🥇 Maza was Top 1 in Hacker News

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22717650

Maza ad blocking - Like Pi-hole but local and using your operating system

Simple, native and efficient local advertising blocker. Compatible with macOS and Linux.

You don't have to install any browser extensions or applications, you just use the tools of your operating system. You update the list of DNS to be blocked with a single command. Opensource. Just bash.

🏃‍Run

📡 Update database

maza update 

🔨 Start

sudo maza start 

🛠 Stop

sudo maza stop 

⚖️ Status

maza status 

⚙️ Install

👀 Requirements

• bash 4.0 or higher
• curl
• Only macOS users, gsed: brew install gnu-sed

Then you do this.

curl -o maza https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tanrax/maza-ad-blocking/master/maza && chmod +x maza && sudo mv maza /usr/local/bin

Optional but recommended, make a backup of your hosts file.

sudo cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.backup

🔪 Uninstall

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/maza && sudo rm -r ~/.maza

DNSMASQ

Unfortunately the hosts file does not support sub-domains (wildcards), which is necessary to correctly filter all DNS. You will need to install locally a server for that purpose, Maza supports the Dnsmasq format.

MacOS

1 Install

brew install dnsmasq

2 Configure

Edit the file.

/usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf

Add the following line at the end.

conf-file=(your user path)/.maza/dnsmasq.conf

Example

conf-file=/Users/myuser/.maza/dnsmasq.conf

Start DNSMASQ.

sudo brew services stop dnsmasq
sudo brew services start dnsmasq

3 Tell your OS to use your DNS server

Delete the list of macOS DNS servers and add the 3 addresses. The first one will be your local server, and the other 2 belong to OpenDNS, which you can use any other.

127.0.0.1
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Refresh your DNS cache

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

4 Restart/Start Maza

sudo maza stop
sudo maza start

Debian/Ubuntu with Gnome Shell

1 Install

sudo apt update
sudo apt install dnsmasq

2 Configure

Edit file in path.

/etc/dnsmasq.conf

Add the following line at the end.

conf-file=(your user path)/.maza/dnsmasq.conf

Example

conf-file=/home/myuser/.maza/dnsmasq.conf

Start DNSMASQ.

sudo systemctl stop dnsmasq
sudo systemctl start dnsmasq
sudo systemctl enable dnsmasq

3 Tell your OS to use your DNS server

In Gnome Shell, open Settings->Nework. Click in the sprocket of your connection.

Add your local server (dnsmasq), and the other 2 belong to OpenDNS, which you can use any other.

127.0.0.1,208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220

4 Restart/Start Maza

sudo maza stop
sudo maza start

Bonus: dnsmasq is in charge of solving all DNS

Add in configure file: /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf

no-resolv
server=208.67.222.222
server=208.67.220.220

Bonus: dnsmasq have localhost domains

If you want all your .localhost domains, for example, point to localhost add in configure file: /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf or /etc/dnsmasq.conf.

address=/.localhost/127.0.0.1

⚠️ CAUTION

• Only compatible with Linux and macOS operating systems.
• Remember to make a backup copy of /etc/hosts in case of unforeseen circumstances, neither the project nor its author will be responsible for any possible repercussions derived from not carrying out this action.

🧑‍🎨 Credits

Andros Fenollosa