Ad blocking in OS2008 [Archive] - maemo.org

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 05:47 AM

Has anyone gotten an ad blocking host file to work correctly in OS2008?

As a test example can anyone manage to get rid of the ad on the right hand side of http://reddit.com ?

Most of the time I'm surfing on a 2g gprs connection and excessive ads can really ruin it. I know I can turn off images but that's not a really effective solution for a lot of sites (Although reddit is fine I admit).

I'm just hoping someone ports adblock to the OS as soon as possible.

Frankowitz

11-15-2007, 07:52 AM

Privoxy...

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 07:54 AM

Does that even work in 2008? Have you got more of an answer than one word? I'm sure there are people wanting to adblock who won't have a clue what you're talking about, where to get it from or how to configure it.

Frankowitz

11-15-2007, 08:15 AM

Like some people refuse to use the search functionality, I like short answers.

CLICK THIS! (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5454)

fpp

11-15-2007, 08:52 AM

If you're using MicroB there's also the Greasemonkey extension with the ad filter script.

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 09:19 AM

I'll give that a try fpp. Thanks. Do you have a link to the ad filter script?

fpp

11-15-2007, 09:29 AM

Still can't be bothered to use the Search function here, huh ?

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11543&highlight=greasemonkey

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 09:32 AM

No need to be insulting. When you tell someone to get an ad "filter" don't act shirty when they search and can't find it *because it's not called that*.

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 09:49 AM

The funniest part is greasemonkey and filterset P are actually pretty useless for the real reason I needed ad blocking. On a low bandwidth connection actually having to download all the ads is the biggest problem and unfortunately any greasemonkey script built to hide ads does just that. Hide them from view. You still have to download them in the first place. Yes It'll help stop an ad ridden page from grinding the N800 to a halt but it's only a small consolation when it still takes an age to download the page in the first place.

I think what I'd like to see (Apart from a real adblock extension to microb) is something akin to how Opera Mini works on mobile phones where you can run through a special proxy that basically makes everything take less time to download. Opera Mini does this very well indeed on mobile phones and would make a nice (optional) addition to a handheld of this nature.

Interesting topic though and this adfilter script will come in handy but it's just not a complete enough solution sadly.

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 10:01 AM

Like some people refuse to use the search functionality, I like short answers.

CLICK THIS! (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5454)

I do appologise for my temper. I intensely dislike the "Just search for it fool" attitude that a large segment of the OSS community tends to exhibit. I feel that it drives people away and that's not really a good thing.

However having said all that and installing privoxy I must say that's a very good recommendation. I was unsure about installing it to be honest. The last time I used it on a desktop PC I found it to be a bloated complicated mess. It's totally different on Maemo and seems to work very well indeed.

One final question before I turn tail and leave in embarrasment. Is there a config page for privoxy I can access? If I need to add more ad servers for example?

Cheers.

fpp

11-15-2007, 10:26 AM

No need to be insulting. When you tell someone to get an ad "filter" don't act shirty when they search and can't find it *because it's not called that*.

The search was on Greasemonkey. If you find my personal way of being helpful "insulting", then it's best we both do without it.

ldrn

11-15-2007, 10:45 AM

http://config.privoxy.org/ will, while Privoxy is running, take you to a configuration page. Most of what you can do there is limited to viewing files, though; you need to edit them with a text editor to add things. You can do it on the N800 if you use a program that can see the real file structure. I use my PC to do it over SSH (and fuse.)

http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/configuration.html <- this page has more information on how to use an set it up. Right after installing privoxy, I had to make a few changes. I turned off the privacy settings that were expiring cookies and put Google on as a "fragile" site. Aside from that, Privoxy has worked wonderfully for me.

I do appologise for my temper. I intensely dislike the "Just search for it fool" attitude that a large segment of the OSS community tends to exhibit. I feel that it drives people away and that's not really a good thing.
I think you are right; one of the reasons Ubuntu has taken off like it has is because they are very opposed to that sort of insulting attitude on their forums.

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 11:09 AM

I'd actually forgotten why I stopped using Privoxy years ago. It's far too ready to break websites and is so complicated you spend more time figuring out how to unbreak websites than surfing.

Ldrn. Could you try surfing to http://www.eurogamer.net with privoxy on and see what happens?

jwhelan

11-15-2007, 11:25 AM

I think you are right; one of the reasons Ubuntu has taken off like it has is because they are very opposed to that sort of insulting attitude on their forums.

That one sentence just sold me on Ubuntu... (I normally use debian)...

