How to make your own Proxy Server to prevent Twitch Ads

[zGato]

UPDATED GUIDE AT: https://wiki.cdn-perfprod.com/guides/proxy/host-your-own-proxy

[juninhokun]

I am so happy. I followed your instructions and for $1 I am free of ads now. I've tested for 3 hours and no ads since then. I am using Edge. Thank you very much for this tutorial.

[Makezu90]

and why i can't write password to cmd/powershell.. only can add first command line successfully but that password. 🤔

[juninhokun]

Its like invisible characters...It seems you are typing nothing but you are. Just type your password and press Enter. I needed to change my password on hostVDS though. The default one didn't work.

[jediazmurillo1]

I would gladly pay more for a vps to dodge ads than pay twitch nitro just so twitch cant milk me more. On the other hand with those vps prices, is it me or digitalocean has been riping me off

[zGato]

You'll probably never see a minute of downtime with DigitalOcean, but with these cheap providers you can't just complain about downtime.
For 1$ a month you literally get ad-free on Spotify, Twitch, YouTube and so many more sites lmao

[kwaaak]

https://bill.alexhost.com/cart/&from=directcartlinks&step=0&cat_id=26 Hoster for Moldova
https://virtono.com/cloud-vps Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia

[rohitsaha29]

Can this be done on MacOS?

[jediazmurillo1]

Setting up the vps can be done in any OS, just use terminal instead of CMD to SSH into your VPS. The addon recommended on this guide only works on chrome and firefox afaik. So in summary yes you should be able to do this on MacOS.

[Golumpa]

I would suggest not going with HostVDS, I purchased a server from them and within 24 hours they seem to be down for more than 12 hours now with no response from CS apart from 'soon'... After some research and some translateing from their telegram chat they regularly have issues and blame it on that their software is in beta (for over 4 years).

Instead I'd recommend if you want to make your own server is look at a host before you go with them. I have moved to a new host after 24 hours.

If you want a Russian server do some research, here is a good starting point. https://poiskvps.ru/

[zGato]

Removed hostvds.com. Too many issues and seems to work terribly bad for a lot of people.
I do not recommend them. Worked fine for me until they had some migrations of datacenters or some weird shit.

I do have one provider: https://www.melbicom.net/virtualserver/ which I just had laying around in a bookmark. Seems like a good one, a bit more expensive, but worth checking out.

[Golumpa]

What host did you switch to?

I switched to ihor, its a tiny bit more expensive at 100 RUB/m which comes at around $1.25~/m but you also get 200Mbps link instead of 50Mbps. I have yet to have any issues with them.

Time-Host that is listed above in the main post also seems to be a good alternative, saw decent posts about them on LET (LowEndTalk) a budget vps provider forum.

is there an English site anywhere?

Just use chrome and translate the page to english.

[pquerner]

How do you pay at Ihor? I saw it only accepts russian credit cards?

[Functioneel]

hostvds is still in the first message here dude @zGato

[zGato]

[Makezu90]

nice, i bought that server yesterday and now i get error 2000 🤔

[hanshansenrl]

Rather general question, but...

are we routing the actual video stream (i.e. .m3u8 and its .ts video parts) through this proxy? or just use the proxy to get the ad free m3u8s?

If the former: How "fast" (Mbit/s) should our VPS proxy be for lets say 1080p60fps twitch streams, whats the limit these days??

[jediazmurillo1]

You can check the bitrate directly on twitch on advanced, a 1080p 60fps should be using between 6-8mbps/s

[zGato]

We're not proxying the stream itself, and we'll never do so.
What we're proxying is video-weavers (packets which tells your client the next segment of live stream) so your client proceeds to just download it unproxied.
On page load you may experience up to 2MB of data usage. Once you're on a live stream, it's aproximately 20Kb constant.

