9y ago
I'm glad to hear. What devices do you use this on? FWIW, I've personally never used it on mobile devices, but I'm pretty sure it would work. (I'm the author of no-ads)
- piotrkubisa 9y ago
  I found your site when I was looking for some adblock my old BlackBerry Z10. Thanks to your great job I discovered PAC proxy, I get rid of ads in apps and in the built-in browser, which does not handle extensions. On mobile phones based on Symbian, BlackBerry 10, Android proxy is configured per network connection (i.e. single Wi-Fi AP) and it is system-wide configuration, which has been working flawlessly under all aforementioned platforms. As developer, I'd like to thank you for discovery of PAC proxy, because it has helped me many times to mimic or redirect network traffic, i.e when I needed to connect my phone with laptop using DNS names in the same local network. It is worth noting PAC proxy is superb to investigate or block traffic to servers where are collected usage metrics / telemetry on android phones by setting redirect to your own server. I would be grateful if you could answer on following question: How do you debug/test PAC proxy if given pattern works or not? Because I am using the method known by most of PHP developers - develop, refresh (reconnect) and check manually by sending request once again if new entry works or not.

lmm 9y ago

> This should work in any Gecko-based browser, such as Konqueror in KDE3. Minor correction: Konqueror was KHTML-based (recent versions use WebKit (edit to make clear: originally a fork of KHTML) which has essentially become the mainline of KHTML).

tome 9y ago
I'm not sure if you're hinting at this, but for those who are unaware, WebKit was KHTML to start with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit#Origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit#Origins
j_koreth 9y ago
Minor Minor Correction : By default konqueror comes with KHTML or Webengine (Chromium) depending on the distribution with the option to choose either one or also install webkit
ginreaper 9y ago
KDE3 Konq also has a gecko backend
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jlv2 9y ago
At the time I wrote that comment, I thought it was correct. I'll just remove the Konqueror reference.
- lmm 9y ago
  If it works in Konqueror that would be good to know. It's still my favourite browser.

PinguTS 9y ago

I have recently more problems with sites, that embedded a little Javascript, which tests if access to these ad farms are blocked and if so, then redirecting to a site on how to enable ads. Currently, I set uBlock Origin to block inline Javascript. But it becomes really messy, as that blocks also valid Javascript for slides show and so on. Not even talking about those site, which essentially work only with Javascript enabled at all.

mynewtb 9y ago
Try umatrix!
dspillett 9y ago
My response to that is to simply close that tab or hit the back button. If I really care about the content a quick search usually finds it somewhere else. Until very recently I didn't block ads, but after increasing occurrences of "reputable" sites (imgur, I'm looking at you) hosting adverts they auto-play video, try back-door installs, or just chew a significant chunk of CPU when I'm running on battery (not mining coins: just very very poorly written dom animations) I gave in and put pihole on my home network.
TrinaryWorksToo 9y ago
Is it possible to return an empty 200 response?
- jonknee 9y ago
  They're usually not testing if the file loaded, but if the JS responds as it should.
rightos 9y ago
Try Anti-Adblock Killer, it's a greasemonkey script that replaces javascript on malicious sites like that with a fixed version. https://gitlab.com/xuhaiyang1234/AAK-Cont#anti-adblock-killer-continued https://gitlab.com/xuhaiyang1234/AAK-Cont#anti-adblock-kille...
Nursie 9y ago

jasode 9y ago

A related question for HN... If I want a network-wide ad blocking device that understands wildcard host names that's cheap & low-wattage, is a Raspberry Pi with Pi-hole[1] the best option? The PAC proxy autoconfig in this article is fine for configuring individual browsers (especially when browsing on iPad/iPhone away from home such as airports) but I want a site-wide firewall at the DNS network level to block: - IoT like LG/Samsung tvs sending privacy data - MS Windows 10 telemetry data - smartphones/tablets ads where the proxy wasn't set - ...everything else I didn't think about [1] https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/

olympus 9y ago
Best, as in cheapest, or highest throughput, or easiest to configure? Your network type matters as well. A pi-hole works okay and is a low price option for a home network, but would get swamped on a work network. My suggestion: make a pi-hole, and see what you like about it. If it doesn't work for you, buy a real firewall from Cisco or similar. Then use the raspberry pi as a media machine or some other project.
hnlmorg 9y ago
AFAIK dnsmasq (which Pi-hole uses) doesn't support wildcards. However Pi-hole does import hugely extensive lists of domains so you'll unlikely to need wildcard matching anyway. Pi-hole is just dnsmasq plus a whole bunch of 3rd party curated lists of bad domains and some helper scripts. It's obviously the helper scripts that give Pi-hole its value but equally it's very easy to build your own equivalent. Which is useful if you think you need something beefier to host it than a Raspberry Pi. Disclaimer: I have built my own Pi-hole equivalent - a few years before Pi-hole was first released in fact. As for you questions about which content gets blocked, my server has successfully been blocking the stuff you described (see caveat below). In fact it was so successful at blocking IoT telemetry that it highlighted a weird bug on Sky+ HD set top boxes where they refused to boot if they couldn't phone home when connected over ethernet. Caveat: I don't run Windows so cannot comment about the Win 10 telemetry data.
- jasode 9y ago

sametmax 9y ago

Would it have any pros/cons compared to ublock origin ?

piotrkubisa 9y ago
It is system-wide configuration, so also you block ads in apps.