What the majority of "search and you shall find" people don't always get is that one person can search for something for days, but if they aren't looking for the exact same thing someone who knows the answer would, they don't always find the right answer...

Now having said that, I'm not saying you CANNOT find the answer EVENTUALLY, but its just as easy to answer the question sometimes than to suggest someone search in a rude manner...

I am also not saying one shouldn't try to find the answer themselves, nor should they expect to be babied, but people need to understand not all answers are easy to find...

lets not turn this into a flame war, but let us all try to be friends and make this community better for ALL, theres no sense in being rude to those that are new, and acting as if you are better than everyone else just because you figured something out that someone else is struggling with...

Thanks for your time!

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 11:32 AM

I think I have one final question about privoxy before I can go away and be happy.

When privoxy blocks certain things it adds a message into the webpage with links so you can see what it blocks. Is there any way to disable these? I've been having a look through the config files and not spotted anything that looks a likely suspect.

Frankowitz

11-15-2007, 11:34 AM

Now having said that, I'm not saying you CANNOT find the answer EVENTUALLY, but its just as easy to answer the question sometimes than to suggest someone search in a rude manner...

I completely agree. I thought my one word answer was (although a bit blunt) a nice 'in the middle' solution to get one going. If you enter privoxy in google you get loads of on the spot info.

I think the default Privoxy settings don't need a lot of altering. Especially on the N800.

devaler

11-15-2007, 11:35 AM

I agree. Just because "you" know how to search for something simply, does not mean other people do. It's like giving directions to someone who is lost: you may know exactly what you mean by "go up three stops and take a right", but the person asking for directions lacks the familiarity with the environment you do.

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 11:44 AM

I think the default Privoxy settings don't need a lot of altering. Especially on the N800.

They do if you got to a site like http://www.eurogamer.net where the messages saying "Privoxy blocked <url> see why or go there anyway" completely mess up the page formatting.

I'm still trying to figure out how to turn that off.

Frankowitz

11-15-2007, 11:48 AM

They do if you got to a site like http://www.eurogamer.net where the messages saying "Privoxy blocked <url> see why or go there anyway" completely mess up the page formatting.

I'm still trying to figure out how to turn that off.

You need root rights to alter the config files of privoxy on the N800. (search for 'becomeroot' on this board :p )
I did it sometime ago, but haven't got the time to look into it now.
It wasn't that hard though.

Maybe someone else can provide the needed info?

keithlm

11-15-2007, 11:49 AM

What the majority of "search and you shall find" people don't always get is that one person can search for something for days, but if they aren't looking for the exact same thing someone who knows the answer would, they don't always find the right answer...

Reminds me of years ago before computers. "How do you spell blah-blah-blah?" Sometimes the answer was: "Go look it up."

I never understood the logic. Unless you are trying to teach someone how to lookup a word they don't know... for when they don't have anyone around to ask.

In other words... the "Go look it up" answer is generally given by people that are being lazy. Unless they claim to be self appointed "teachers" who are trying to teach someone how to look something up for when nobody else is around. (But since it is the internet that lesson is kind of pointless; making them look silly.)

Although I DO admit that I sometimes get a bit short tempered when I see the 50th post asking the same question over a short period of time. "Read headers people. No searching required!"

This is all similar to the self appointed grammar and spelling correctors. (Although I can't stand the l337 speak or walls of text with no punctuation. Walls of text are more dangerous than Gazebos. Yeah... go look it up.)

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 11:50 AM

You need root rights to alter the config files of privoxy on the N800. (search for 'becomeroot' on this board :p )
I did it sometime ago, but haven't got the time to look into it now.
It wasn't that hard though.

Maybe someone else can provide the needed info?

I've already got root access (My N800 is in r&d mode). I'll install an ssh server when I get home on my network. It'll be easier to fiddle with config files from my desktop pc.

Frankowitz

11-15-2007, 11:53 AM

[off topic alarm]
Well, I answered the original question a few times already. So I thought a short 'Privoxy...' will get him going. The other option was not to answer at all.
If someone is capable of using a N800 he sure can find Privoxy on this board or the next...
[/off topic alarm]

Faz

11-15-2007, 11:55 AM

What the majority of "search and you shall find" people don't always get is that one person can search for something for days, but if they aren't looking for the exact same thing someone who knows the answer would, they don't always find the right answer...

Now having said that, I'm not saying you CANNOT find the answer EVENTUALLY, but its just as easy to answer the question sometimes than to suggest someone search in a rude manner...

