Discuss mailing list

[Jonah Aragon <jonah AT triplebit.net>]

Just to be clear, this DNS service isn’t superior to browser extensions in any way, and I’d recommend using an extension such as uBlock Origin over this, since it’s actually probably inferior to extensions in many ways (well actually I’d recommend using both for the following reasons). 

This DNS service comes in handy when...

1. You’re using non-browser apps: this can potentially block ads in software with integrated ads/tracking. 

2. You want to block tracking across your entire network. Maybe you have phones that don’t support Adblock, or your buddy comes over and you don’t need their phone transmitting your network data to some odd server courtesy of their phone’s manufacturer. 

3. Adding onto #2, if you have a capped network, blocking resources on all devices at once could help you squeeze every last bit out of your internet plan. 

This is obviously a crude DNS-level adblocking implementation, and it really should compliment your existing anti-tracking practices as opposed to replacing them. 

There’s really no reason to not just use both, it doesn’t require any extra “effort” to a computer so to speak. 

Jonah

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 8:29 AM Al Beano <albino AT autistici.org> wrote:

Here's one such _javascript_ library for detecting adblock:
https://github.com/sitexw/FuckAdBlock - afaik this one has seen some
widespread usage

It can get a bit complex (seeing as they're trying to beat ad-blockers
at their own game really), but from what I've gathered the general gist
is that it'll try to request an advert, and if it fails, break the page
in some way.

And here's a userscript that will break the library:
https://github.com/Mechazawa/FuckFuckAdblock

These ad-blocking DNS servers are really neat, but to anyone thinking of
setting one up, PLEASE remember to set the 'blacklist' flag on your
server like Jonah has done - this makes it clear which servers are
operating some kind of blacklist and not resolving domains
'transparently', and gives users the choice.

albino

On 15/04/18 14:05, Jonah Aragon wrote:
> This is a good point, and I was thinking about this myself. I’m not
> actually sure how those anti-adblocking sites detect adblocking in the
> first place. I haven’t run into this issue yet, but if anybody does
> feel free to send me an email with a link and I’ll see if there’s
> anything I can do about it.
>
> Other than that I don’t think there’s any disadvantages, and it’s
>  probably better than browser extensions from a privacy perspective
> since nothing gets resolved or downloaded in the first place.
>
> This is incredibly easy to implement. I doubt we’ll block them by
> default at the Tier 1 level because it goes against some of our core
> values of anti-censorship in a way, but it’d be easy for others to
> setup Tier 2s in a similar manner.
>
> Jonah
>
> On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 7:40 AM Al Beano <albino AT autistici.org
> <mailto:albino AT autistici.org>> wrote:
>
>     One potential disadvantage is that websites with 'anti-adblock'
>     systems
>     in place might detect that ads won't load and try to force you to
>     disable your ad-blocker. Because you're blocking ads at the DNS
>     level,
>     you either have to change your system's default resolver
>     temporarily, or
>     find some way to work around the ad-blocker detection (I think
>     there are
>     browser plugins for this, but I haven't had that much success with
>     them
>     in the past.)
>
>     Of course, you could just refuse to use these sites in the first
>     place,
>     but I understand that's not ideal for most people.
>
>     I'm still using an ad-blocking hosts file (which has a similar end
>     result to this) on my phone and I don't have issues with it often.
>
>     albino
>
>     On 15/04/18 08:52, Sebastian Makowiecki wrote:
>     > Excellent. Can you think of any [dis]advantages blocking those
>     cancer
>     > domains at the dns level? Is this hard to implement?
>     >
>     > Ps. These probably schould be blocked by default to make the
>     world a
>     > better place?
>     >
>     > ~
>     > Sebastian Makowiecki
>     >
>     > On 14 April 2018 01:10:22 GMT+01:00, Jonah Aragon
>     > <jonaharagon AT gmail.com <mailto:jonaharagon AT gmail.com>> wrote:
>     >
>     >     I'm not sure if this already preexists or is of interest to
>     >     anybody here, but I've created an adblocking Tier 2 server,
>     >     hopefully blocking tracking and other invasive behaviors at the
>     >     DNS level.
>     >
>     >     Just decided to advertise it here, because I'm eager for some
>     >     feedback. Seems to be working well for me personally :)
>     >
>     >     IPv4: 167.99.153.82
>     >     IPv6: 2604:a880:400:d1::2ef:a001
>     >
>     >     This server is hosted in New York, NY. If this server is of
>     use to
>     >     anybody I'll probably run another in a different location, so if
>     >     anyone has suggestions let me know.
>     >
>     >     We're using the following blocklists:
>     > https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts
>     > https://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/justdomains
>     > http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts
>     > https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/blocklist.php?download=domainblocklist
>     > https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_tracking.txt
>     > https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_ad.txt
>     > https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt
>     >
>     >     That's 121,065 domains blocked from resolution.
>     >
>     >     If it's of use to anybody here, I'd love to hear it!
>     >
>     > https://servers.opennic.org/edit.php?srv=ns4.ny.us.dns.opennic.glue
>     >
>     >     Jonah
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
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