Even a VPS limited to 1Mbit/s will work for this :)

[kwaaak]

You can also use https://github.com/qwj/python-proxy instead of Squid to serve your http proxy.
Install by executing pip3 install pproxy

Running it is as easy as executing a command like this:
pproxy -v -l http://120.30.45.67:61337#username:ttvlolproxypassword

Replace the IP with the public IP of your proxy server, choose a port of your liking and set a username and password.

Configure the ProxyOmega browser extension according to the guide.

Obvious disadvantage is no service and autostart like Squid, but you can create a simple crontab to start the proxy on every reboot for example.

[deprale]

this guide is supposed to be for beginners who don't know what linux is or python, why you would recommend something worse rather than the PnP method the OP suggests...

idk why you would recommend a WORSE alternative for total beginners, and people who DO know what to use instead of squid don't need this useless advice.

[mcapala]

Crontab? For that you would rather need an systemd service

[hexapawa]

Is there any way to check directly if it works? (Before testing in twitch live)

[revunix]

I just bought a Proxy from Proxy6 for $0.59, and it works good. There also have UA, TR etc.

[revunix]

I just bought a Proxy from Proxy6 for $0.59, and it works good. There also have UA, TR etc.

Which country?

I'm using Kazakhstan and Russia. I never got Ads.

[VictorNarov]

Can you share how is the configuration in TTV LOL PRO or SwitchyOmega?

[revunix]

Just like this –  username:password@hostname:port – and put into TTV LOL PRO

[VictorNarov]

I bought a shared proxy from RU and set the configuration like username:password@hostname:port in TTV LOL PRO and I'm still getting ads like this. Both in Opera and Firefox (real ads, not twitch). Any solution?

[timespaced]

ipv6, ipv4, or shared ipv4?

[miqheil]

Cloud providers can make aggrements with some isp companies so the way of connection to Twitch servers can be different or just somethings can be different if some of you use proxy from Turkey to prevent ads but I never see a Twitch user from Turkey who doesn't have to watch ad. So I just won't recommend it.

[sn-o-w]

@zGato I have a few questions:

1. If I set a proxy inside Proxy SwitchyOmega, the same proxy should be also set inside TTV LOL PRO V2?
2. If I install Proxy SwitchyOmega and set the proxy + make the suggested changes to it, is it still necessary to install TTV LOL PRO V2? If yes, won't they conflict with each other?!

These aspects are very unclear to me. 🤔

[younesaassila]

If using Proxy SwitchyOmega there's no need to use TTV LOL PRO.

TTV LOL PRO is more meant for zero-config client-side with default proxy that should work okay enough

[GabeEddyT]

Not a cheap proxy by any means but: if you're already using Nord, you can pick a server here (Colombia, Albania, etc.) and use the hostname as an https proxy on port 89. Using the SwitchyOmega configuration is significantly better than the actual Nord extension since it doesn't throttle the stream and other tabs.

Thanks for the thorough tutorial!

[rayserit]

I have nordvpn but i'm not sure how to do this? Can you explain me better what to do on SwitchyOmega?

EDIT: Nevermind, i figured it out where to put credentials.

[akriosx]

I've been using HostVDS and have to reboot it about once a day for it to work. I'll see an ad slip through, ping my IP and notice it's timing out. A soft reboot works. Kind of annoying hoping it'll stop or I'll use another provider lol.

[zGato]

Switch from Debian 11 to Ubuntu 23.04. You'll need to install all back again, but for some reason theirs Debian image is glitchy.

[juninhokun]

Amazing hint. I had the same problem and It`s working amazing now. Switched to Ubuntu. Thank you.

[akriosx]

Thank you for the tip! I will switch to Ubuntu.

[PhiZero]

It's been working fine for a couple of days after I set it up without a single ad, but now I'm getting pre-roll ads in my local language. I'm hosting a server in Ukraine. This is happening with both TTV LOL PRO and SwitchyOmega addons.

I've checked the squid access logs and I see the access requests come through just fine, so I'm quite confused what's happening. Is there any way to figure out where it's going wrong?

