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Ad blocking on android

I would like to pirate on my phone sometimes and the ads on websites are problem. I’m not newbie, I know I can install firefox and get the uBlock on it but firefox android is a little bit slow so I prefer to use Opera browser; opera has an ad blocker but it’s a joke compared to uBlock. I’m in a restricted country and my phone is not rooted, so if I use ad block apps like AdAway or Adgaurd they need to create a VPN connection in order to function unless the phone is rooted, and that VPN connection doesn’t let me to enable another VPN in order to visit filtered websites or apps.

I’m not stuck, but felt if I ask here there may be another smart solution for ad blocking on android that can solve these small problems; and the solution would help other people so be kind and provide what you have.

Darkassassin07 , (edited )
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

Pihole for network wide ad blocking (no ads on all apps on all devices within the LAN) then self-host a vpn to keep your phone within that lan.

Tis what I do at least.

Blocks pretty much everything except Youtube, and Twitchs video ads as they serve their own ads from their own domain’s as well as things like sponsored posts on reddit/twitter/facebook.

Don’t watch much Twitch, Youtube (re)Vanced is a thing, and Twitter/FB/Reddit can all die in a fire. So none of those are issues for me either.

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

Hosting a vpn also gives me secure remote access to my various self-hosted services like Radarr/Sonarr/SABnzbd/qbit/etc, without directly exposing them to the open internet.

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

Upon re-read I realized you’d like to use a comercial vpn as well (for bypassing restrictions in your country).

You can setup your self-hosted vpn to work in tandem: Your phone stays connected to your own vpn keeping it part of your home LAN, then you setup the device hosting that VPN to also connect to a comercial VPN, routing all LAN traffic headed to WAN to instead go over that comercial vpn escaping the restrictions in your country.

glue_snorter ,

Tailscale ftw!

I use tailscale as a mullvad client. Really happy with both.

terminhell ,

This is exactly how I’ve been doing it. Pihole + Wireguard. Set your pihole device as your DNS on everything ya want. It’s shocking how much crap tries phoning home. Especially smart TV’s and streaming sticks(Roku ex).

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

Set your pihole device as your DNS on everything ya want.

I went one further and defined my pihole as the DNS IP that the dhcp server hands out; then set iptables rules on the router to block all external dns access except for the pihole.

If you’re on my LAN, you must use the LAN DNS server, or you will not get DNS resolved at all. Enforcing ad and telemetry blocking network wide.

CmdrShepard ,

How often do you run into issues with certain sites (stuff like banking or Netflix) not liking the blockage? I’m considering doing this bit the WAF needs to be high and not cause her grief or block her from accessing specific stuff.

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ve had 0 issues with things I want to access being blocked, but if you do want to access a blocked site you can add it to the whitelist via piholes web interface in about 30 seconds (manually or just finding it in the history and clicking ‘whitelist’) or you can disable blocking entirely for 5sec/30sec/5min/indefinitely with 2 clicks (or a custom time).

timou ,

I considered doing exactly that, but I was afraid of the battery usage, with wireguard always on… Do you have any feedback on that part ?

ToNIX ,

This, but I personally use Adguard Home + Unbound instead of Pi-Hole + Unbound. Adguard Hone also open source, but it runs as a single service instead of 2. You can easily update it from the web interface when there’s a new release, which makes things easier.

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

All the people suggesting firefox…

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/8b1cc7fc-7c76-4fc5-b00b-5920f4e43449.jpeg

ehyuman ,

read what?

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

I know I can install firefox and get the uBlock on it but firefox android is a little bit slow so I prefer to use Opera browser

Very clearly asking for something else, but people repeatedly recommend OP uses firefox… SMH

Holzkohlen ,

Cause the answer is to just deal with it. OP is going on a damn journey instead of just using the browser that feels a bit slow to him. Just use it to pirate on your phone and use another browser for whatever else you want. It’s really not that difficult.

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

Some people actually enjoy taking journey’s and exploring new things. Stagnation is boring.

There’s lots of tools in the tool box, you don’t have to use the hammer exclusively. Try a bit of variety. You might just like it.

