pi-hole

Shout-outs to the team that developed Pi-Hole. I just installed and began using it, and I'm overwhelmed by how awesome it is.

I first heard about it on Hacker News.[1] I have a Pi 2 hanging around the house. I'd used it for awhile as a Kodi box before I got annoyed with how poorly it worked over the combination of my wifi network and one of NFS/Samba, so it has been sitting around in a drawer gathering dust. I reflashed the device with Raspbian and began playing around with a leafnode installation, which works and is fun. But this pi-hole thing seemed like a great experiment.

Holy crap. I installed it at 5PM tonight and the whole family is already asking me why the network is suddenly faster. The dashboard shows it's already blocked many hundreds of calls to advert and tracker sites - a full tenth of the DNS requests it's received.

Installing it was a piece of cake - really lovely work.

I'm still figuring it out. Seems like it has cleverly packaged up an installation of DNSMasq [2], who does all the heavy lifting in managing a local DNS server and an auto-updating hosts file containing over a hundred thousand shit sites.

Both sites have donate buttons on them - I'm going to throw some cash their way later this week. This device was a cool little thing even before, but it's just found an extraordinary new reason to be plugged into my network.

On the hacker thread [1] there's a huge discussion about how adverts are a necessary part of keeping sites funded. I disagree. I buy products from the manufacturers I want. When I want. If I want. And advertisers have royally f*cked up some sites. Some popular news sites are damned near unreadable these days. Suddenly: all the adverts are gone. Good riddance.

[1]
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[2]
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Reply to
RS Wood
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That's an understandable attitude, but short-sighted. Someone has to pay for content and delivery, you can't expect hobbyists and philanthropists to sustain the current level of internet consumption.

Reply to
Rob Morley

Have at it, then. I for one will be happy to see internet sites go pay-only. Free information has turned out to mostly be worthless.

Reply to
RS Wood

Who else are those adverts targeted at then?

The advertisement model of internet finance has simply broken under the strain of greed and venality. I couldn't use the internet without an ad blocker.

I spend significant amounts of time removing adverts from recorded TV material.

I don't buy stuff that is heavily advertised on the basis that it will cost more than its worth to pay for that advertising.

I don't visit sites that insist on filling my face with adverts, unless I have absolutely no alternative.

Of course someone has to pay, and its always us, the consumer, who does.

*One way or another*.

What is a pity is that pay per packet was never put in the IP protocol.

ISPs would charge you per packet delivered from a particular site, and that site would get its revenue.

Hey presto. You are paying only for what you want.

And the site doesn't need to carry mass advertising. Just charge enough to cover operating costs.

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Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Have at what, exactly?

A Raspberry Pi group seems an odd place to make such a statement.

Reply to
Rob Morley

On Mon, 29 May 2017 02:56:47 +0100, RS Wood wrote:=

[]

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This site can=E2=80=99t provide a secure connection

pi-hole.net uses an unsupported protocol. ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH Hide details

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Bah, and indeed, Humbug

Reply to
Kerr Mudd-John

What are you trying to talk to it with?

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doesn?t suggest it?s doing anything particularly weird.

What it seems to be is an ad blocker that uses a DNS proxy on a Raspberry Pi. Why this would be any better than an ad blocker that runs in your browser isn?t clear.

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Reply to
Richard Kettlewell

One place to block adds on everything. I've been using a DNS blacklist for the purpose for some time now, this appears to be much the same but packaged for easy install.

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Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays 
C:>WIN                                      | A better way to focus the sun 
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Reply to
Ahem A Rivet's Shot

?Everything that has a distinguishable DNS name? I?d accept, and centralizing that function is certainly useful; but it doesn?t cover all adverts.

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Reply to
Richard Kettlewell

Then perhaps the level will fall.

As far as I can tell, nobody advocating against ad blockers even attempts to address the other reason to use them, which is that they are security software, mitigating the threat of ad-delivered malware.

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Reply to
Richard Kettlewell

Wrong everything:) I meant that a DNS blacklist protects everything on the network PCs, laptops, tablets, phones, TVs, IoT widgets whatever they all get given the same DNS server by DHCP so they all get the blacklist applied.

I didn't intend to claim that - but it does remove a lot of them.

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Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays 
C:>WIN                                      | A better way to focus the sun 
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Reply to
Ahem A Rivet's Shot

Ahem a Rivet's Shot also provided you an answer, but I'll give it a go. This is a blocker that attaches to your router, and therefore blocks DNS calls to advert/tracker sites for every person and machine on your local network.

I gave up on playing nice when adverts I saw at home started showing up at work too. I like my home and work lives to remain separate. I'd also come across a couple sites describing how many intermediaries are now involved in tracking and selling your information, and I decided "enough."

The speed impact alone on my network has been incredible. I now have a better sense how much time/energy/packets my browsers are wasting contacting sites I don't want them to be talking to.

Reply to
RS Wood

I wasn't advocating against ad blockers, just responding to the argument that there's no good reason for advertising on the internet. It is indeed a security concern when reputable publishers embed third party advertising over which they have no control and which may contain malware, particularly of the "drive by" no user idiocy required variety. A viable defence may include filters to block known evil sites rather than all advertising. I use a few browser plugins which may accelerate web use or break it, depending on the particular content - I don't think there's any combination of solutions that will do only the former and never the latter, although some may come close.

Reply to
Rob Morley

Ad-delivered malware doesn?t come from ?known evil sites?, it comes from ad sites that have been hacked.

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Reply to
Richard Kettlewell

4.109.83
.

Sr-Ware Iron 49 (also tried an old Opera 12.17)

s

(answered below)

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Bah, and indeed, Humbug

Reply to
Kerr Mudd-John

Advertising pollutes the environment of our minds. I would be very happy to experience far less of it. Business models would have to change; so be it.

When I was a student, I made a film about advertising, and how it pervades our entire lives. Clearly the topic has bugged me for decades.

Dave

Reply to
Dave Higton

There's a 3d animation made by some students which is almost entirely product logos. found it: logorama:

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Bah, and indeed, Humbug
Reply to
Kerr Mudd-John

Well, if ad networks and/or advertisers would stop putting up intrusive crap, or actual malicious content [1], I'd be more inclined to let them advertise to me.

But when either the intrusiveness of the ad, the size of the ad, or the stupid javascript involved causes my browser to spin its wheels and beg for mercy, I'm likely to hit the X button and kill the window.

And not see your ad, or read your content.

1:
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And that wasn't the first (nor last) time "trusted" websites were subverted to distribute malware.

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Reply to
I R A Darth Aggie

Why hack those sites when you can simply *purchase their services*. They're not checking your ads for embedded malware.

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Reply to
I R A Darth Aggie

That was fun. Thanks for the link.

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Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

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