Adblocker

[borgward]

I am considering uBlock Origin instead of Adblock Plus to conserve CPU use. I have been using Adblock Plus. Wondering what the trade off is.

[MintyO]

Well trade off is that it's better. Seriously though, everything I read and my own experience with it tells me it is a way better adblocker (ublock origin).

Edited to add: uses the same easylist, and then some. Blocks way more efficiently in some add-heavy sites I use. Adblock plus started slipping for me with default settings and started accepting paid adds so I just thought it was time for a change.

[Flemur]

I tried ublock but it was unable to select and hide "elements" (anything that pops, blinks or moves!) which are easy to select and hide with adblock - so, back to adblock. People claim ublock uses less memory and such, but I've never seen any real data (doesn't mean it's not true).

[borgward]

I am trying uBlock Origin right now. I went to cnet (aka scourge of the Internet) it is consuming a lot less of the CPU. It was running the CPU at a solid 100% under Adblocker Plus. It still consumes too much. Will see how it goes.

[killer de bug]

a good addition to an adblocker is a host file. It blocks the ads even before they are downloaded on your computer.
See here how to install the best one out there:

2. Download and install a comprehensive hosts file to prevent access to many nefarious sites.

Code: Select all

$ sudo wget http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt --output-document=/etc/hosts
$ cat /etc/hostname
$ sudo nano -w /etc/hosts

Look for the first line as shown below then add the second line underneath it, replacing host.name with the name of your host, which you displayed with the cat /etc/hostname terminal command above:

Code: Select all

127.0.0.1  localhost
127.0.0.1  host.name

That's it, all done. Any site listed underneath the above two lines can now not be accessed from your computer. That means you avoid innumerable tracking, advertising and malware sites.

If you use the hosts file then it's a good idea to do the above step once a month to keep the hosts file up to date. mvps.org update the file regularly for your benefit.

Cheers.

[Flemur]

a good addition to an adblocker is a host file.

One problem with that is the lack of wildcards; look at their 100+ entries for xiti.com

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0.0.0.0 xiti.com
0.0.0.0 loga.xiti.com #[Tracking.Cookie]
0.0.0.0 logc1.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logc2.xiti.com
...
0.0.0.0 logc279.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logc400.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logi4.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logi5.xiti.com
...
0.0.0.0 logliberation.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logp.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logp2.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logs1285.xiti.com
...
0.0.0.0 logv1.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 logv2.xiti.com
...
0.0.0.0 logv145.xiti.com
0.0.0.0 www.xiti.com

They're not going to start using "logc280.xiti.com" or "logv146.xiti.com" ?

I moved all my hosts blocking to privoxy; the one line needed to block *.xiti.com is:
.xiti.com

[killer de bug]

I moved all my hosts blocking to privoxy;

I started to investigate this proxy, but I have not finished due to time constraints. I need to have a closer look at them. It's not something that comes as replacement of the host file. It's an addition. I am just wondering if this is useful when you use a VPN.

[gribevo]

I tried ublock but it was unable to select and hide "elements" (anything that pops, blinks or moves!) which are easy to select and hide with adblock - so, back to adblock.

I find this doubtful. You have a specific example(s) of this? For instance, uBlock hides the (supposedly tamper-proof) Facebook ads just fine, while ABP fails there.

[Flemur]

I tried ublock but it was unable to select and hide "elements" (anything that pops, blinks or moves!) which are easy to select and hide with adblock - so, back to adblock.

I find this doubtful. You have a specific example(s) of this? For instance, uBlock hides the (supposedly tamper-proof) Facebook ads just fine, while ABP fails there.

It's been a few months, but IIRC some of the things I wanted to block would disappear in 'select' mode, so couldn't be selected to be blocked; but no problem with adblock. I very rarely use facebook or twitter, so they're completely blocked in privoxy:

Code: Select all

.facebook.com
.facebook.net
.twitter.com
.twitter.net

About once a week or so I'll start the non-blocking ff profile to see something there.

[Flemur]

I started to investigate this proxy, but I have not finished due to time constraints. I need to have a closer look at them. It's not something that comes as replacement of the host file. It's an addition. I am just wondering if this is useful when you use a VPN.

privoxy works fine, takes a second for the service to start. It's easy to setup for browsers.

I dunno anything about VPN; "nethogs" shows privoxy and FF's plugin-container connecting to net, so I'm trying to get "plugin-container" to run thru privoxy...

[Flemur]

I find this doubtful. You have a specific example(s) of this?

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/two-ki ... -kirkland/
Try to block the bar immediately under the top row pic pictures; its text is "Trending Chicago Public Schools Crime Life on a Ledge" (the left side of the bar has a picture of the text CHICAGO SUN TIMES.)

The bar disappears, then reappears when you scroll down and back up. I'm also getting FF using 70-some % CPU while trying to type this...doesn't happen with adblock (which is uninstalled and deleted from this profile).

[killer de bug]

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/two-ki ... -kirkland/
Try to block the bar immediately under the top row pic pictures; its text is "Trending Chicago Public Schools Crime Life on a Ledge" (the left side of the bar has a picture of the text CHICAGO SUN TIMES.)

I have ublock and don't see this.
Try installing Noscript and Disconnect or Privacy Badger.

[gribevo]

The bar disappears, then reappears when you scroll down and back up. I'm also getting FF using 70-some % CPU while trying to type this...doesn't happen with adblock (which is uninstalled and deleted from this profile).

I can see the bar reappearing -- it seems to be a special case not being handled, it usually works just fine. It does disappear for good if reloading the page though, so not a major issue -- at least no justifying sacrificing all the other advantages. Just like with ABP, issues should be reported on the project issue tracker.

I did not get the "70-some % CPU" on my side, all was normal.