Raspberry Pi As an Ad Blocking Access Point 82
coop0030 writes "Adafruit has a new tutorial that will show you how to use your Raspberry Pi as a WiFi access point that blocks ads by default for any devices using it. This is really neat in that it would work for your Android or iOS device, your Xbox 360, TiVo, laptop, and more without needing to customize any of those devices other than to use your Raspberry Pi as the access point for WiFi. Using an ad-blocker can be useful for conserving bandwidth, helping out low-power devices, or for keeping your sanity while browsing the web!"
Or you can just run privoxy (Score:4, Informative)
Privoxy [privoxy.org] can remove a lot more than just ads served from a given domain/server. It can remove ads served by the same domain/server as the source website, as well as a number of other features that make it pretty nice for speeding up browsing on devices that don't have ad/javascript blockers.
Use RPZ! / Why Google PDNS / 4.4.4.4 is not GPDNS (Score:4, Informative)
Instead of shoving a list of addresses into a DNS server (dnsmasq) in this case, it would be better to use RPZ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_policy_zone)....
Next to that:
> Open the file with sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf and replace the contents with the following:
> nameserver 192.168.42.49
> nameserver 8.8.8.8
> nameserver 4.4.4.4
192.168.42.49 = apparently the address of the fake webserver (would be great if they configured that somewhere before making test queries....)
8.8.8.8 = Google Public DNS, no ads maybe but running all your DNS queries through Google is not helping much now does it.
4.4.4.4 = is not a valid DNS server, likely they meant 8.8.4.4 which is the secondary Google Public DNS address.
If you have a DNSmasq anyway, just let it recurse and play caching resolver, much better idea.
> iface wlan0 inet static
> address 192.168.42.1
> netmask 255.255.255.0
> post-up ip addr add dev wlan0 192.168.42.49/24
One just has to wonder which IP the box will be using for outgoing queries, depends a lot on the kernel.... .1 would always be chosen, but as a /24 magical things will happen
Now if that was 192.168.42.49/32 the
Etoomanypitholes and lots of people will be bitten.
On a WGR614 v6? (Score:5, Informative)
Why not do this in the router itself and save a little bit of power?
Because not everybody's home router 1. is easily customized and 2. has enough memory. I've read that my seven-year-old NETGEAR WGR614 v6 doesn't have enough flash for DD-WRT, and some people don't want to bother soldering, and some other routers are tivoized not to run an unapproved kernel. If I were to replace it with newer hardware, what make and model of home router would you recommend for no more than the price of a Raspberry Pi?
Re:On a WGR614 v6? (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, you're right.
But then there's the obvious counter-argument: Not everyone has a Rasberry Pi and a spare USB WiFi NIC kicking around, either.
You didn't set the bar very high, did you?
From adafruit:
$39.95 Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB RAM
$9.95 Adafruit Pi Case- Enclosure for Raspberry Pi Model A or B
$11.95 Miniature WiFi (802.11b/g/n) Module: For Raspberry Pi and more
$5.95 5V 1A (1000mA) USB port power supply - UL Listed
$7.95 SD/MicroSD Memory Card (4 GB SDHC)
== $75.75. Adding first-class USPS shipping (to Ohio) adds another $5.18.
That's a grand total of $80.93 to get enough RaspPi to build an access point (some assembly required). (And you still need an Ethernet cable, and a USB cable for power.)
Or, for $50 [amazon.com], shipping included you can get the venerable Linksys WRT54GL. Comes pre-assembled with everything you need except third-party software, which is it is widely compatible with.
For a few dollars more than a pile of Raspberry Pi kit, you can also get an Asus RT-N16. It's a beastly little router for the price, and has a gigabit switch built-in along with 802.11n (2.4GHz only, sadly). It's about as compatible with third-party firmware as the WRT54GL.
They're currently going for about $84 [amazon.com], shipping included. Also comes pre-assembled with everything needed except software.