[KammererTob]

So i am not entirely sure why/what is happening, but it seems that at least with my own Kazakhstan proxy i get pre-roll ads somtimes, although Twitch (and TTV LOL) detects the location as "RU". If i switch back to the default chrome proxy it mostly works immediatly without pre-roll. Is this just a "bad" proxy?

[KammererTob]

Tried again with a UA proxy (Twitch also detects the USER-COUNTRY as UA), and i am still getting the occasional pre-roll ads in my own language.

[zGato]

You can try proxying www.twitch.tv aswell, but that's the last domain that Twitch gets your real location from based on our testing. If it doesn't work still but logging off does, then you have something in your account that identifies you.

Remember to clear cookies/cache.

EDIT: You can test if your account has some identification of your location simply proxying your whole twitch tab, so you make sure that there's no domain that gets thru your real IP.

[KammererTob]

I think i have/had something in my account that idenified me (possibly Amazon Prime). It immediatly worked without any ad when logging out and the ad immediatly was back once logged in again (after clearing cookies, cache, local storage etc.). I have now created a new account while proxied and will report back if this works now.

[KammererTob]

Didn't have any issues in the last two weeks, so it was very likely my account with Prime that lead to ads. Thanks for the help!

[Colt8027]

Did some testing. Provider is Vultr. Used TTV LOL Pro (Firefox) To set proxies. Verified connection also via netstat. I've tested multiple channels.

So far I've received ads -
Tel Aviv, Johannesburg SA, Warsaw Poland, Santiago Chile, Delhi NCR

Proxy6 RU works still with no ads.

[zGato]

Apart from Chile & India, the other locations are ad-free (99% sure)

Twitch identifies most of the Vultr IP blocks to be from the US. Check www.twitch.tv headers & usher.ttvnw.net response "USER-COUNTRY=X"

[Colt8027]

You're right, it detects Vultr IP blocks as "Country: US". I was bored and experimenting around 👍

[Colt8027]

I went onto Melbicom which was recommended above. Cheapest slice, selected Warsaw. Now shows "Country: RO" 2hrs+ so far, 3 different streams, 0 ads.

With roughly 48hrs of use now, I've seen a whole 2 ads. Very random.

[Kexus]

I've been using a russian proxy from proxy6 for months without any major issues, but I get a lot of buffering on anything above 720p. I imagine this is because my connection to the Russian twitch servers is slow (I'm in the US). Has anyone had better experiences with proxies from other ad-free countries?

[NomNomCameron]

ah that totally makes sense

[zGato]

The stream itself doesn't get proxied, but weaver packets (packets that tell your client the next segment to download unproxied) are.
If you experience buffering, your ISP has bad cheap routes to (most likely) Helsinki, thus you may want to try another closeby country (such as Lithuania, Ukraine, ...)

[NomNomCameron]

@zGato you are the man with all this. It's fascinating how you've been able to reverse-engineer all of this! On the first version of ttv-lol I wanted to contribute to it (been a software developer for a while) this is definitely the kind of stuff I like to work on!

[Kexus]

Thanks for the advice. I tried a Lithuania proxy and it seems to be working much better.

[zGato]

@zGato you are the man with all this. It's fascinating how you've been able to reverse-engineer all of this! On the first version of ttv-lol I wanted to contribute to it (been a software developer for a while) this is definitely the kind of stuff I like to work on!

Appreciate your message ❤️. We (both me and Younes) spent a lot of time into the TTV LOL PRO V2 development and I'm truly happy for what it's become. Hope to continue with the fight against shitty Twitch ads for as long as I can.

[sh0wst0pper]

The discount code (taTmJgVHDF) to proxy6 is no longer valid. i get 'Coupon not found'

[zGato]

There seems to be a limit on the uses somewhere, but unfortunately I can't generate a new one.

[drop1mic]

[zGato]

France is nothing close to being ad-free ??

[Fijxu]

I am hosting a russia proxy at https://twitch.zzls.xyz using luminous-ttv (Without using Hola). It works using streamlink-ttvlol and with TTV LOL PRO in case someone wants to use it.

