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Pi-hole in home network, AdAway on all smartphones, uBlock Origin an all Firefox browsers. I'm shocked when browsing web on different devices. I always recomme

Pi-hole in home network, AdAway on all smartphones, uBlock Origin an all Firefox browsers. I'm shocked when browsing web on different devices. I always recommend to at least install uBlock Origin to users of those devices. Most of them never heard about ad-blocking and they are very, very happy with new web browsing experience. 99% of theme do not want go back. 1% don't care.

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
Adguard works so well that I forget it's there until I try browsing the web away from home.
- t0bia_s 4y ago
  AdAway is main reason, why I root android devices. It block ads in all apps and browsers even on data, without VPN. Another way how to block ads on data is using OpenVPN to connect data through you home router that has ad-blocking. But it is limited by upload speed of home network connection and battery drain of your smartphone is worse with active OpenVPN.
  - ytch 4y ago
    I use OpenVPN/Wireguard to setup split-tunnel VPN, only route DNS traffic to Pi-hole at home network. Although my connection may be leaked, I thought it's faster since 5G is faster than my home network upload speed.
    - t0bia_s 4y ago
      But your speed in device connected to OpenVPN/Wireguard is limited by upload speed of you home connection. Not by data connection speed on client device.
      - ytch 4y ago
        Yeah, So I use split-tunnel. For example only route 192.168.1.0/24 via VPN, then set 192.168.1.10 as DNS server. Therefore I can use pi-hole at home and other traffic are routed by 5G directly.
PaulKeeble 4y ago
I noticed sometime last year Samsung put out an update for my Tablet that overrode my DNS delivered by DHCP and used Google's DNS directly. It was immediately obvious due to the amount of ads I haven't seen for years at this point due to running a pihole. Most of the solutions either involve software VPNs in the device to restore function or rooting it. Its terrible that any device would ignore and have no way to use the network settings as provided by the gateway.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
  Just block Google's DNS servers at the router level. (Although the best solution would probably be to ditch Samsung crap)
- zo1 4y ago
  DNS, proxy and cert settings should be exposed to the user without question. And if apps bypass it and do things like cert pinning they need to be banned off the stores. This is the only way to fix the ecosystem.
- paulmd 4y ago
  Google gets all the flak but frankly Samsung has been the point of the spear for years on adtech shit - they were one of the companies caught mining application logs from other applications to bypass permissions that you denied them, causing Google to have to go back and implement iOS-style application sandboxing. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/more-than-1000-android-apps-harvest-your-data-even-after-you-deny-permissions/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/more-than-1000-android-apps... Similarly, their TVs are known as probably the single most obnoxious devices on the market right now, and are always in the news for finding some new and obnoxious way to push more ads or more intrusive ways to spy on you in general. Everyone always asks this about Apple but really it's never seemed more relevant than with Samsung: why are you purchasing hardware from a company that very very obviously does not respect you as a customer? Aren't there any other android vendors you could patronize instead? (to be fair, if you aren't interested in budget hardware, and you won't buy a chinese phone, I suppose that list isn't all that long. you have... google and sony, I guess?)
- 4y ago

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

Adguard works so well that I forget it's there until I try browsing the web away from home.

t0bia_s 4y ago
AdAway is main reason, why I root android devices. It block ads in all apps and browsers even on data, without VPN. Another way how to block ads on data is using OpenVPN to connect data through you home router that has ad-blocking. But it is limited by upload speed of home network connection and battery drain of your smartphone is worse with active OpenVPN.
- ytch 4y ago
  I use OpenVPN/Wireguard to setup split-tunnel VPN, only route DNS traffic to Pi-hole at home network. Although my connection may be leaked, I thought it's faster since 5G is faster than my home network upload speed.
  - t0bia_s 4y ago
    But your speed in device connected to OpenVPN/Wireguard is limited by upload speed of you home connection. Not by data connection speed on client device.
    - ytch 4y ago
      Yeah, So I use split-tunnel. For example only route 192.168.1.0/24 via VPN, then set 192.168.1.10 as DNS server. Therefore I can use pi-hole at home and other traffic are routed by 5G directly.

PaulKeeble 4y ago

I noticed sometime last year Samsung put out an update for my Tablet that overrode my DNS delivered by DHCP and used Google's DNS directly. It was immediately obvious due to the amount of ads I haven't seen for years at this point due to running a pihole. Most of the solutions either involve software VPNs in the device to restore function or rooting it. Its terrible that any device would ignore and have no way to use the network settings as provided by the gateway.

aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
Just block Google's DNS servers at the router level. (Although the best solution would probably be to ditch Samsung crap)
zo1 4y ago
DNS, proxy and cert settings should be exposed to the user without question. And if apps bypass it and do things like cert pinning they need to be banned off the stores. This is the only way to fix the ecosystem.
paulmd 4y ago
Google gets all the flak but frankly Samsung has been the point of the spear for years on adtech shit - they were one of the companies caught mining application logs from other applications to bypass permissions that you denied them, causing Google to have to go back and implement iOS-style application sandboxing. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/more-than-1000-android-apps-harvest-your-data-even-after-you-deny-permissions/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/more-than-1000-android-apps... Similarly, their TVs are known as probably the single most obnoxious devices on the market right now, and are always in the news for finding some new and obnoxious way to push more ads or more intrusive ways to spy on you in general. Everyone always asks this about Apple but really it's never seemed more relevant than with Samsung: why are you purchasing hardware from a company that very very obviously does not respect you as a customer? Aren't there any other android vendors you could patronize instead? (to be fair, if you aren't interested in budget hardware, and you won't buy a chinese phone, I suppose that list isn't all that long. you have... google and sony, I guess?)
4y ago