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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Tailscale ftw!
I use tailscale as a mullvad client. Really happy with both.
All the people suggesting firefox...
You're a man of culture
tips tophat
read what?
Very clearly asking for something else, but people repeatedly recommend OP uses firefox... SMH
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.
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.
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.
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.
are suggesting users shouldn't receive any criticism on posts?
OP provided a viable, easy to set up adblocking method. OP probably can't be bothered transferring bookmarks etc. from their old browser
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.
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.
to be fair, so do US companies to the US government, whether or not it is as common
any software (especially a browser) that is not open source is not to be trusted.
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
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
It's fast enough to be enjoyable but opera has a nicer UI and since you can't use extensions, the speed is consistent.
opera is chinese spyware tho, just for a nice ui thats not worth
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.
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)
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.
yo thanks I forgot that was an option, this is way better than using Blokada actually 👍
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.
Firefox + unlock Origin. Use alternative opens-source apps. DNS: Adguard, NextDNS, etc.
Firefox on Android allows a few extensions. A few of those are privacy badger, ublock origin, and decentraleyes. Should meet your need at a base level.
EDIT: Spelling
Easiest solution I found was manually setting a Private DNS on Android. Adguard public DNS address filters pretty much all of them.
I've found it's worked really well. One annoying part is if you use Google search, the top 4/5 results which usually are ads (but eventually redirect to the correct page you want) become inaccessible, as Adguard interrupts it
Agreed, although I prefer pihole on a separate device. DNS blocking is best blocking.
Adware can detect that crap isn't loaded, but it is indistinguishable from the crap server being down. Normal page blocking is a lot more detectable, so assume pages then instruct you to disable your blocker.
Also, DNS blocking saves you bandwidth.
Firefox + uBlock origin, and reVanced for YouTube ad-blocking/other features.
https://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!
Thanks for this! I use Windscribe VPN and really like it. Didn't realize there is a free tier for Control D.
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.
NextDNS
is this any better than adguard dns or just similar?
way better, as it lets you choose the block lists, add custom domains or whitelist the ones that are being blocked, check the statistics on which domain is being blocked the most, and some more nifty stuff. and it's also not made by a Russian company.
actually I'm just using the public dns so I don't think I can do that
Seconded. NextDNS is incredible and you don't even have to subscribe to get the benefit unless you're a super heavy user.
Firefox and Kiwi browsers both support full Ublock Origin
Perhaps worth trying kiwis built in adblocking before you start. I recently installed kiwi so I could run 'i still don't care about cookies'. Seems really nice
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.
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.
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.
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!
You realize Opera is the exact same engine, right?
I think maybe OP doesn't like kiwi's UI/UX
Why is Kiwi 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.
Firefox for mobile has a few addons support, including ublock origin. I'm not sure how you mean it's slow
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.
In your case I'd sacrifice a bit of speed and went with Firefox. Another option is AdGuard + AdGuard VPN, the apps can work together.
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.
RethinkDNS and Firefox+Ublock-Origin
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
personalDNSFilter for whole phone adblocking.
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.
I find configuring an ad blocking private dns over https DOH in Firefox much faster and efficient compared to other methods. Firefox Extensions and VPN add unnecessary over head.
If interested, the steps are documented in my notes - https://abskmj.github.io/notes/posts/android/firefox-dns-https/
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.
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.
Blokada.
Setting up a PiHole is a method that should work. Costs a bit if you don't already have something to host it on.
If you don't want firefox, Cromite is pretty good. Also if you need your vpn for other things, then the next best thing is a custom dns, I use nextdns which is customisable and blocks a fair amount of stuff.
If you don't mind paying, Blokada has a "cloud" subscription. You set your DNS settings on the phone to what they give you, turn it on in the app once, then it runs without using the VPN method.
I use it because, even though it's another God damn subscription, it seems to work better for me and now I don't have to think about it.
NextDNS has a free ad-blocking option.
I'll look into it, thanks
Just signed up for this. Thanks for the heads up.
Im not very familiar with Opera but do you have the "Allow Acceptable Ads™" setting still on?
Edit: I just used an ad block testing site with Allow Acceptable Ads turned off and tracker blocking and the score it got is about the same as firefox mobile with ublock
Where are you testing it?
https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html
That tool is pretty inaccurate, see here
Personally I use my own selfhosted AdGuard Home instance, configured on my phone as the private DNS server, therefor connecting via encrypted DOT. I've also got this server configured as the DNS on my home network router, meaning every and any device in the network profits from the adblocking, no matter how the respective DNS is configured. If you dont want to mess around with linux, docker and selfhosting in general, NextDNS seems to be a very valuable option as well. In any case, this is a lot more efficient than having an adblocking extension in your browser, since AGH/NDNS will also block ads and tracker in any other app that isn't Firefox.
Pihole + firefox + ublock for adds here. Im not using this, but its also possible to set your home server connect to VPN provider and then route all traffic through that. Then you can use your selfhosted VPN to connect with phone and use both at the same time. Or just enable add blocking on your VPN provider, I guess most of them have one
I use the Samsung browser with the Adguard plug-in, which works great with customizable filter lists.
Samsung browser: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.android.app.sbrowser
Adguard for samsung browser: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adguard.android.contentblocker
I recommend cromite's (fork of bromite) adblocking. It works well and I don't see ads (at least the big ones, maybe I overlooked some smaller ones)
Iceraven
Use firefox and simply deal with the slightly slower app?
And that is the reason why I'm rooted and you should be to. Also if you want to add firewall into combination with vpn and adblock, there is definitely no other way.
I heard rooting has some risks and disadvantages but I have no experience with it. is it good?
It depends if you mind the cons, which doesn't effect me. You can use banking apps, cause you hide magisk root app from them, you have to update manually, cause you need to patch update file to include root (easy), adobe software cannot be fooled by magisk hide so you have to pirate it and Samsung devices will irreversibly trip Knox so no Samsung pay and password. So far I have rooted every device I had since HTC Evo 3D and no problems, only full control of device I paid a lot of money for.
What do you do about banking apps onba rooted phone? Doe's magicx work for those apps
Interested as well. Used to root everything, but if banking is questionable its a no go for me.
Im using firefox + ublock and selfhosting pihole
firefox beta with ublock.
if you use beta, you can install any extensions by adding them to an AMO extension collection.
also make sure to get some sort of dns ad blocker for blocking in-app ads/trackers and vendor tracking:
you have three options:
Get Firefox from https://github.com/Tobi823/ffupdater then its fast
Firefox is a bit slow because it's busy blocking those ads and other garbage then figuring out how to make a web page with what little is leftover. You might be a bit slow if you can't figure that out.