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Raspberry Pi As an Ad Blocking Access Point
coop0030 writes "Adafruit has a new tutorial that will show you how to use your Raspberry Pi as a WiFi access point that blocks ads by default for any devices using it. This is really neat in that it would work for your Android or iOS device, your Xbox 360, TiVo, laptop, and more without needing to customize any of those devices other than to use your Raspberry Pi as the access point for WiFi. Using an ad-blocker can be useful for conserving bandwidth, helping out low-power devices, or for keeping your sanity while browsing the web!"
Yeah, we've heard it all before, we'll hear it all again, and nothing much will change.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Why do you need a RasPi for this? Why not do this in the router itself and save a little bit of power?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Privoxy can remove a lot more than just ads served from a given domain/server. It can remove ads served by the same domain/server as the source website, as well as a number of other features that make it pretty nice for speeding up browsing on devices that don't have ad/javascript blockers.
For me, I block ads because they are actually a threat to browsing. In the old days, Flash ads that would pop out a player which extended off the end of the window would crash the browser. These days that's less of a problem, but there are plenty of others still around.
Privacy: advertising is probably the biggest non-government threat to online privacy. I don't really care whether advertisers would respect *my* DoNotTrack headers; I won't even connect to their servers. Supercookies? You'd need to be able to set them, first. Even if a certain site is allowed for some reason, I don't let it see my other browsing history; it gets only a distorted and meaninglessly narrow view.
Security: Advertising networks are one of the biggest problems to online security right now. At least once a month (on average, it comes in waves), one of the web comics I read gets hit with a malicious ad that attempts to serve malware / exploit kits to anybody visiting the site. This has also happened to high-profile reputable news sites and so forth as well. The ad providers don't seem to give a fuck, and the sites serving the ads can't really control the ad content before it's served. Whether it's browser exploits, Flash exploits, Java exploits, embedded PDF exploits, or something else, ad networks cheerfully serve up malicious garbage all the time. You know that advice about "avoid the seedier parts of the web"? Yeah, you can't do that without an ad blocker. Everything is seedy otherwise.
For sites that need money to keep them running, I donate. A few hundred dollars a year in donations is no big deal for me, and it's probably more money than the sites in question would get from my ad impressions anyhow.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Seriously, though, this is another utility to download ad server lists, fair enough, but when enough people do this, content providers will just switch to serving the ads directly, the ad companies will forward it to them.
Maybe.
The increased costs of serving the ads directly may outweigh the return on the ads, breaking the business model.
Or at least force the ads to be more relevant, less bandwidth heavy, etc...
Both are wins.
Instead of shoving a list of addresses into a DNS server (dnsmasq) in this case, it would be better to use RPZ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_policy_zone)....
Next to that:
> Open the file with sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf and replace the contents with the following:
> nameserver 192.168.42.49
> nameserver 8.8.8.8
> nameserver 4.4.4.4
192.168.42.49 = apparently the address of the fake webserver (would be great if they configured that somewhere before making test queries....)
8.8.8.8 = Google Public DNS, no ads maybe but running all your DNS queries through Google is not helping much now does it.
4.4.4.4 = is not a valid DNS server, likely they meant 8.8.4.4 which is the secondary Google Public DNS address.
If you have a DNSmasq anyway, just let it recurse and play caching resolver, much better idea.
> iface wlan0 inet static
> address 192.168.42.1
> netmask 255.255.255.0
> post-up ip addr add dev wlan0 192.168.42.49/24
One just has to wonder which IP the box will be using for outgoing queries, depends a lot on the kernel.... .1 would always be chosen, but as a /24 magical things will happen
Now if that was 192.168.42.49/32 the
Etoomanypitholes and lots of people will be bitten.
http://unfix.org
Why not do this in the router itself and save a little bit of power?
Because not everybody's home router 1. is easily customized and 2. has enough memory. I've read that my seven-year-old NETGEAR WGR614 v6 doesn't have enough flash for DD-WRT, and some people don't want to bother soldering, and some other routers are tivoized not to run an unapproved kernel. If I were to replace it with newer hardware, what make and model of home router would you recommend for no more than the price of a Raspberry Pi?
Could it be used to spoof an ad server? I have used a number of Android apps that will continuously try to reach ad servers if you use any sort of ad blocks, which causes extra battery drain. Could this system be set up to send some placeholders so the app will stop trying to pull an ad?
Think outside of the brainwashing box.
Quit thinking like a 'consumer', just inhaling what's force fed to you. We used to be 'customers'.
Use the concept provided and TRULY think about what would be a best fit for you, and make it happen.
The variations are almost endless for this problem.
(hint: think of the 'writeup' as just a suggestion for one of the many solutions, not the one and only solution)
The internet is a vast treasure house of stupefying proportions for knowledge....the winnowing the wheat from the chaff can be a problem, though.
I suggest customer reviews, and a little research to deal with the chaff problem.
Do you have knowledgeable friends/acquaintances? Most would be glad to help you out with advice.
Break out of that 'consumer' (I picture cattle at a feedlot, being force-fed to gain weight for slaughtering for market) mentality, and start thinking like a free, independent individual, instead of part of the herd of consumers...a customer that wants a particular thing either for need or desire....based on your decision, not some marketing department, or ad agency
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti