Adaway: Does not update

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon:

I'm contacting you since Adaway doesn't update me:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

Puts unknown update status

A hug and thanks for your help and time

[PerfectSlayer]

Hi @gallegonovato

The _unknown_ status does mean it does not update but the app is not able to retrieve the last update date of the file. So it applies it everytime.

On which app version are you? Because GitHub source should be supported.

Regards

[gallegonovato]

Good morning @PerfectSlayer:

First of all thank you very much for your help, attention and time.

Adaway is on version 4.3.2 which is the last one to be released on fdroid.

Then I have lineages in a Nexus 6p with its last official update. Magisk same

Thank you very much for your help.

A hug.

[PerfectSlayer]

I ran the unit test about the GitHub workaround to extract the date of the latest commit and it worked fine.

I also have the same behavior when I try it on my device. Then I wait or restart the app and it displays the right information: _up-to-date for 1 day_.

I need to investigate with my ide and a test device... Thanks for the report!

_EDIT:_ When the hosts file is installed from a new source, I didn't check the last update time. So the app can't compute the current state even if it is well installed.
But when your check for update, even after a first install, it will fetch the last update time and display the right status (up-to-date for x days).

Can you confirm the correct status is display after you check for hosts updates? (from home or by killing relaunching the app)

[PerfectSlayer]

So here is the new behavior when there is no last online update known date (ie the app can't find the last time the hosts source was updated):

Then, if this time is found, it goes back to the usual status:

I hope it's fine to you! 👍

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @PerfectSlayer:

First of all I apologize for taking so long to respond and thank you for your help.

Yes, the host was always installed. Except for that host's website. But for example I tried it a few minutes ago, and Adaway put me the arrows in blue that there were new hosts. I gave him to install and restart the phone as he always does when there are new host updates. And that link kept putting me the same, and in the meantime I got another link with the same message.

What I did was run the Lte cleanner and reboot the phone. And I gave it to Adaway again to check for updates. And she's already putting me right underneath the time. More specifically, that link puts me down for one day.

So I think that's solved the problem. I'll keep investigating and if it comes back to it I'll tell you.

But now it seems to be going well. The only thing I can think of is that the websites had saturation or something. But when I clicked on the link, I wondered if the website would be OK. So I can't tell you exactly what was going on.

If you remember, previously (in a previous version) they didn't load or failed the links of that type. And you confirmed that it was a failure of Adaway. And you released an update.

But now the bug seems to have been fixed.

Thank you very much for your help and your time.

Please receive a warm hug

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @PerfectSlayer

I'm having trouble with Adaway again.

Now the one that's not going is:

https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt (this site in the browser does not load) and when it loads it puts error 404.

Y

https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?hostformat=hosts&showintro=0&mimetype=plaintext puts me Need update for -37 minutes

On the first website it seems to me that now malwarebyte gave that host without being service. To offer their own application apparently in https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/256701-what-happened-to-hphosts-website/?tab=comments#comment-1370003 and even the problem also in ublock that is giving https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/fsgy4b/hphosts_ad_and_tracking_servers_link_down/ or what they say in the topic of github ublock https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/fsgy4b/hphosts_ad_and_tracking_servers_link_down/

Attached are screenshots for you to see:

https://ibb.co/YfBhDrS

https://ibb.co/NSh1NL3

https://ibb.co/R25bJjb

I don't know if you can help me with this problem.

Since you're always looking for and installing hosts for these websites

Receive a warm hug

[PerfectSlayer]

Hello again @gallegonovato

There is two different issues:

1. https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt is down. @jawz101 are you aware of this? Is it an issue for the future?
2. The negative time (-37 minutes) should be a timezone error. I will check about it ;)

Thanks!

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @PerfectSlayer

Thank you for your help and time.

In an attempt now in the afternoon I managed to update those two host links. Attached is a screenshot for you to see:

https://ibb.co/p2JjwFv

Take away adaway's options to check for updates automatically. Because of the downed host that you comment on so that you don't give an error. Until you tell me.

What I don't understand is what you say if it's a mistake for the future. I don't understand this question.

I have the time on my mobile phone at 20:25, gmt +2 Central European Summer Time. Since I live in Spain. And the date 1 April 2020

I don't know if you can influence that there are more access permissions to the servers. Because people are at home, with teleworking and so on. Because of this pandemic that affects us. And because of that there can be problems depending on the creator of the host (the link of that host) has it hosted. Thus affecting Adaway?.