Morgikan ,
@Morgikan@lemm.ee avatar

They keep responding that way because OP is looking for a magic bullet. They are basically wanting something that is only positives and has no drawbacks.

You’re either going to increase latency in the app, increase latency across the network, have to pay for something, have to use an app you don’t prefer, etc.

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

OP asked for some new (to them) options, of which there are plenty. Instead some people are re-listing the things op’s already said they’ve tried.

Not even remotely helpful. If you don’t have anything new to suggest, just don’t suggest anything. Instead have a read through some of the actually helpful comments others have posted.

Nimous OP ,

You’re a man of culture

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

tips tophat

Kekzkrieger ,

Wait since when is firefox considered slow ? For me the speed is decent i dont have a 1000$ phone so i dont expect it to be as fast as on my pc

hexagonwin ,

Though I feel Firefox (and its fork Fennec FDroid) is a lot slower than other browsers based on Chromium like Bromite and Kiwi. I’m using a phone that’s pretty low-end in 2023 standard though. (MSM8974 with 2GB ram running Android 11)

monotrox ,

Im basically exclusively using Firefox on my phone and loading websites is pretty fast, the app just feels less responsive when scrolling compared to chrome/bromite

Nimous OP ,

It’s fast enough to be enjoyable but opera has a nicer UI and since you can’t use extensions, the speed is consistent.

Kekzkrieger ,

opera is chinese spyware tho, just for a nice ui thats not worth

Nimous OP ,

My plan is returning to firefox but I have too much stuff in the opera’s Flow. I must spend some time in future to fix this and abandon opera.

idkman ,

You can try out nextDNS. It has a list of blockers and you can track and block what request are being made by your phone.

Additionally, DNS-crypt proxy can be a good alternative too.

thecoolowl ,

I’ve been using NextDNS for a while now. It’s great compared to VPN implementations like Blokada because it frees up your phone to use an actual VPN.

I’ve found PDNSQS for when I need to temporarily disable ad blocking, a really nice addition.

PolarisFx ,

Blokada 6 uses the DNS implementation. It’s a subscription service. I paid for a year then realized I could use NextDNS and use it on multiple devices rather than be limited to just my phone for a couple dollars less.

I’m actually using NextDNS’ vpn implementation as it doesn’t affect the wifi at work, for whatever reason I’d always have to disable private dns in order to use the corporate wifi.

moralesformiles ,

Why not change your system DNS to the public AdGuard address? Then you don’t need to use the app. DNS filtering is still more limited than uBlock, of course, but if you refuse to use browsers where that’s available, I think that’s the next best option.

kingtysonsworld ,

yo thanks I forgot that was an option, this is way better than using Blokada actually 👍

ubermeisters ,
@ubermeisters@lemmy.world avatar

Confused why nobody has mentioned Brave Browser. Never had issues with speed or ads.

Yearly1845 ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    ubermeisters ,
    @ubermeisters@lemmy.world avatar

    …because it’s got some dumb cryptocurrency bullshit? Or because of an actually legitimate reason otherwise? I would love if you expanded on that.

    IronKrill ,

    Seconded. I love Firefox on desktop but the mobile UI drives me mad so I use Brave. It works really well and you can disable the Crypto garbage from the new tab page. It is the next best option after Firefox.

    darcy ,
    @darcy@sh.itjust.works avatar

    i dont mean be that guy, but opera is chinese spyware, and firefox is worth the switch. trust me, i used to love opera, but now using firefox (librewolf/mull), i could never go back

    xyzinferno ,
    @xyzinferno@lemmy.world avatar

    Looking it up online, the subject of Opera being chinese spyware seems to be debated pretty thoroughly, but with no definitive consensus (that I could find at least). Any articles on the subject I could read up on?

    I use Firefox myself, so it wouldn’t really impact my internet usage, but I’m just curious about what’s going on with Opera.

    Funnily enough, I think the last time I used Opera was the Internet Channel on the Wii way back when, which was powered by Opera lmao

    hexagonwin ,

    Opera was acquired by a chinese consortium back in 2016 or so. IMO opera telemetry isn’t too different from other proprietary browsers like chrome or edge but there were also some controversial decisions on Opera such as not removing a chinese CA cert (wosign?) that was being widely misused etc.

