adblock plus is blocked from 4od and TV catchup sites

Everything about using Adblock Plus on Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey
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alphabex
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 31, 2014 12:41 pm

adblock plus is blocked from 4od and TV catchup sites

Post by alphabex »

Has anyone got a solution for the recent counter blocks that TV catchup and 4od have to prevent ad blocker software when you try and play TV shows or video on either of these sites.

It has only been recently that these sites haven't worked but if this is the trend then it is only a matter of time before all other sites do the same and ad block plus will be virtually useless.

I have updated the filters but it hasn't made any difference; all seems to have coincided with the latest flash player download .... has anyone any ideas on this.
lewisje
Posts: 2743
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 12:07 pm

Re: adblock plus is blocked from 4od and TV catchup sites

Post by lewisje »

The last time I remembered, 4oD content wouldn't play if the ads were blocked, so the people behind EasyList just decided to whitelist it.
There's a buzzin' in my brain I really can't explain; I think about it before they make me go to bed.
mrman

Re: adblock plus is blocked from 4od and TV catchup sites

Post by mrman »

Hi Guys,

The 4od player now checks a specific (extensive) list of URLs for connectivity. If it doesn't receive an expected response back then it'll check a certain number of conditions either:
  • Did the server return null data?
  • Was the response simply empty?
  • Was the HTTP status returned code 0?
  • Did it the string "Fidder" in the response? <-- My personal favorite (The 4oD guys obviously know how easy it is to setup.)
This all but rules out any simple blacklisting as the player needs to receive a fairly valid response. The solution would be for an extension that catches the ad URLs and handles them a bit more gracefully (giving a proper 404 etc). For the time being I've setup Fiddler to autorespond with a custom 404 that removes the Fiddler string matching the rule:

Code: Select all

regex:(?insx)^http://mrm.channel4.com
So now it's just a matter of who's got the time to write an extension/plugin for it! This will always be a cat and mouse game but it appears this time 4od have made a concerted effort to prevent ad blockers, in fact most recently they've introduced a timeout on the "continue" button to stop people hammering the checks and occasionally getting through.
Cascade
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 5:19 pm
Location: UK

Re: adblock plus is blocked from 4od and TV catchup sites

Post by Cascade »

There is already a Google Chrome extension specifically for 4oD ad blocking:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... ljmdbbmogm

Would be nice to see something similar for Firefox!
alphabex
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 31, 2014 12:41 pm

Re: adblock plus is blocked from 4od and TV catchup sites

Post by alphabex »

the solution for chrome works OK .. thanks Cascade! ... yet adblock still is blocked on firefox on 4od .... though it could be the latest flash player that has made this possible.
sUmMeR8
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2024 1:59 pm

Re: adblock plus is blocked from 4od and TV catchup sites

Post by sUmMeR8 »

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