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Why are our devices so far outside our own control that we need to run an additional device on our networks to help prevent them from making unwanted network re

Why are our devices so far outside our own control that we need to run an additional device on our networks to help prevent them from making unwanted network requests? The whole approach of Pi-hole feels misguided. Blacklisting domains and hosts should be something easily done on my device locally. Then it comes with me when I visit friends or coffee shops, and it's easy to temporarily disable when it breaks something I'm trying to use. The fact that I can't do this on things like my phone really illustrates how little control we really have over our own computing devices.

upofadown 8y ago
You can edit the hosts file on Android apparently and the Pi-hole is just a shared hosts file.
- biktor_gj 8y ago
  It's a self-updating hosts file. If you only do it once in a month you'll start seeing ads again. Also you can edit the hosts file if you're rooted, but you definitely can't if you're running a stock unmodified ROM. If you're rooted and you only care about your Android phone, you can also install Adaway, which does pretty much the same thing without the whitelist capability (Get it on F-Droid), but if you have a number of devices to protect, and some of them are iOS devices, TVs or whatever that can't be rooted, jailbroken, or you don't have administrative privileges to, Pi-hole is a good choice (if you run pfSense at home you can also use pfBlockerNG, which is essentially the same thing too).
  - moftz 8y ago
    Host file blocking on mobile devices produces some weird web browsing. I like using browser plugins because it gets rid of the whole chunk of html so it's like the ad was never there in the first place. On android, there are these huge blank spots you have to scroll past to keep reading. I still keep adaway on but I wish I could just use ublock origin with android's chrome.
    - lyk 8y ago
      You can use uBlock Origin in Firefox on Android, and I've found DNS66 to be a good non-rooted adblocker on Android.
      - pdimitar 8y ago
        Now there's also Blokada which is a little bit better (found it to block some ads that DNS66 actually let through; it was a random discovery, I am not a researcher).
713233eb 8y ago
There are devices that are not easy to free up from ads, eg. unmodified WP mobiles. This way they are protected from ads as well when tehy are conmected to the same network with wifi.
ethagnawl 8y ago
Surprisingly, I've yet to see a service which fronts Pi-Hole or similar and allows you to point your DNS resolver(?) at it, so you can use it on the go -- without having to use a VPN. I tried to set this up on my own using a VPS and Pi-Hole and it did work for a while. However, bad actors eventually found the server and started using it to perform DNS amplification attacks against, of all things, cricket news websites. I don't know too much about networking, so this may be a limitation of the DNS protocol. However, it seems like Quad9, Cloudflare and the like have figured out a way to prevent this sort of abuse... So, if any provider out there is reading this, please add this capability and I will gladly pay to use your DNS service.
- zacwest 8y ago
  https://adfreetime.com https://adfreetime.com does this, as well as proxying location checking (like MLB's video streaming).
  - ethagnawl 8y ago
    Cool! Thanks for sharing this. Out of curiosity, do you have any idea how they prevent the scenario I outlined (e.g. metadata, traffic analysis)?
    - voltagex_ 8y ago
      >$1.99 US a month, less than a cup of coffee! At that price, I doubt they do.
- DavideNL 8y ago
  You mean a public Dns server with ad blocking? https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html Note that obviously since you are sharing all your dns requests with them, it's terrible for privacy... :'(
  - ethagnawl 8y ago
    > Not that obviously since you are sharing all your dns requests with them, it's terrible for privacy... :'( Right. I'm not defending this service in any way, but couldn't you say the same about Quad9 or Cloudflare?
dest 8y ago
Editing the hosts file is a security risk. You don't want a malicious app do this in your back so that when you type alice.com, you see bob.com instead. Fortunately, to some extent, HTTPS or GPG come to the rescue.
michaelmrose 8y ago
Firefox for android can run extensions so its trivial to just install ublock origin. You can even use choose to sync extensions across devices and as soon as you login to your Firefox account all your extensions will be installed automatically.

upofadown 8y ago

You can edit the hosts file on Android apparently and the Pi-hole is just a shared hosts file.

biktor_gj 8y ago
It's a self-updating hosts file. If you only do it once in a month you'll start seeing ads again. Also you can edit the hosts file if you're rooted, but you definitely can't if you're running a stock unmodified ROM. If you're rooted and you only care about your Android phone, you can also install Adaway, which does pretty much the same thing without the whitelist capability (Get it on F-Droid), but if you have a number of devices to protect, and some of them are iOS devices, TVs or whatever that can't be rooted, jailbroken, or you don't have administrative privileges to, Pi-hole is a good choice (if you run pfSense at home you can also use pfBlockerNG, which is essentially the same thing too).
- moftz 8y ago
  Host file blocking on mobile devices produces some weird web browsing. I like using browser plugins because it gets rid of the whole chunk of html so it's like the ad was never there in the first place. On android, there are these huge blank spots you have to scroll past to keep reading. I still keep adaway on but I wish I could just use ublock origin with android's chrome.
  - lyk 8y ago
    You can use uBlock Origin in Firefox on Android, and I've found DNS66 to be a good non-rooted adblocker on Android.
    - pdimitar 8y ago
      Now there's also Blokada which is a little bit better (found it to block some ads that DNS66 actually let through; it was a random discovery, I am not a researcher).

713233eb 8y ago

There are devices that are not easy to free up from ads, eg. unmodified WP mobiles. This way they are protected from ads as well when tehy are conmected to the same network with wifi.

ethagnawl 8y ago

Surprisingly, I've yet to see a service which fronts Pi-Hole or similar and allows you to point your DNS resolver(?) at it, so you can use it on the go -- without having to use a VPN. I tried to set this up on my own using a VPS and Pi-Hole and it did work for a while. However, bad actors eventually found the server and started using it to perform DNS amplification attacks against, of all things, cricket news websites. I don't know too much about networking, so this may be a limitation of the DNS protocol. However, it seems like Quad9, Cloudflare and the like have figured out a way to prevent this sort of abuse... So, if any provider out there is reading this, please add this capability and I will gladly pay to use your DNS service.

zacwest 8y ago
https://adfreetime.com https://adfreetime.com does this, as well as proxying location checking (like MLB's video streaming).
- ethagnawl 8y ago
  Cool! Thanks for sharing this. Out of curiosity, do you have any idea how they prevent the scenario I outlined (e.g. metadata, traffic analysis)?
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    >$1.99 US a month, less than a cup of coffee! At that price, I doubt they do.
DavideNL 8y ago
You mean a public Dns server with ad blocking? https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html Note that obviously since you are sharing all your dns requests with them, it's terrible for privacy... :'(
- ethagnawl 8y ago
  > Not that obviously since you are sharing all your dns requests with them, it's terrible for privacy... :'( Right. I'm not defending this service in any way, but couldn't you say the same about Quad9 or Cloudflare?

dest 8y ago

Editing the hosts file is a security risk. You don't want a malicious app do this in your back so that when you type alice.com, you see bob.com instead. Fortunately, to some extent, HTTPS or GPG come to the rescue.

michaelmrose 8y ago

Firefox for android can run extensions so its trivial to just install ublock origin. You can even use choose to sync extensions across devices and as soon as you login to your Firefox account all your extensions will be installed automatically.