I am also not saying one shouldn't try to find the answer themselves, nor should they expect to be babied, but people need to understand not all answers are easy to find...

lets not turn this into a flame war, but let us all try to be friends and make this community better for ALL, theres no sense in being rude to those that are new, and acting as if you are better than everyone else just because you figured something out that someone else is struggling with...

Well put Jason!

If there's already a good thread on the subject a link to this is all that's often required, maybe adding a "found this by searching..." This is much more productive than just a "search it" response, as we're pointing each other in the right direction and advising on search criteria used.

As you said we should all remain focused on the positive and friendly community spirit that has shaped this forum into what it is today. And I hear Reggie has helped a little too! :rolleyes:

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 11:56 AM

I'm not really the right person to throw the word "privoxy" at :) I loathe the program. It's unnecessarily complicated and unfriendly. I'm only putting the effort in for it on the N800 because there's nothing else available.

In an ideal world Privoxy would shrivel up and never bother me again but we don't always get what we want :D

I would appreciate it if you could try to remember what you did to turn off those messages though. If I turn off fit to width Eurogamer becomes useable again but I'd rather ditch them altogether. Pretty please :o

Frankowitz

11-15-2007, 12:04 PM

I would appreciate it if you could try to remember what you did to turn off those messages though. If I turn off fit to width Eurogamer becomes useable again but I'd rather ditch them altogether.

I will look into it.

Pretty please :o

The're no need for that, I was just busy earlier, hence my (very) short initial answer. I thought it would get you going. Later I had to explain it was a search proposal, but my initial answer was not meant to be rude in any way.

;)

Frankowitz

11-15-2007, 01:37 PM

OK. First let's look what's getting blocked on eurogamer:

http://195.157.98.219/adframe.php?n=ab7bf18e&zoneid=13
and
http://195.157.98.219/adframe.php?n=a8bf5003&zoneid=14.

Which are ads. I think that's a good thing. All else is displayed fine on my device.
As this is standard behavior, I don't think we can do something about that.

basco

11-15-2007, 01:39 PM

The search was on Greasemonkey. If you find my personal way of being helpful "insulting", then it's best we both do without it.

Whats easier, posting the link and being helpfull or telling someone to do a search?

GeneralAntilles

11-15-2007, 01:53 PM

GeneralAntilles

11-15-2007, 01:54 PM

Whats easier, posting the link and being helpfull or telling someone to do a search?

(I speak from experience here) Telling someone to do a search. ;)

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 02:01 PM

iball

11-15-2007, 02:08 PM

There's always a modified hosts (http://everythingisnt.com/hosts) to stop it before you download it, and the ad-blocking CSS (http://www.floppymoose.com/userContent.css) will generally improve flow and get some ads that the hosts file misses.

These solutions are pretty brain-dead, so they're basically failure-proof, and don't require mucking around with privoxy (which was entirely too crashtastic the last time I tried it).

I've NEVER had Privoxy "crash" on me and I've used it pretty much non-stop for almost two years now, upgrading it along the way. So far the most recent "stable" version is dated 2006 and I'm using it on my N800 w/OS2008, MacBook Pro with OS X 10.4.11, and Vista laptop installed as a service with ZERO problems.
On Eurogamer it blocks....THE ADS! Which was the point of Privoxy anyway. If it's crashing on you then your machine is doing something out of the ordinary.
On Penny-Arcade with the N800 I've noticed that if you have "fit to width" enabled on any browser (micro-b, opera, OS2008-mozilla) then the blocked ad kind of forces you to scroll a lot, but once you set it to normal page width that problem goes away.
What I do NOT like about the OS2008 browser is that when you set "fit to width" on one window it forces it across all the other web browser windows. OS2007 thankfully didn't do that. Some pages I like "set to width" (forums, etc.) but for most of them I don't.

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 02:12 PM

There's always a modified hosts (http://everythingisnt.com/hosts) to stop it before you download it, and the ad-blocking

The first thing I did was setup an adblocking host file. Unfortunately that's a bit high on the crude-o-meter and in this case the hosts file seemed unable to block stuff that quite clearly was present in the file. Most notably the rather large ad on the right hand side of Reddit.com. Oddly enough this method had always worked with Opera under OS2007 (Although doing it with Opera raised another set of problems that I'm pleased I don't have to run into again).

I'm happy enough with Privoxy so far though. At the moment Eurogamer seems to be the only site on my regular browse list that has this rather weird problem so I'm not terribly worried for now if I can't solve it.

