How do I block ads on YouTube?

[prateek33]

curl 'http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=$APPID$&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More' | grep -Po "r\d+---sn-.+.googlevideo.com" >> $FILE

To get more subdomains from Wolfram, add this after line 16
Replace $APPID$ with your AppId from Wolfram https://developer.wolframalpha.com/portal/signin.html

[Sergeant_Salz]

@prateek33

curl ‘http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=$APPID$&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More ’

| grep -Eo “r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com” >> $FILE

I think you missed a \ after the curl, also I used ' insted of ’ dont know if that matters though.

curl 'http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=$APPID$&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More' \

| grep -Eo “r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com” >> $FILE

[RamSet]

@prateek33

| grep -Eo “r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com”

this does not send anything to the file.

(i do have a Wolfram ID for the app. The curl command does pull information)

[prateek33]

| grep -Eo "r\d+---sn-.+.googlevideo.com" >> $FILE

copy pasting removed the 3 '-' after the '+'

[RamSet]

sudo curl "http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=MYAPPID&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More 5" | sudo grep -Eo "r\d+---sn-.+.googlevideo.com" >> /tmp/bla.txt

bla.txt is blank

(I do have the corrected grep command - seems to auto truncate when pasting here)

[prateek33]

Switch grep -Eo with grep -Po .. -E flag doesn't work in raspbian for me for -P does

[RamSet]

That did the trick. Thank you.

[ErikFontanel]

nice, thanks

[hernandito]

Hi Guys,

I have Pi-hole in an Ubuntu Server. I am trying this script. I added the lines:

sudo curl 'http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=R#######8&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More'

| sudo grep -Eo “r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com” >> /etc/pihole/youtube

I get this error in command line:

</queryresult>youtube.sh: line 21: syntax error near unexpected token `|' youtube.sh: line 21: `| sudo grep -Eo “r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com” >> etc/pihole/youtube
hernando@pihole:~$  syntax error near unexpected token `|'

There is a file in /etc/pihole.youtube.hosts

It contains lines like this:

r5.snoguesnzz.googlevideo.com
r4---sn-nx5e6n76.googlevideo.com
r3---sn-nx57yn76.googlevideo.com
r9---sn-n8v7zn76.googlevideo.com

Can someone please help me.

If this means it's working, how can I check in the Pi-hole web GUI that these are being blocked?

Thank you. I love my Pi-Hole.

[ParadisoVia]

@hernandito

Hi Guys,

I have Pi-hole in an Ubuntu Server. I am trying this script. I added the lines:

sudo curl 'http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=R#######8&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More'

| sudo grep -Eo “r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com” >> /etc/pihole/youtube

I get this error in command line:

</queryresult>youtube.sh: line 21: syntax error near unexpected token `|' youtube.sh: line 21: `| sudo grep -Eo “r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com” >> etc/pihole/youtube
hernando@pihole:~$  syntax error near unexpected token `|'

There is a file in /etc/pihole.youtube.hosts

It contains lines like this:

r5.snoguesnzz.googlevideo.com
r4---sn-nx5e6n76.googlevideo.com
r3---sn-nx57yn76.googlevideo.com
r9---sn-n8v7zn76.googlevideo.com

Can someone please help me.

If this means it's working, how can I check in the Pi-hole web GUI that these are being blocked?

Thank you. I love my Pi-Hole.

Hey, I had the same problem but following Sergeant_Salz's advice, adding a \ to the end of the first line fixed it for me.

curl 'http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=$APPID$&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More' \

Not sure how to test if the script worked however.

[lpuerto]

Thanks a lot to @ErikFontanel for the script!

However, I had to do some modifications, some of then suggested in this tread, to make it work, at least partially.

This is what I did:

#!/bin/sh
# This script will fetch the Googlevideo ad domains and append them to the Pi-hole block list.
# Run this script daily with a cron job (don't forget to chmod +x)
# More info here: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-block-ads-on-youtube/253/136

# File to store the YT ad domains
FILE=/etc/pihole/youtube.hosts

# Wolfram Alfa AppID
APPID=Your-AppID

# Fetch the list of domains, remove the ip's and save them
curl 'https://api.hackertarget.com/hostsearch/?q=googlevideo.com' \
| awk -F, 'NR>1{print $1}' \
| grep -vE "redirector|manifest" > $FILE

# Replace r*.sn*.googlevideo.com URLs to r*---sn-*.googlevideo.com
# and add those to the list too
curl "http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=${APPID}&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More" \
| grep -Po "r\d+---sn-.+.googlevideo.com" >> $FILE

# Scan log file for previously accessed domains
grep "^r*.googlevideo\.com" /var/log/pihole*.log \
| awk '{print $8}' \
| grep -vE "redirector|manifest" \
| sort | uniq >> $FILE

# Add to Pi-hole adlists if it's not there already
if ! grep $FILE < /etc/pihole/adlists.list; then echo "file://$FILE" >> /etc/pihole/adlists.list; fi; 

• I have to wrap wolframalpha's url in double quotes " because simple quoting ' broke the url and make it dysfunctional. It had something to do with the & characters in the middle of the url.
• As others suggested I changed grep -Eo "r\d±–sn-.+.googlevideo.com" to grep -Po "r\d+---sn-.+.googlevideo.com"
• I added the variable APPID so it's easier to add they wolframalpha's AppID
• Till there everything OK and seems that the $FILEgets more populated in each step. However, I can make the last step work. I mean If I run it on the CLI like below, test.txt is empty.

grep "^r*.googlevideo\.com" /var/log/pihole*.log \
| awk '{print $8}' \
| grep -vE "redirector|manifest" \
| sort | uniq >> test.txt

• So I guess the last part is not collecting urls from the log. Besides, I don't see any of the ones that are not blocked in my log in the final file.

