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!"

Comments

Annoying isn't the problem

[cbhacking]

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.

Re:On a WGR614 v6?

[adolf]

Yeah, you're right.

But then there's the obvious counter-argument: Not everyone has a Rasberry Pi and a spare USB WiFi NIC kicking around, either.

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?

You didn't set the bar very high, did you?

From adafruit:

$39.95 Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB RAM
$9.95 Adafruit Pi Case- Enclosure for Raspberry Pi Model A or B
$11.95 Miniature WiFi (802.11b/g/n) Module: For Raspberry Pi and more
$5.95 5V 1A (1000mA) USB port power supply - UL Listed
$7.95 SD/MicroSD Memory Card (4 GB SDHC)

== $75.75. Adding first-class USPS shipping (to Ohio) adds another $5.18.

That's a grand total of $80.93 to get enough RaspPi to build an access point (some assembly required). (And you still need an Ethernet cable, and a USB cable for power.)

Or, for $50, shipping included you can get the venerable Linksys WRT54GL. Comes pre-assembled with everything you need except third-party software, which is it is widely compatible with.

For a few dollars more than a pile of Raspberry Pi kit, you can also get an Asus RT-N16. It's a beastly little router for the price, and has a gigabit switch built-in along with 802.11n (2.4GHz only, sadly). It's about as compatible with third-party firmware as the WRT54GL.

They're currently going for about $84, shipping included. Also comes pre-assembled with everything needed except software.