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.
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All the people suggesting firefox…
You’re a man of culture
tips tophat
read what?
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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).
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 ?
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.
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.
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
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
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.
any software (especially a browser) that is not open source is not to be trusted.
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.
Firefox + unlock Origin. Use alternative opens-source apps. DNS: Adguard, NextDNS, etc.
Kiwi Browser is Chromium based and supports desktop add-ons like uBlock Origin.
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.
Yes but that shit is a terrible browser!
Works fine for me, so I’m not sure why you think it’s terrible. Only mobile browser with Developer Tools too.
Why is Kiwi a terrible browser?
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.
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.
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.
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This. I haven’t had ads since Adblock came out in 2009. I switched to uBlock Origin few years ago, without it browsing would be intolerable.
Last spring I helped a colleague with her work laptop and saw Chrome without adblocker. It was hideous.
I installed uOrigin instantly and got the reputation of “Tech Wizard Who Can Make Ads Go Away”. Turned out that almost no one had ever even heard of this possibility.
- Create a free Nextdns account.
- Add some blocklists
- 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.
Mullvad vpn has an ad blocking feature Although ive never tried it
It works really well actually! Windscribe has it too
Have you heard about pihole for DNS blocking ? You m might have success when at home on wifi as this would greatly cut down on ads and trackers.
Otherwise, if you think Firefox is too slow to pirate (not sure I understand that, but ok) you can try another browser … maybe try Brave? Ya, maybe some negative publicity lately, but I’m not sure it bothers me, or perhaps I don’t understand what exactly they might be selling of my info…
I’m sure I mentioned that opera is my main browser because it’s faster. And I don’t care much about my data being sold to chinese government because 1. I’m in a restricted country and they can’t take any usage of my info. 2. I hide myself in other ways.
I used to be a big fan of Opera back when it was good but I wouldn’t recommend using anything made by them since they got bought out by a shady Chinese company that makes their money off of predatory payday loan apps with exploitative interest rates in a few developing nations. Firefox (and Mull and the like) are the best Android web browsers but if you really want a Chromium-based one then I’d recommend looking into using one that’s open source and not owned by an unethical corporation.
If I were you I’d just root my phone and use it along with AdAway.
If that isn’t an option for you you already got some neat answers like using a public DNS or your own self hosted.
Been using dnsforge.de along with ublock origin on fennec. Seems to work well enough, but I might go back to personalDNSfilter to block ads with local VPN if i notice anything slipping through
