Add lightweight ad-blocking to the proxy about algo HOT 7 CLOSED

One employee suggested using Privoxy as a local proxy, only accessible after authenticating over the VPN, to strip out and block ads: https://www.privoxy.org/

It's possible to put Privoxy inline with Squid, Apache, or Nginx to act as a caching web proxy too. What do you think about this as a solution as compared to a local DNS resolver?

If we use a proxy, rather than a local DNS resolver, this would give users the ability to "opt-in" to ad blocking and compression. If they don't use the proxy in their configuration, then all of their traffic will pass through the VPN untouched. If they do use the proxy, then they get the ad blocking, compression, and caching features.

from algo.

Openwrt has excellent adblock package - https://gist.github.com/teffalump/7227752
I can use their URLs with lists of AD sites and implement such solution in our system

from algo.

I reviewed our available options and I think the best strategy is to setup an HTTP proxy with Privoxy. Later, we can ship a local certificate authority to the client to intercept HTTPS.

Pros

• Able to inspect page contents for ads and other junk
• Users can turn on and off the proxy while retaining access to the VPN
• Able to add other proxies inline, for example a caching web proxy w/ nginx
• Privoxy comes with its own blocklists

Cons

• Greater memory and CPU usage
• No ability to inspect HTTPS until we ship a local certificate authority
• Extra configuration required by the client to turn on the proxy

from algo.

Also we can provide a PAC script, how do you think?

from algo.

Sure, that would be helpful.

from algo.

Also, I would like to suggest to use the DNS based ad blocking system, because It will work with https and clients don't need to configure proxy settings in their browsers

from algo.

Can you create the playbook for dns-based ad blocking, then make it optional to install it? Allow the user to select yes or no during setup.

from algo.