- cross-posted to:
- privacy@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- privacy@lemmy.ml
which is more effective, useful, and efficient?
You must log in or register to comment.
DNS-based blocking more complete for your whole network, independent of the device settings for tech-avers users/kids. DNS-based blocking is less flexible for all users in the network - especially when you need to make exceptions for certain sites. They are also limited to your home network, unless you have a VPN server. Therefore, for mobile devices app-based blocking is the main way to go. Consequently, both make sense and your use case is relevant.
You can do DNS based blocking on mobile, I’m doing it right now.
Private DNS FTW!
I’m using the https://rethinkdns.com/ app, which also gives me a firewall. You do not have to use the app though, you can configure a set of blocklists through their webpage, then add that to Private DNS.
Edit:word
I’ve been using NextDNS foe a while. They do similar. I’ll check out rethink though. Always. Open to something different
OK, I was thinking of piHole (+ unbound) as local DNS blocker. Sure, there are other ways. Thanks for clarifying that!
OK, I was thinking of piHole (+ unbound) as local DNS blocker. Sure, there are other ways. Thanks for clarifying that!
There are services like https://nextdns.io/ that makes it super easy to use DNS-based tracker blocking on most devices.
I’ve been using them for over a year and it works very well.
Mullvad also has DNS with different kind of blockers: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls/ And for the DNS blocking you don’t need an account.
For android, you can enable the private DNS function (DNS over TLS) and specify a custom DNS server that has ad/tracker blocking without having to install any apps. That also has the benefit of encrypting your DNS lookups so nobody can spy on it.
I do this but one thing to note is that it can break some wifi capture portals and auth loops, so you might have to disable specified Wi-Fi, connect, and enable. Some wifi has private view DNS records for their capture portal or auth server like clearpass. Additionally, if your phone switches days to WiFi, but you need data to query or resolve your DNS provider and Android doesn’t have it cached, then it can also fail.
Or install the open source app AdAway that I guess goes over the DNS block of some servers.
If I had to pick only one of the two, I’d prefer local blocking because it cannot only not load ads, but also remove the placeholder/frame the ad would’ve been in. It’s also better at circumventing anti-adblock scripts.
That being said, DNS-based blocking is great outside of browser use, and it blocks many ads and tracking attempts in mobile and desktop apps.
A combination of both is best, really. I use uBlock Origin in the browser (or AdGuard Pro with Safari on Mac and iPhone) and then NextDNS. NextDNS is configured rather conservative though, because it can cause things to break otherwise, and that’s hard to manage when you’re not the only use of your network.
Another benefit of using uBlock Origin is the ability to use the cosmetic filters so you can remove elements from the page that aren’t served as ads in the typical sense. As an example when you’re reading an article and there’s an obnoxious box half way through that says CONSIDER SUBSCRIBING etc. It’s not loading any external resources, it’s just inlined HTML. But you can enter element picker mode and if you are able to uniquely target that element you can filter it out.
Adguard with DNS + local blocking is the way.
I did this for the longest time until I realised that because AdGuard works best as a virtual VPN, it is unable to run alongside an actual VPN. Luckily my VPN (and many others) support ad blocking too.
Adguard VPN and Adguard (adblocker) can work simultaneously 😀😀😀
The only caveat is that Adguard VPN only works with their servers, so you can’t, for example, VPN to your home or work network.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I meant to say that AdGuard on mobile (Android) runs by pretending to be a VPN in order to intercept all connections and filter the ads out of them. This works great to remove ads in apps, etc.
However, because it hooks into the VPN interface you can’t then run another VPN (for example Proton VPN) because Android only allows one VPN to run at any time.
