Adblocking

[BloX]

Hi there

New user here. I have questions regarding the Adblock-Function. It has been asked before in the forums, without any satisfying answer.

TL;DR: Does, or will Netduma support Adblock-Style Filter-Lists? (Not Host-Lists, but Adblock-Style Filter Lists).

Technical Background of Ad-Blocking, for normal users.

There are two ways you can Ad-Block:

- Host-Based

- Adblock-Style Filter Lists

What do these do? What's the difference?

Host-Based

This is the 💩 way to "block" ads. Why?

"Host-Based" filtering means the following:

The Website "Amazon.com" loads ads from "advertisement.com".

Without going in too much technical detail, if you block the request to "advertisement.com", you blocked the Ads from loading.

In laymen's words:

•  I get a document from Paul. Without looking at the document, I display it. Because I trust Paul.
•  I get a document from Frank. Without looking at the document, I don't display it. Because Frank is on the Blacklist.

This illustrates how super stupid host-based filtering is.

This has worked in the past, but does no longer work. Prime examples are YouTube and Pinterest.

Why doesn't it work on those sites? Because YouTube, among many other Alexa-Top-10 Sites, host their own Ads.

So the content you want to see, and the Ads, both come from "youtube.com" - Bam! Your Host-List just became useless and all the ads get through.

Bad example: The folks over at pihole opted for host-lists in 2019 with this brilliant statement: "... the removal of support for adblock style lists such as Easylist / Easyprivacy "

This is completely tone-deaf on their part, because in the future, everybody will host their own Ads and make host-lists obsolete

The result is, that the Pihole-Forums are full of users that complain that their Smart-TV etc. shows them YouTube Ads.

This is the direct consequence of choosing an obsolete, inefficient filter-strategy. Remember: This project's only purpose is to filter ads. And they dropped their biggest weapon and chose a stick.

Adblock-Style

This is the right way to do it. Here are some filters from the EasyList:

##div[id^="ad_rect_"]
##div[id^="ad_script_"]
##div[id^="adfox_"]

 

They use what is called CSS-Selectors. They're selectors, that basically remove ads inside the code of the website.

Here, it doesn't matter where the site came from. Can be from "Amazon.com" or from "advertisement.com" - These filters are able to catch the advertisement regardless of it's origin.

This is why you don't see advertisements on YouTube when you use AdblockPlus or UBlock Origin. Because these filters are MUCH more powerful!

Again, in laymen's words:

•  I get a document from anybody. Paul, Frank, doesn't matter. This time I look at the actual document, and not it's origin. If it's an Ad, I throw it away. If it's good content, I display it.

What I'm saying is: This is a problem humanity has solved already, but I still see users in the forums here, as well as over on PiHole asking "My Samsung-TV is playing midroll ads..."

My Questions

 

- Does Netduma support Adblock-Style Filter-Lists like the EasyList?

- If not, will it in the future?

 

Because, let's face it: Host-Based filtering is not going to cut it. If you don't filter Youtube - which is the Nr. 2 most used website in the world - You're not filtering at all.

We need Adblock-Style Filter lists. If a browser-addon can do it, a router definitely can do it.

And if we need to install a Cert to break SSL open, please give us the option to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

It is host based - whether it will in the future I don't know but I will put this on our roadmap to be potentially included in the future.