period
For additional content, you can accomplish ad blocking in a number of ways. The ones that immediately spring to mind:
- browser extension: most modern browsers have some extension framework available. I’ve been using ublock origin for a number of years with reasonable results
- VPN: some VPNs include ad blocking as a side benefit to their primary function. Nord doesn’t seem to block ads on all mobile apps or is at least inconsistent in my experience
- Network packet filter/PiHole: this has been on my to-do list for a while. Catches network traffic that looks like ads before it even reaches your device. Most involved and least portable
I’ve been using NextDNS for over a year now and it’s great. Been using that with hagezi pro block list with great results and minimal breakage.
Any idea if it runs DNS over TLS? I’d prefer my DNS requests be encrypted.
The only option (other than mitm-ing yourself and stripping ads from the html maybe) for blocking first party ads or spoofed first party ads is ublock origin on firefox
dns filtering can only block domains, ublock does full cosmetic filtering.
Ive been using DNS filtering for years and many sites actually collapse the advert space when it’s not used, and while a plug-in certainly can improve the UI, the DNS blocking also disables the resulting tracking, the network requests still happen with the plugins.
Additionally DNS filtering happens outside of a browser as well, so will block ads in literally every app as well, when setup correctly it’s also device independent.
When I still ran my own PiHole, there where days where as much as 60% of the traffic was adverts and trackers.
DNS filtering also extends to blocking things like malware and spam domains
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/About-"Why-uBlock-Origin-works-so-much-better-than-Pi‑hole-does%3F" You are not correct. Ublock Origin is superior for tracking protection and also stops the network requests. DNS adblocking cannot stop first party tracking or ads.
A Pi-hole is easy to set up if you already have a Raspberry Pi and a router that supports changing the DNS (I had one that was rented from an ISP that didn’t).
Love my pihole. Didn’t help with YouTube, which is the latest ad scandal.
Yeah, sites that hosts their own ads like yt can’t be blocked by dns-level blocking for the most part. You end up blocking yt itself.
On that front you need ublock in browser (for now) or a modded app like revanced on android, uyou on iOS, smarttubenext on firestick, etc.
can you run pihole in VM? it would be practical for these weirdos that already use VM as a daily driver
It was originally developed to run on a raspberry pi so most installers are Linux based. There is no installer for windows but you could run pinole on Docker Desktop in a VM.
If you’re running it using Docker, that’s a container not a VM. And that IS the way you would want to run it, in a container. They’re easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to maintain.
YouTube can go to hell. Frontends can still escape anti-adblock measure.
On top of that, nobody should be forced to watch gambling or alcohol ads.
Ofc it is. You don’t just block ads, you also block trackers and so on. I think of it as a privacy thing no matter what jackarse says that it’s piracy.
iOS users have plenty of options here too
- AdGuard Pro (paid)
- AdGuard DNS (free)
- other free dns blockers - NextDNS, ControlID etc
- Safari addons
- browsers with blocking built in (eg brave)
- VPNs with ad blockers built in
DNS and VPN blocks will work on most apps and all browsers.
I prefer Asguard dns and then Safari extension or Brave
I would not trust adguard as it is a russian company that nobody knows what it does to your data
They are locsted in Cyprus, and in fairness, they’ve got a much better reputation than most privacy/security companies out there.
Plus, depending on the service, adblocking is done locally.
I mean adguardDNS. That can raise some questions. And as for Cyprus, many russian companies are based there just to avoid sanctions. That means nothing