It is actually hosted in the US but it offers a Russia playlist.

[zGato]

I recommend you just hosting an instance with this tutorial and you letting me add your proxy into the Firefox proxy pool.
If you let Chromium users to use your proxy, it will use a lot more of bandwidth.

And yes, it needs to be on an ad-free country.

[Fijxu]

I literally just rented a Proxy from Proxy6 from Russia, using LuminousTTV with the -p argument to pass the russia proxy and with an NGINX reverse proxy to allow secure access to the LuminousTTV local server running.

I was asking about the V2 thingy, because I don't really know what are you referring to. For example, you explain here about V2 proxies that has supports for mobile ads here using LuminousTTV backend #37 (comment)

[zGato]

luminous-ttv is compatible with TTV LOL PRO V1
TTV LOL PRO V2 uses standard HTTP proxies which are not compatible with luminous-ttv instances.

Proxy6 really rate-limits shared & ipv4 proxies a lot, so I discourage you running a public instance.
You would need a loadbalancer that filters all traffic before it reaches your proxy, as it would allow any type of traffic and well, that's not good.

Where you point me to is the List of V1 proxies list. Not List of V2.

[Fijxu]

TTV LOL PRO V2 uses standard HTTP proxies which are not compatible with luminous-ttv instances.

Oh ok

Proxy6 really rate-limits shared & ipv4 proxies a lot, so I discourage you running a public instance.
You would need a loadbalancer that filters all traffic before it reaches your proxy, as it would allow any type of traffic and well, that's not good.

But not that LuminousTTV connects to the proxy and NGINX redirects traffic from LuminousTTV to the web? It is not a direct bridge from the Russia Proxy using NGINX and will only give access to /playlist, /ping and other necessary URLs right? Or I am misunderstanding something? Because someone can't just use the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables (used to use a proxy in Linux) with https://twitch.zzls.xyz and use it like a normal proxy to any website.

This is the NGINX config in case you are wondering how it is configured: https://git.zzls.xyz/Fijxu/etc-configs/src/branch/vpsus/nginx/sites-enabled/twitch.zzls.xyz.conf#L22

[zGato]

I was referring to hosting an V2 proxy.
Your luminous-ttv/TTV LOL PRO V1 proxy instance is just fine.

[Fijxu]

I was referring to hosting an V2 proxy. Your luminous-ttv/TTV LOL PRO V1 proxy instance is just fine.

Thanks, for now I will just host a V1 one. I don't really care about mobile support at the moment.

[zGato]

A luminousttv instance supports mobile & TTV LOL PRO V1
TTV LOL PRO V2 uses normal HTTP proxies and is desktop only.

[jnymous]

Requests from Lithuania seem to show ads sometimes(?) on Twitch, at least for me, using a proxied connection through a VPS in Lithuania. Seemed to happen a few weeks ago. Before that, no ads at all.

[zGato]

Just tested Lithuania and still ad-free.

Are you sure it shows Country: LT in the extension's dropdown?

[OstrowskiDev]

Thx for your awesome work on this tutorial and TTV LOL PRO!

Adds on twitch in Poland were not a problem in last years., uBlock Origin was more than enough to block them all. But situation changed this summer and now got even worse so I'm trying to find solution.

Created VM in Ukraine (provider: just.hosting).
Had some trouble with upgrades and installations of debian packages cause requests to yandex (Russia) are blocked by most providers in Ukraine.

For all who will have same problem in future fix below:
Find and edit the file at:
/etc/apt/sources.list

Delete yandex url and include this instead:
Edit: Changed the url's as advised by zGato below

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main

Than run all installers/updates. Solved!

I've followed all your tutorial and now am running proxy for twitch! <3
Will let you know after day or two of testing if everything works perfectly.

[zGato]

I'm still using proxies on Poland and they don't get any ads triggered lol.

Ukraine, as per laws due to the war, is required to block Russian based ASNs (not sure how's it being enforced as basically no host there seems to be doing) and yandex.ru is clearly hosted in Russia.

