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I've been testing a number of Android ad blockers. Mainly because I feel like every single app under the sun is plastered with obnoxious advertisements. Tried

I've been testing a number of Android ad blockers. Mainly because I feel like every single app under the sun is plastered with obnoxious advertisements. Tried out AdBlockPlus (not the browser) for a month - horrible experience. They actually firehose/stream all of the data your phone uses through their app to block the ads, so for that month my data usage doubled because most major US carriers consider "app data" as separate usage. Really, most apps available (now) on the Play store related to removing ads just really don't do it right, and sketch me out mainly because Google has taken a much more proactive approach recently to removing "real ad blockers." So far the best solution IMO is to root your phone (necessary for this), install F-Droid, and install AdAway (which was once in the Play store). It uses the hosts file to block advertisements (the default list is great) and has worked wonderfully, without changing my experience at all (other than removing all the ads).

Vexs 11y ago
AdAway is the only way I've found to do this with any sort of reliability, though it seems a bit funny (to me anyway) that hosts file editing is still the way to go. I have to ask though, what do you mean by "app data"? Do cell carriers really have a way to figure out that apps are sending out the data, or is it just charging more for websites and such?
- mcescalante 11y ago
  Good question - I also answered for true_religion below, but it appears as though cell carriers are somehow charge for the "sum" of the data usage numbers you see in "Data Usage" on your phone - even though that number could be (was) wrong, because the adblock data is not actual traffic/data. Not sure who's ultimately at fault for this.
true_religion 11y ago
> so for that month my data usage doubled because most major US carriers consider "app data" as separate usage. Are you saying that they sent all your data to their backend servers and stripped ads there? Or is it just that they were doing it client side, but your phone company erroneously double counted data even though it wasn't sent twice over the wireless?
- mcescalante 11y ago
  That the data was being erroneously calculated/charged. I had to do some research, but Verizon (my carrier) and a bunch of other carriers actually appear to bill for "app usage data," which is still pretty unclear to me. It just magically shows up on your bill, even though it's not real used data. If you want to read of the numerous reports of the same issue, Google "adblock plus data usage android" and click on any of the forum discussions about it.
coffeedrinker 11y ago
I tried AdBlockPlus last year on my android tablet. It had a bug that didn't close video streams. If you started watching something and closed the app or started another stream, the old stream(s) get coming as well. That burned through a lot of data. Now I just root my devices and use a hosts file (MoaAB - Mother of all Ad Blocking).
JohnTHaller 11y ago
Or you could pay for apps so they don't have ads in them.
- ianlevesque 11y ago
  That's crazy. Apps materialize out of thin air and nobody needs to eat.
  - bobajeff 11y ago
    I don't think it's smart to sustain yourself on money from mobile apps considering all of the data published about that recently.
- mcescalante 11y ago
  It's not that I don't pay to support the apps that I actually use, it's that when I download the "Lite" version of your app to decide if I'll pay for it, the fact that I have a hard time clicking anywhere without getting a giant 30 second modal popup ad. That definitely makes me less likely to pay you for your software. Maybe it's just a personal thing that I don't want to give developers who would do that my money.
- jotux 11y ago
  There are many apps that have ads and no paid ad-free version.
- _ZeD_ 11y ago
  except for payed apps WITH ads...
gwu78 11y ago
"It uses the hosts file to block ads..." You could also run your own "localhost" DNS to block ads. This is a bit more flexible than the HOSTS file. Even if you are a novice, I believe once you have this setup working, you will never go back to third party DNS such as your ISP or openresolvers like Google, OpenDNS, etc. Just my personal opinion. By using DNS you can also block ads across all your devices, at least on your home LAN. You use one device to block ads on all your devices by making the one device a gateway for the others. No need to root the devices; just change the gateway in network settings. It all works beautifully. Maybe someone should do a startup? It seems like there is real demand for blocking ads and the current solutions leave much to be desired. On the free side, I can package a working solution on a bootable USB stick, SD card, CD, etc. Or I can make it a userspace kernel, Xen kernel or some other virtualized format for the "container" enthusiasts. Without expending any effort to reduce size of the bootable kernel the whole thing (with embedded filesystem) weighs in at about 20MB. Enough configuration has already been done so all you have to do is come up with a spare computer (e.g., old laptop, PC), boot and enjoy the ad free experience. You can also block google-analytics, mobile apps than phone home, etc. You can stop your Apple devices from being the beacons they are: they phone home to multiple domains constantly 24/7. Running your own DNS also makes redirections easier, e.g., when you are monitoring SSL traffic being sent from apps, etc. The list goes on. Note I am not denigrating the HOSTS file. I regularly make use of the HOSTS file in tandem with DNS, but not to block ads.
izacus 11y ago
What do you mean by "US carriers consider app data a separate usage"? Separate usage from what? How do they know? Do they have spyware on your phone? O.o Since AdBlockPlus uses a local 127.0.0.1 HTTP proxy if you don't have root access to modify hosts.
- mcescalante 11y ago
  I'm not positive, but there are a solid number of reports of people being pretty much being billed for the sum of the numbers that are in "Data Usage" on the Android device. This is exactly what happened to me. The number on my Verizon bill was what my "Data Usage" number said, not what the real used data was. Not sure if this is a carrier, AdBlock, or Android issue. It's definitely dishonest of Verizon, but it doesn't make me trust AdBlockPlus at all, either. No way the carrier had spyware ON my device. Was running a Moto X dev edition with a Custom ROM & kernel at the time. Google the phrase "adblock plus data usage android" and read some of the forum discussions / reports about the whole thing.

