In this post we have summarized the most important tips for eBlockerOS users to improve the usage and avoid typical “pitfalls”. We strongly recommend to follow these tips.
Backup is mandatory – especially for White Cubes
Every technical device has only a limited life cycle due to wear and tear. In the case of the original eBlocker White Cubes, this life cycle is apparently slowly coming to an end after more than seven years. The SSD-like memory (eMMC) installed in the White Cubes is prone to errors with age. These errors occur especially with many write accesses and the associated heat development, as happens with larger updates.
Therefore we strongly recommend all users – and especially the White Cube users – to make regular backups of the eBlocker settings (Settings>System>Backup). This way, a new SD card can breathe new life into the White Cube or the Raspi again and the eBlocker is quickly ready for use without much effort thanks to the backup. By the way: The backup is device independent and it can be used to easily migate from the White Cube to a Raspberry Pi.
Domain blocklists and client VPN – no good ideas
Therefore we would like to point out again that additional privacy tools like browser plugins, Apple Private Relay or even Mozilla VPN are no good combinations with eBlockerOS. Because mostly these technologies prevent the sophisticated URL pattern protection of eBlockerOS. Unlike all other technologies, eBlockerOS recognizes patterns in URLs (and not only domains) and thus blocks only the unwanted URLs without blocking the whole domain. However, if a client-side VPN is used (like e.g. Apple Private Relay), eBlockerOS cannot decrypt the requested URLs and thus cannot provide any protection.
The same is true if one adds domain blocking lists to eBlockerOS. These have the disadvantage to always block the whole domain, instead of blocking only the tracking or other unwanted URLs of the respective domain. This causes so-called overblocking and significantly increased problems with apps and Internet services – but does not yield to better protection. For this reason, we strongly recommend to enter all VPN connections in eBlocker and to enable them via eBlockerOS exclusively. The pattern blocker lists, scriptlets and malware filters curated by us and updated daily provide extensive protection against trackers, ads and malware. Additions are usually neither useful nor necessary.
By the way: You can manually trigger the list updates at any time every day or activate your eBlocker with a donor license for automatic updates. This way you are fully protected – without any additional tools, blocking lists or manual interaction.
Tip for problems with Cloudflare
Cloudflare is an American service that, among other things, is supposed to prevent a website from being overloaded by too many IP packets in a DDOS attack by bots. To distinguish bots from humans Cloudflare analyzes the data stream and structure of the IP packets. Because eBlockerOS modifies the IP packets to protect users, this can cause Cloudflare to incorrectly block access to the website and prompt for captcha resolution.
We have analyzed the phenomenon and recommend a trick that can help in most cases: set the cloaking to “Android” if you have enabled eBlocker HTTPS. This will fool Cloudflare into believing it is an Android device and the IP packet inspection will be changed so that visiting the desired website is usually possible without any problems, even without captchas.
Removing the referrer – not always helpful
eBlockerOS has the possibility to remove the so-called referrer in HTTP requests. This prevents that the accessed website can identify on which other website the user has clicked on a link. However, many websites also use the referrer internally to determine from which URL on their own website the user came. If the referrer is removed by eBlockerOS, the website might not work properly anymore.
Since the identification of the referrer by tracking systems is prevented anyway by blocking the trackers, the privacy benefit of the referrer removal is limited today. The feature is historically still part of eBlockerOS and comes from a time when tracker blocking technology was not as mature as it is today. We therefore recommend not to use the feature anymore – unless you know exactly what you are doing.😉