I would advise you against using those repositories but using official ones.
(For Debian Bullseye "11")

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main

[OstrowskiDev]

Thx for info. Will change to Bullseye and edit post above.
I've tested proxy server in Ukraine + uBlock Origin + TTV LOL PRO for two day strait now and can happily report ZERO ADS!
Damn, this feels so good.
Adds free internet is amazing.

[Bryan792]

I have to enter my login details for my proxy6 proxy every time I open my browser for the first time, despite having username:password@hostname:port in the proxy list. Is there a way to prevent that?

[InfernoCV]

Just set this up with a VPS in Albania (albahost.net) and it's working great. Setup a Ubuntu 22.04 VPS and instructions were spot on. Thanks for the great work on this.

[SloMail]

Yeah, i got a VPS in Albania albahost.net and so far so good, no ads ;)

[Kensairabbit37]

This guide is legendary. Thank you to all involved with the project. I've been using for a while without issue, but now I'm having some buffering circle and stuttering at times. My proxy extension gives a notification about "2 failed resources".
*.ttvnw.net
*.scorecardresearch.com

I would have thought that the first item in the guide [URL regex ^https://usher.ttvnw.net////] would cover the first failed item. It lets me add them as conditions and defaults to "Host Wildcard" type. That doesn't seem to help though. Has anyone encountered this or have suggestions on a fix?

[zGato]

Just use the proxy normally with the TTV LOL PRO extension.
As Switchy says in the dropdown, those "errors" (warnings) are not caused by the extension itself, thus are normal errors.

You're most likely using a proxy that is very far away from you, thus assigning you to the most nearby Twitch server to the proxy, not yours, thus buffer. Most likely your ISP is cheaping out on international traffic, as for example I can proxy from Spain to Australia without buffering but some US people buffer from EU servers lol.

[Kensairabbit37]

Oh, I can just use it with TTV LOL PRO? I thought the guide mentioned concerns about rate limiting being an issue and that's why it points to Switchy. Did I misunderstand?

[zGato]

I mention that giving TTV LOL PRO a try is a recommended option. But the limits that I was talking about are mostly related to Firefox's "Proxy ad-requests" that is enabled by default, but you can now choose to proxy all requests which is quinda the same as Switchy but easier.

[hdjdb]

Similarly, I'm having an issue where "*.twitch.tv" gives these yellow warnings, and it gets stuck loading my "following" directory. Essentially it's unusable unless i make "twitch.tv" load directly instead of with the proxy.

[Kensairabbit37]

Try using TV LOL PRO like the dev said. That fixed my issues. I still occasionally get hiccups presumably from my ISP, but definitely works better than Switchy

[hdjdb]

Yeah TTV lol pro works but authentication is a little glitchy and pops up every time I reload twitch. this issue has been present for quite a while. I'm using the affiliate provider and brave.

…

On January 15, 2024 9:21:20 AM CST, Kensairabbit37 ***@***.***> wrote: Try using TV LOL PRO like the dev said. That fixed my issues. I still occasionally get hiccups presumably from my ISP, but definitely works better than Switchy -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #151 (reply in thread) You are receiving this because you commented. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[DivMode]

Anyone able to get this working on a iPhone or iPad?

[akriosx]

This solution has worked excellent for months. Within the past week I've seen a few ads leaking through on my iPhone using a .pac proxy. Still works pretty well but I've been getting a few ads coming through. Apple TV doesn't seem effected. Twitch on mobile might be changing some things around. I have a banner ad on the following page and sometimes on a stream page in portrait I'll see an ad there as well (ugh lol). No issues on Chrome with plugin either.

[pquerner]

I've started to receive ads in my native language using time-host (RU) host using SwitchyOmega. I am trying ttvlol now, see if it makes a difference.

[Ash00182]

I am experiencing the same thing with a Russian proxy. A quick google search indicated that these countries might be ad free. Poland, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ukraine and Romania. Going to give a few of these a go.

[pquerner]

Happend again today.