    RogueBanana ,

    Not only that I am pretty sure every Chinese company are forced to hand over data by law if requested by the government so there’s that.

    darcy ,
    @darcy@sh.itjust.works avatar

    to be fair, so do US companies to the US government, whether or not it is as common

    darcy ,
    @darcy@sh.itjust.works avatar

    any software (especially a browser) that is not open source is not to be trusted.

    Blizzard ,

    You wouldn’t be able to use AdGuard properly with Opera anyway because Opera don’t accept user certificates (issued by AdGuard or AdAway) so it wouldn’t filter https traffic.

    Try Vivaldi, amazing browser, built-in adblocker. Hopefully will be better than Opera’s. Personally haven’t tested it as I’m using said AdGuard which Vivaldi has no problem with - one of the reason I moved from Opera to Vivaldi.

    Or simply change DNS to AdGuard.

    jayandp ,

    Kiwi Browser is Chromium based and supports desktop add-ons like uBlock Origin.

    Nimous OP ,

    Yes but that shit is a terrible browser!

    03040 ,

    Why is Kiwi a terrible browser?

    And009 ,

    Firefox for mobile has a few addons support, including ublock origin. I’m not sure how you mean it’s slow

    03040 ,

    With an old phone Firefox is indeed slow. Startup is slow, page loading is slow, even scrolling is sluggish. On Chromium browser the performance is a lot better if your phone is not that fast.

    jayandp ,

    Works fine for me, so I’m not sure why you think it’s terrible. Only mobile browser with Developer Tools too.

    jerb ,

    You realize Opera is the exact same engine, right?

    gunpachi ,

    I think maybe OP doesn’t like kiwi’s UI/UX

    hexagonwin ,

    This… While I don’t like how the source code isn’t updated to the public regularly there isn’t anything fishy in Kiwi, we get regular updates and there are some neat features like being able to change the tab switcher UI or use desktop extensions.

    janguv ,

    I’m in a restricted country and my phone is not rooted, so if I use ad block apps like AdAway or Adgaurd they need to create a VPN connection in order to function unless the phone is rooted, and that VPN connection doesn’t let me to enable another VPN in order to visit filtered websites or apps.

    Ultimately, I think rooting is the way to go, but only if you have a device with a decent XDA thread guide and support. If you choose not to root, Adguard has their own VPN service integrated if you wanted to pay for that (haven’t tried), or else you can add your own proxy servers through the app – so you can add individual server IPs for (say) Nord and connect to them while still using Adguard in VPN mode.

    gunpachi , (edited )
    1. Create a free Nextdns account.
    2. Add some blocklists
    3. Use the private dns settings on your android to set the dns. (i think this feature is present in Android versions which are 9 and above)

    Voila ! you have blocked ads without wasting your VPN slot.

    As an added bonus you can also configure nextdns to block your specific phone vendor tracking as well.

    If you are interested in trying different web browsers you can check out Fennec from F-droid or Brave browser. These are my go-to browsers on android.

    PotatoesFall ,

    controld.com/free-dns has free DNS resolvers that do the same thing as a pihole. you just go to your phones “Private DNS” setting and at it there. this will work for non-browser apps as well!

    tomatobeard ,

    Thanks for this! I use Windscribe VPN and really like it. Didn’t realize there is a free tier for Control D.

    PotatoesFall ,

    Yeah the engine for Control D is the same as for windscribe just with more bells and whistles, and loads of configuration tools on the paid tier. It’s great for smartphones which circumvent ad blocking by putting stuff in apps rather than browsers.

    nooneescapesthelaw ,

    Mullvad vpn has an ad blocking feature Although ive never tried it

    moldyringwald ,

    It works really well actually! Windscribe has it too

    SaltySalamander ,
    @SaltySalamander@kbin.social avatar

    personalDNSFilter for whole phone adblocking.

    Skimmer ,

    Firefox with uBlock Origin is by far the best option, the only other browser that comes close is Brave, their content blocking and such is pretty good, so I’d recommend trying them if you’re hellbent on not using FF. I’d also recommend looking into NextDNS for system-wide ad/tracker blocking in conjuction with the browser.

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