It does concern me somewhat that Microb has no method of blocking images from user definable sites. In my opinion this is a very important feature on a system that an awful lot of people will be using from low bandwidth connections. Heavy ad use on websites is a big killer when it comes to the mobile web experience. It would be nice to have a way built into the system of blocking content that's not wanted. Either through a simple blocklist system built into Microb by default or by someone porting something more powerful like Adblock plus.

While privoxy works it's definately overkill for what the average user needs and if the user does need to change something it's going to be almost impossible to give them support here on this forum if they don't have the technical knowledge to enable root access and hand edit config files. I have no problem with it. I went straight in and enabled access to the web configuration tools but even I have to struggle to figure out what to turn on and off. As mentioned earlier by default this config of Privoxy turns all cookies into sessions cookies which is going to confuse the hell out of some people :)

We definately need something simpler to use, configure and maintain. I could always use Firefox on my eeePC (Running Ubuntu and with full access to my BTDUN connection) but the form factor of my N800 (And soon my N810) is far superior for a quick surf while waiting for a train :)

And I'm sure we're all for improving the mobile web experience ;)

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 02:14 PM

On Eurogamer it blocks....THE ADS! Which was the point of Privoxy anyway. If it's crashing on you then your machine is doing something out of the ordinary.

It's not crashing for anyone on Eurogamer. What it's doing is replacing the ads with a rather intrusive set of text and links that it doesn't seem to be doing with ads on every other site I've tested it with. I was just curious as to why.

iball

11-15-2007, 02:41 PM

It's not crashing for anyone on Eurogamer. What it's doing is replacing the ads with a rather intrusive set of text and links that it doesn't seem to be doing with ads on every other site I've tested it with. I was just curious as to why.

That's not Privoxy, that's the site. It depends on EXACTLY what Privoxy is blocking.
If it's a lazy-assed web developer who used nothing more than an inline frameset pulling a "page" from another site or rotating ad directory then you're going to get that text. If it's something else Privoxy tends to "crunch!" it and make it like it was never there.
Either way, it's not Privoxy's fault, it's the fault of the lazy web developer who built the site. Eurogamer has some pretty piss-poor site design going for it. I wouldn't put it on my resume if I was a web dev looking for a job.

Tuxedosteve

11-15-2007, 02:52 PM

That's not Privoxy, that's the site. It depends on EXACTLY what Privoxy is blocking.

Eurogamer is putting up a message that says "Privoxy blocked <site> See why or Go there anyway" I don't think you meant it to sound like that.

Privoxy must be putting up the message for a reason. I'm just curious to know why. It might indeed be the site doing something to trigger that behaviour in Privoxy but I for one would like to figure out what it is. Mainly because it's annoying and I want to make it stop.

You do realise that your posts come across as very angry for some reason? Am I doing something wrong by wondering why a program behaves in a certain way?

virx14

11-15-2007, 02:56 PM

I tried privoxy today (downloaded from http://eko.one.pl/maemo/dists/bora/user/binary-armel/privoxy_3.0.6-2_armel.deb), but disabled it for now. The main problem I had is that it was significantly increasing loading time for some sites and and did not work well with Ajax. For example: http://slickdeals.net - without privoxy it takes 5-10 seconds to render it, then when I click some deal, it takes 2 seconds to load just new frame without re-rendering the entire page. With privoxy enabled I get "connecting" message for 10 seconds, then it renders it 5-10 seconds and clicking on any deals makes browser reload the entire page.

DigitalNight

11-15-2007, 03:01 PM

The code on reddit that displays the ad is:

<iframe id="ad" src="http://reallystatic.reddit.com/static/ad_default.html" frameborder=0 scrolling=no height=300 width=300></iframe>
reallystatic.reddit.com is not in my hosts and it appears it is used elsewhere on the site so blocking that host may break the site. I use a combination hosts file and css. I use ad-blocking.css from Gozer.org (http://www.gozer.org/mozilla/ad_blocking/) and do not see the ad.

GeneralAntilles

11-15-2007, 03:02 PM

I've NEVER had Privoxy "crash" on me and I've used it pretty much non-stop for almost two years now, upgrading it along the way.

Perhaps. The only time I bothered to try it on the device was back when MicroB first came out, and it constantly needed restarting (making browsing completely impossible while it was down). This has probably changed, but the CSS/hosts setup works well enough for me on the NITs (and I have a smart browser to take care of it on OS X ;)).

The first thing I did was setup an adblocking host file. Unfortunately that's a bit high on the crude-o-meter and in this case the hosts file seemed unable to block stuff that quite clearly was present in the file.

I hate to bring up a stupid suggestion, but did you restart? :)