On top of all of that I still see youtube ads and I've notice that there are other kind of .googlevideo.com subdomains with a ixhs suffix. I don't know if this mean something.

r9---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r5---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-j2is.googlevideo.com
r2---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r4---sn-aigzrn7z.googlevideo.com
r12---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r16---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r4---sn-5go7yn7l.googlevideo.com
r1---sn-5goeen76.googlevideo.com
r8---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r1---sn-a5mlrnel.googlevideo.com
r6---sn-5hne6nlr.googlevideo.com
r6---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r7---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r5---sn-5ualdn7z.googlevideo.com
r9---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r10---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r3---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r5---sn-i5heen7l.googlevideo.com
r14---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r10---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r16---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r4---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r9---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r2---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r3---sn-ab5sznlk.googlevideo.com
r6---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r7---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r11---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r4---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r10---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r11---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-j2is.googlevideo.com
r9---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r3---sn-5hne6n7s.googlevideo.com
r5---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r5---sn-5go7yne6.googlevideo.com
r12---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r10---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r5---sn-ab5szn76.googlevideo.com
r6---sn-vgqs7nlz.googlevideo.com
r11---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r1---sn-hp57ynel.googlevideo.com
r6---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r12---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r1---sn-vgqskn7l.googlevideo.com
r7---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r4---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com
r8---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-5goe.googlevideo.com
r1---sn-5go7yn7e.googlevideo.com

But I can't see any of those in my /etc/pihole/youtube.hosts file

Ideas?

[Chipster]

Try

grep "r*\.googlevideo\.com"

[lpuerto]

Now... it works perfectly!

Thanks!

[lpuerto]

I'm leave here the final script that worked for me after @Chipster suggestion.

#!/bin/sh
# This script will fetch the Googlevideo ad domains and append them to the Pi-hole block list.
# Run this script daily with a cron job (don't forget to chmod +x)
# More info here: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-block-ads-on-youtube/253/136

# File to store the YT ad domains
FILE=/etc/pihole/youtube.hosts

# Wolfram Alfa AppID
APPID=Your-AppID

# Fetch the list of domains, remove the ip's and save them
curl 'https://api.hackertarget.com/hostsearch/?q=googlevideo.com' \
| awk -F, 'NR>1{print $1}' \
| grep -vE "redirector|manifest" > $FILE

# Replace r*.sn*.googlevideo.com URLs to r*---sn-*.googlevideo.com
# and add those to the list too
curl "http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?input=googlevideo.com&appid=${APPID}&format=plaintext&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains&podstate=WebSiteStatisticsPod:InternetData__Subdomains_More" \
| grep -Po "r\d+---sn-.+.googlevideo.com" >> $FILE

# Scan log file for previously accessed domains
grep "r*\.googlevideo\.com" /var/log/pihole*.log \
| awk '{print $8}' \
| grep -vE "redirector|manifest" \
| sort | uniq >> $FILE

# Add to Pi-hole adlists if it's not there already
if ! grep $FILE < /etc/pihole/adlists.list; then echo "file://$FILE" >> /etc/pihole/adlists.list; fi; 

[lpuerto]

I don't know but I have the feeling that this is going to end blocking the whole youtube.
All the googlevideo.com queries are r*.googlevideo.com. So sometimes I have to reload if I want to watch a video so it changes the domain (or something like that).

[DL6ER]

Blocking via regex now available in FTLDNS

Originally published at: Blocking via regex now available in FTLDNS – Pi-hole We have implemented GNU Extended Regular Expressions for blocking domains into FTLDNS (as used by popular tools such as egrep (or grep -E ...), awk, and emacs). To try it, you need to be participating in the FTLDNS beta test (see here for more details). This is a new feature and we invite you to test it out but you should expect some rough edges. We would also appreciate if you could help us find any bugs or is…

This feature is now implemented and available for early-on testing if you want to get your hands dirty. I guess that means the race is open for the best blocking regex!

[lpuerto]

something interesting... I can't watch (some) videos from youtube in my iPad or iPhone either on the web or the app, but on the computer is OK...

When I check it's always the same domain blocked r16---sn-uxap5nvoxg5-ixhs.googlevideo.com.

I don't know if this is the best approach... I still get adds from time to time in the computer but I can see some videos on other devices anymore.

[RamSet]

@lpuerto

I still get adds from time to time in the computer but I can see some videos on other devices anymore.

This has been reported above also.

How do I block ads on YouTube?

I changed the script form @Joshua_joezoef_B_ZzO a bit (/etc/pihole/youtube-ads.s): echo "" > /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-domains.txt echo "" > /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-filtered.txt echo "" > /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-ads.txt python /etc/dnsdumpster/dnsdumpster/ADS_youtube.py > /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-domains.txt grep ^r /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-domains.txt >> /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-filtered.txt sed 's/\s.*$//' /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-filtered.txt >> /etc/dnsdumpster/youtube-ads.txt cat /etc/dns…

I can confirm that blocking these domains, affects youtube playback on mobile devices.

[fedolin]

doesn`t exist

[AJM114]

clients6.google.com blocks messages from Hangouts from being sent.
Does anyone know what i.ytimg.com is? I see it quite frequently.