Any other error, I'll point out and help this great app. As far as I can help, here I am.

If you agree and it's not a problem.

Receive a warm hug.

[jawz101]

1. jawz101

@PerfectSlayer I don't know why it would matter for me about hphosts being down?

[PerfectSlayer]

Hi @jawz101 I hope you're going well on your side.

hphosts being down means one of the default hosts file of the app is no more.
Does it decrease the efficiency of the app or do the hostnames of this file are already covered in yours?

I just ask about your thoughts on this 😉

[jawz101]

Oh. IMO no it doesn't. It's a great list but most lists are for desktop browsing.

I run pfBlocker on my firewall at home and tested maybe 75 or so lists out there and whittled my favs Steven Black and hphosts ads. Pfb let's me see list overlap, set list order, and view hits per list. With mine, StevenBlack, and HPHosts in that order, the MobileAdTrackers got hit the most, then StevenBlack picked up the stragglers that were more from non-mobile traffic, and maybe none or just a few would hit from hph.

If it's online I'd keep it in the defaults but if it isn't I would think StevenBlack's list really does well. And if it ever comes back up I would keep hph just because I think they are more responsive to list changes so it likely catches more new stuff than some others.

Regardless, I'm a typical American which may represent a set of domains that only one demographic uses.

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @PerfectSlayer:

Today without realizing it my wife updated the Adaway lists.

And the website that is down puts me status of the update unknown. And that yesterday I got it to load (in the image I attached yesterday you could see)

But there's no way now.

Does this mean that those files are integrated in the host or that I lost the ones on that website?

I don't know if he knows of another one to put in his place and be more protected.

Receive a warm hug and thank you for your time and help

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @PerfectSlayer @jawz101

First of all, thank you for your help and time. And I hope you are well in these times we are living.

Lea wanted to ask a question if I may, about host to replace the one that doesn't work

I've been looking and I don't know if they would recommend me to replace the link that these don't go:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jawz101/MobileAdTrackers/master/hosts

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EnergizedProtection/block/master/unified/formats/hosts

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

Then the ones Steven Black has at https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/blob/master/readme.md (here I don't know if they could all be)

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Maji78/Antigoogle/master/Hosts

https://gitlab.com/Jorgu81/hosts/raw/master/Mozilla

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Maji78/Antigoogle/master/Tor

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/FFCK/master/docs/HOSTS/Mozilla-HOSTS.txt

I don't know how you feel about those hosts...

Receive a warm hug and thank you for your time and help

[jawz101]

@gallegonovato

My MobileAdTrackers list _is_ now Adaway's list. If anything, it's a little less up-to-date because I don't copy the changes from Adaway to MATS that often.

Energized Protection's tiniest list is basically StevenBlack Unified + MobileAdTrackers.

Now that MobileAdTrackers was moved into the Adaway list, and Adaway has always been an upstream list in StevenBlack's Unified, just use StevenBlack's Unified List (it's the basic one that just says ads + malware)

The only list that's worth using, IMO, is StevenBlack's. If you just want to target Mobile ads and you have an ad blocker for your mobile browser, the Adaway list is the tiniest.

As for those Google and Mozilla blocklists, to me they look insane. It looks like they would break Firefox Sync logins, Firefox addon updates, pieces of Google Play Services, Qualcomm's fine location services on your phone, Google time servers, web OCSP servers,... stuff that I think serves purposes. If you don't want to connect to these things, you can likely just uncheck a preference on your phone or browser and stop the connections from even happening in the first place. Firefox has a document that says "uncheck these settings if you don't want your browser to make some of its own connections."

[PerfectSlayer]

Thanks for your heads up @jawz101

The only list that's worth using, IMO, is StevenBlack's. If you just want to target Mobile ads and you have an ad blocker for your mobile browser, the Adaway list is the tiniest.

Would you recommend to replace hphosts by StevenBlack's one?
If so, I will update the default hosts of the app.
Otherwise, should I just remove it (with no replacement)?

[jawz101]

I guess I would replace HPHosts with StevenBlack.

While the Adaway list by itself is mobile specific (eg games with video ads and such), StevenBlack will catch more of your webpage-based ad domains that may not necessarily have mobile app-based code. If that makes sense.

