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One of the most important thing I miss about having an Android. I moved to iPhone 2 years ago and still use Firefox as my primary browser. But due to the Firefo

One of the most important thing I miss about having an Android. I moved to iPhone 2 years ago and still use Firefox as my primary browser. But due to the Firefox's lack of addons support on iOS, I have to rely on a self-hosted OpenVPN setup with Pi-Hole[0] installed to get rid of ads and trackers. [0] https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole

cute_boi 4y ago
in iOS, firefox really don't have any choice as they can't even use their own engine due to Apple egregious appstore policy. One thing ff can do is make andriod like browser that supports ublock using altstore. That being said, this may not justify the time spent by developer.
- arepublicadoceu 4y ago
  > in iOS, firefox really don't have any choice as they can't even use their own engine due to Apple egregious appstore policy. Funny you said that, out of the top of my head: - Brave have a full featured adblock built in on iOS; - Edge(!) have adblock plus extension built in as well; - iCab have adblock capabilities built As you can see, there's plenty of options even with Apple engine restriction. They just don't care enough to give iOS users a good experience, see the frustration on these threads[1][2]. It's all fair, I just gave up using Firefox on iOS and stopped caring about Firefox as well. Surfing the web without a proper adblock is just a rollercoast of frustration. [1] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374 [2] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/5198 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/5198
- thebitstick 4y ago
  Orion for iOS allows the installation of Firefox addons (albeit with lots of beta bugs).
ssbash 4y ago
Safari on iOS has supported content blockers since iOS 9. Last year Safari on iOS gained web extension support. There are orders of magnitude more Safari extensions on the App Store than Firefox on Android. I use Dark Reader, AdGuard, Vinegar, and Sponsorblock.
dont__panic 4y ago
FYI, I used to use openVPN but eventually switched to Wireguard (via pivpn) for two reasons: - Wireguard is allegedly more efficient... I'm not 100% sure about that, but it does seem to connect faster, and my battery metrics report < 5% battery usage from WG, compared to ~8% for openVPN. YMMV ofc. - Wireguard can automatically connect to the VPN whenever you're not using a whitelisted Wi-Fi SSID. It's nice that my phone doesn't use VPN on my home wifi, but the minute I leave home, the VPN automatically updates. Not that you're doing anything wrong, but I just figured I'd shared because I put off the switch to WG for a long time and I've had a positive experience since. FWIW I really really wish I could run FF + ublock origin on my iphone.
- hnews_account_1 4y ago
  You should keep your VPN on at home too if it doesn’t leak your Wi-Fi connection information.
  - dont__panic 4y ago
    > if it doesn’t leak your Wi-Fi connection information. I don't think I understand. I run my VPN at home on a raspberry pi. So all of my network traffic, at the end of the day, goes through my home ISP. I've considered shelling out for a VPN service to shield my traffic from ISP snooping, but at the end of the day you can only hide so much from your ISP, and I'm hesitant to introduce another failure point to my network (my SO will only take so much downtime!). I mostly use the VPN as a convenience to ad-block on all devices at the DNS level and access self-hosted services like my Jellyfin server even when I'm not at home. The security benefit is also nice when I'm away from home on any WiFi network other than my own -- you never know what's going on behind the scenes. Overall I don't worry too much about ISP snooping. But I probably should.
    - hnews_account_1 4y ago
      Were you using VPN in the original meaning of the term as a tunnel to a non local network? I was using it in the modern sense of what we used to call a proxy in the early 2000s. So services like NordVPN etc. I think you definitely need to not give your ISP any chance to snoop. I’m sure they can’t look into your packets but just knowing which sites you visit is crucial info. As is exposing your Wi-Fi info for apps on your phone which use it as a correlation data point. Obv since we’re on this forum, we both likely know how deep the privacy rabbit hole goes but in my experience, a good vpn service can do a ton of stuff together like dns filtering, traffic shielding from the isp, location shielding, ad blocking etc. Quite a one stop shop in a lot of cases.
jayess 4y ago
Same, so I use nextdns.io for ad blocking on my ios devices.
willy_k 4y ago
You could consider using NextDNS [0] instead of PiHole for this purpose. It seems like a good fit if you aren’t using the vpn for local network access as well (even then, I would consider switching to Taiscale, and then using the NextDNS integration with Tailscale). [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nextdns/id1463342498 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nextdns/id1463342498
- Melatonic 4y ago
  +1 for NextDNS
  - raffraffraff 4y ago
    It's good, but I get occasional sites that refuse to load at all. I get a blank screen. Oddly though, if I look in the dev tools, network tab and see the response, the page is there. It just doesn't get rendered. When I go through Cloudflare DoH, it works fine.
    - Melatonic 4y ago
      I keep a second browser linked to Cloudflare DoH for this reason. The OS and my router go to NextDNS, Firefox also set to NextDNS DoH, Chrome NextDNS as well, and then Firefox Nightly and Chrome Canary are set to DoH to Cloudflare for testing or one off workarounds. I do the same thing on my phone too.
      - raffraffraff 4y ago
        So it's not just me :(
        Melatonic 4y ago
        Not a huge deal - if you turn on the "block page" setting in NextDNS it will tell you exactly which rule is blocking it

cute_boi 4y ago

in iOS, firefox really don't have any choice as they can't even use their own engine due to Apple egregious appstore policy. One thing ff can do is make andriod like browser that supports ublock using altstore. That being said, this may not justify the time spent by developer.

