How to filter ads on your G1

delta_foxtrot2 · May 4, 2009

Wow, half the comments on the Market about app are complete whiners and people wonder why free apps are disappearing from the Market, maybe it's to stop the irrelevant comments.

In any case new version up that allows you to easily revert your hosts file to just have localhost.

nyayo99 · May 4, 2009

delta_foxtrot2 said:
New version of AdFree is now up, I have the app adding the admob hostnames to the bottom of the list.

Great job! Thanks!

delta_foxtrot2 · May 4, 2009

If you want extra URLs added you'll need to report them to the guy from mvps.org, the app doesn't store the list but downloads it on request.

Visit http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm for more information etc.

shaneaus · May 4, 2009

AWESOME AP! Thank you!

Don't listen to the whiners! They are just too ignorant (ignorant - lack of knowledge - not an insult, necessarily) to know any better!

Thanks for making this app and helping out. It isn't only the major ROM cookers who make xda-dev such a great resource. It is also people like you who make really great apps that others didn't think of or don't know how to make!

delta_foxtrot2 · May 4, 2009

shaneaus said:
Don't listen to the whiners! They are just too ignorant (ignorant - lack of knowledge - not an insult, necessarily) to know any better!

I'm just wondering how many devs added a 99c price tag just to shut the idiots up though, same old thing a small few ruining it for the rest of us.

mannyb · May 4, 2009

delta_foxtrot2 said:
Wow, half the comments on the Market about app are complete whiners and people wonder why free apps are disappearing from the Market, maybe it's to stop the irrelevant comments.

In any case new version up that allows you to easily revert your hosts file to just have localhost.

Good job mate, I'm loving this. Even though "host edits" is a "primitive" way of blocking ads, it's the best we've got at the moment.

And I agree, I think the Market whiners are reason many developers decide to "go paid", I can definitely understand the reasoning. It just sucks for people outside the handful paid app enabled countries.

delta_foxtrot2 · May 4, 2009

mannyb said:
Good job mate, I'm loving this. Even though "host edits" is a "primitive" way of blocking ads, it's the best we've got at the moment.

I'm not sure it's that primitive though, doing it at the OS level, which is written in C, should (in theory) be a lot faster than adding extra java code to do the same thing. The down side of course is you need root.

delta_foxtrot2 · May 4, 2009

New version up, instead of using wget from the command line to download the hosts file it pulls it in itself and then just moves it on the command line, hopefully those running stock ADP1.5 won't have any more problems now, but without a little more help/feedback from those having problems I'm guessing and they're whining about it not working etc.

delta_foxtrot2 · May 5, 2009

According to comments on the Market, some people think and icon/polish would be good, but since this app is mostly single use, or redundent if the hosts file gets packaged in some of the builds I doubt polishing up the interface would be of much use.

Although it could probably do with a better icon and since I suck at graphics would anyone care to donate something or know of a decent one that is royality free etc?

delta_foxtrot2 · May 5, 2009

Also for anyone running ADP 1.5 (I assume the google build) that is failing can you try and do these steps manually, either via 'adb shell' or using the terminal app:

Code:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
wget -O /sdcard/hosts http://209.68.48.119/winhelp2002/hosts.txt
cp /sdcard/hosts /system/etc/hosts
rm /sdcard/hosts
mount -o remount,ro /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

mannyb · May 5, 2009

delta_foxtrot2 said:
I'm not sure it's that primitive though, doing it at the OS level, which is written in C, should (in theory) be a lot faster than adding extra java code to do the same thing. The down side of course is you need root.

I think I worded it poorly, and just to clarify; it was in no way meant to diminish the work you do with AdFree. I do love this app.

What I meant was rather that host file blocks are rather blunt, as you block on a per domain basis, not on a per image/element basis, like Adblock Plus for Firefox.

delta_foxtrot2 · May 5, 2009

mannyb said:
I think I worded it poorly, and just to clarify; it was in no way meant to diminish the work you do with AdFree. I do love this app.

I knew you weren't talking about the app, however....

What I meant was rather that host file blocks are rather blunt, as you block on a per domain basis, not on a per image/element basis, like Adblock Plus for Firefox.

Yea but regex filtering is expensive in terms of CPU, and on small devices which you are trying to get the most battery life from as well I still tend to think this is the better option.

mannyb · May 5, 2009

delta_foxtrot2 said:
According to comments on the Market, some people think and icon/polish would be good, but since this app is mostly single use, or redundent if the hosts file gets packaged in some of the builds I doubt polishing up the interface would be of much use.

Although it could probably do with a better icon and since I suck at graphics would anyone care to donate something or know of a decent one that is royality free etc?

Will this one do?

mannyb · May 5, 2009

delta_foxtrot2 said:
Yea but regex filtering is expensive in terms of CPU, and on small devices which you are trying to get the most battery life from as well I still tend to think this is the better option.

That is a very good point. I'm sure there will be Adblock Plus like apps for Android sooner or later, but the CPU/battery issue is definitely a concern.

delta_foxtrot2 · May 5, 2009

mannyb said:
Will this one do?

Looks great, will update the binary to include it...

delta_foxtrot2 · May 5, 2009

mannyb said:
That is a very good point. I'm sure there will be Adblock Plus like apps for Android sooner or later, but the CPU/battery issue is definitely a concern.

I wonder if google is going to allow/code for plugins in the browser, because no matter how slow java code is, if they do it in the same way as firefox with javascript it will chew even more battery/CPU which would possibly slow browsing down, while it chews through the URL list etc.

I still think in this case blocking by hosts file is the best option, desktop computers on the other hand run mostly idle so it doesn't matter as much.

gurugabe · May 6, 2009

adfree updates

How often is the hosts file updated? Why can I get it to work through terminal, but when I update hosts file through app it cannot replace hosts file. Doesn't appear to work on all ads just yet, but I'm sure it will soon.

delta_foxtrot2 · May 7, 2009

gurugabe said:
How often is the hosts file updated? Why can I get it to work through terminal, but when I update hosts file through app it cannot replace hosts file. Doesn't appear to work on all ads just yet, but I'm sure it will soon.

You need to report any URIs for ads to the guy that owns the link on the first post.

The more linkls reported etc the less ads you'll see.

delta_foxtrot2 · May 7, 2009

Someone sent in a request to update the hosts file rather than replace it, but they followed up by saying could the hosts file from http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?showintro=0;hostformat=hosts be used as well.

I'll release an update shortly that takes advantage of both lists, about 17,100 URLs in total.

lyingit · May 7, 2009

I just updated to your latest, and I'm getting a 'failed to remount system partition read-write' error.

Have root, running jf's 1.5

How to filter ads on your G1

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