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @jawz101 @PerfectSlayer

Thank you very much for your time and your response.

What I don't see is where your MobileAdTrackers list is on the adaway.

And forgive my ignorance, but I don't understand when you say OMI...

After the StevenBlack website https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/blob/master/readme.md at the bottom where it says Unified Host Data Sources in this variant would you put one?

Then speaking of Energy Protection, would you put one, the most complete one, for example?

I don't know if you could recommend me some host addresses and then I have seen that there are anti NSA lists, like : https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/NSABlocklist/master/HOSTS/HOSTS . I don't know if you know of any better or more complete ones?

Also, if you could tell us which lists of hosts you and @PerfectSlayer are using, it would be very helpful to users and would be appreciated by us.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. And I appreciate all your time and help.

Thank you very much for everything and get a warm hug

[PerfectSlayer]

A quick follow up: StevenBlack host is going to replace hpHost

See https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/pull/1218

[jawz101]

@gallegonovato The message about the Adaway change is on the readme: https://github.com/jawz101/MobileAdTrackers

IMO is short for "in my opinion". Sorry for the confusion.

This one is the Steven Black list I'm talking about:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

on the readme it is called "Unified hosts = (adware + malware)"

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @PerfectSlayer and @jawz101

Thank you very much for your help and for being there. And for your help and time.

I have added to my Adaway https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jawz101/MobileAdTrackers/master/hosts and Steven's I will add it either automatically or in an upcoming update?

Ah... sorry I didn't know what imo was. Like they say where I'm from, you never go to bed without knowing something new.

So, speaking of Energy Protection, would you put one in your adaway? I mean, would you recommend that I put one?

Then I've seen that there are anti-NSA lists, like this one from Chef-kok: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/NSABlocklist/master/HOSTS/HOSTS . I don't know if you know of any better or more complete ones.

Also, if you could tell us what host lists you are using in your adaway and @PerfectSlayer in your adaway, it would be very useful for users and would be appreciated. Or if you could recommend us some to put in our adaway, I would be very grateful.

Sorry for the inconvenience. And I appreciate all your time and help.

Thank you very much for everything and receive a warm hug

[jawz101]

So, speaking of Energy Protection, would you put one in your adaway? I mean, would you recommend that I put one?

Not necessary.

Steven Black contains Adaway(formerly MobileAdTrackers)

Energized Spark = Steven Black + MobileAdTrackers

Therefore Energized Spark is now = to Steven Black

Since Energized Spark is now = Steven Black, it's really not necessary.

However, if you are using one of Energized's larger combination lists, then yes, you could add Energized Ultimate or whatever to your sources. I just think the large lists with 1 million entries are overkill but it's up to you.

Personally, if any list is used, at most I actually may only encounter 2000-3000 of the entries in it. Like there are really only a few hundred common ads & trackers and maybe a few thousand more that are unique to what websites you browse, what devices or mobile apps you use.

[gallegonovato]

Good afternoon @jawz101 and @PerfectSlayer

Thank you very much for your help and time.

I've seen anti-NSA lists, like this one from Chef-kok: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/NSABlocklist/master/HOSTS/HOSTS . I don't know if you know of any better or more complete ones and if I would recommend putting them on my adaway.

Also, if you could tell me what host lists you are using on your adaway, it would be very useful for users and would be greatly appreciated. Or if you could recommend us some to put in our adaway, I would be very grateful.

Sorry for the inconvenience. And I appreciate all your time and help.

Thank you very much for everything and get a hug

[jawz101]

@gallegonovato this issue is closed but I have to say that some idea to block the NSA with a list of domains to block is silly. Just looking over that list, it includes a bunch of arbitrary webpages. My state's website is listed. Universities are listed. The sites to get Social Security, health insurance, or Medicare are listed. The National Library of Medicine and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration(aka the weather site)? Oh come on. I have no idea what you would use that list unless you wanted to prevent someone from living in America.

I guess if you didn't live in America it would be innocuous: a bunch of useless blocks because you'll never encounter most of them. But it seems unjustifiable.

Also, if you could tell me what host lists you are using on your adaway, it would be very useful for users and would be greatly appreciated. Or if you could recommend us some to put in our adaway, I would be very grateful.

I keep saying StevenBlack and/or the default Adaway list is enough.