arepublicadoceu 4y ago
> in iOS, firefox really don't have any choice as they can't even use their own engine due to Apple egregious appstore policy. Funny you said that, out of the top of my head: - Brave have a full featured adblock built in on iOS; - Edge(!) have adblock plus extension built in as well; - iCab have adblock capabilities built As you can see, there's plenty of options even with Apple engine restriction. They just don't care enough to give iOS users a good experience, see the frustration on these threads[1][2]. It's all fair, I just gave up using Firefox on iOS and stopped caring about Firefox as well. Surfing the web without a proper adblock is just a rollercoast of frustration. [1] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374 [2] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/5198 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/5198
thebitstick 4y ago
Orion for iOS allows the installation of Firefox addons (albeit with lots of beta bugs).

ssbash 4y ago

Safari on iOS has supported content blockers since iOS 9. Last year Safari on iOS gained web extension support. There are orders of magnitude more Safari extensions on the App Store than Firefox on Android. I use Dark Reader, AdGuard, Vinegar, and Sponsorblock.

dont__panic 4y ago

FYI, I used to use openVPN but eventually switched to Wireguard (via pivpn) for two reasons: - Wireguard is allegedly more efficient... I'm not 100% sure about that, but it does seem to connect faster, and my battery metrics report < 5% battery usage from WG, compared to ~8% for openVPN. YMMV ofc. - Wireguard can automatically connect to the VPN whenever you're not using a whitelisted Wi-Fi SSID. It's nice that my phone doesn't use VPN on my home wifi, but the minute I leave home, the VPN automatically updates. Not that you're doing anything wrong, but I just figured I'd shared because I put off the switch to WG for a long time and I've had a positive experience since. FWIW I really really wish I could run FF + ublock origin on my iphone.

hnews_account_1 4y ago
You should keep your VPN on at home too if it doesn’t leak your Wi-Fi connection information.
- dont__panic 4y ago
  > if it doesn’t leak your Wi-Fi connection information. I don't think I understand. I run my VPN at home on a raspberry pi. So all of my network traffic, at the end of the day, goes through my home ISP. I've considered shelling out for a VPN service to shield my traffic from ISP snooping, but at the end of the day you can only hide so much from your ISP, and I'm hesitant to introduce another failure point to my network (my SO will only take so much downtime!). I mostly use the VPN as a convenience to ad-block on all devices at the DNS level and access self-hosted services like my Jellyfin server even when I'm not at home. The security benefit is also nice when I'm away from home on any WiFi network other than my own -- you never know what's going on behind the scenes. Overall I don't worry too much about ISP snooping. But I probably should.
  - hnews_account_1 4y ago
    Were you using VPN in the original meaning of the term as a tunnel to a non local network? I was using it in the modern sense of what we used to call a proxy in the early 2000s. So services like NordVPN etc. I think you definitely need to not give your ISP any chance to snoop. I’m sure they can’t look into your packets but just knowing which sites you visit is crucial info. As is exposing your Wi-Fi info for apps on your phone which use it as a correlation data point. Obv since we’re on this forum, we both likely know how deep the privacy rabbit hole goes but in my experience, a good vpn service can do a ton of stuff together like dns filtering, traffic shielding from the isp, location shielding, ad blocking etc. Quite a one stop shop in a lot of cases.

jayess 4y ago

Same, so I use nextdns.io for ad blocking on my ios devices.

willy_k 4y ago

You could consider using NextDNS [0] instead of PiHole for this purpose. It seems like a good fit if you aren’t using the vpn for local network access as well (even then, I would consider switching to Taiscale, and then using the NextDNS integration with Tailscale). [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nextdns/id1463342498 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nextdns/id1463342498

Melatonic 4y ago
+1 for NextDNS
- raffraffraff 4y ago
  It's good, but I get occasional sites that refuse to load at all. I get a blank screen. Oddly though, if I look in the dev tools, network tab and see the response, the page is there. It just doesn't get rendered. When I go through Cloudflare DoH, it works fine.
  - Melatonic 4y ago
    I keep a second browser linked to Cloudflare DoH for this reason. The OS and my router go to NextDNS, Firefox also set to NextDNS DoH, Chrome NextDNS as well, and then Firefox Nightly and Chrome Canary are set to DoH to Cloudflare for testing or one off workarounds. I do the same thing on my phone too.
    - raffraffraff 4y ago
      So it's not just me :(
      - Melatonic 4y ago
        Not a huge deal - if you turn on the "block page" setting in NextDNS it will tell you exactly which rule is blocking it