Vexs 11y ago

AdAway is the only way I've found to do this with any sort of reliability, though it seems a bit funny (to me anyway) that hosts file editing is still the way to go. I have to ask though, what do you mean by "app data"? Do cell carriers really have a way to figure out that apps are sending out the data, or is it just charging more for websites and such?

mcescalante 11y ago
Good question - I also answered for true_religion below, but it appears as though cell carriers are somehow charge for the "sum" of the data usage numbers you see in "Data Usage" on your phone - even though that number could be (was) wrong, because the adblock data is not actual traffic/data. Not sure who's ultimately at fault for this.

true_religion 11y ago

> so for that month my data usage doubled because most major US carriers consider "app data" as separate usage. Are you saying that they sent all your data to their backend servers and stripped ads there? Or is it just that they were doing it client side, but your phone company erroneously double counted data even though it wasn't sent twice over the wireless?

mcescalante 11y ago
That the data was being erroneously calculated/charged. I had to do some research, but Verizon (my carrier) and a bunch of other carriers actually appear to bill for "app usage data," which is still pretty unclear to me. It just magically shows up on your bill, even though it's not real used data. If you want to read of the numerous reports of the same issue, Google "adblock plus data usage android" and click on any of the forum discussions about it.

coffeedrinker 11y ago

I tried AdBlockPlus last year on my android tablet. It had a bug that didn't close video streams. If you started watching something and closed the app or started another stream, the old stream(s) get coming as well. That burned through a lot of data. Now I just root my devices and use a hosts file (MoaAB - Mother of all Ad Blocking).

JohnTHaller 11y ago

Or you could pay for apps so they don't have ads in them.

ianlevesque 11y ago
That's crazy. Apps materialize out of thin air and nobody needs to eat.
- bobajeff 11y ago
  I don't think it's smart to sustain yourself on money from mobile apps considering all of the data published about that recently.
mcescalante 11y ago
It's not that I don't pay to support the apps that I actually use, it's that when I download the "Lite" version of your app to decide if I'll pay for it, the fact that I have a hard time clicking anywhere without getting a giant 30 second modal popup ad. That definitely makes me less likely to pay you for your software. Maybe it's just a personal thing that I don't want to give developers who would do that my money.
jotux 11y ago
There are many apps that have ads and no paid ad-free version.
_ZeD_ 11y ago
except for payed apps WITH ads...

gwu78 11y ago

"It uses the hosts file to block ads..." You could also run your own "localhost" DNS to block ads. This is a bit more flexible than the HOSTS file. Even if you are a novice, I believe once you have this setup working, you will never go back to third party DNS such as your ISP or openresolvers like Google, OpenDNS, etc. Just my personal opinion. By using DNS you can also block ads across all your devices, at least on your home LAN. You use one device to block ads on all your devices by making the one device a gateway for the others. No need to root the devices; just change the gateway in network settings. It all works beautifully. Maybe someone should do a startup? It seems like there is real demand for blocking ads and the current solutions leave much to be desired. On the free side, I can package a working solution on a bootable USB stick, SD card, CD, etc. Or I can make it a userspace kernel, Xen kernel or some other virtualized format for the "container" enthusiasts. Without expending any effort to reduce size of the bootable kernel the whole thing (with embedded filesystem) weighs in at about 20MB. Enough configuration has already been done so all you have to do is come up with a spare computer (e.g., old laptop, PC), boot and enjoy the ad free experience. You can also block google-analytics, mobile apps than phone home, etc. You can stop your Apple devices from being the beacons they are: they phone home to multiple domains constantly 24/7. Running your own DNS also makes redirections easier, e.g., when you are monitoring SSL traffic being sent from apps, etc. The list goes on. Note I am not denigrating the HOSTS file. I regularly make use of the HOSTS file in tandem with DNS, but not to block ads.

izacus 11y ago

What do you mean by "US carriers consider app data a separate usage"? Separate usage from what? How do they know? Do they have spyware on your phone? O.o Since AdBlockPlus uses a local 127.0.0.1 HTTP proxy if you don't have root access to modify hosts.

mcescalante 11y ago
I'm not positive, but there are a solid number of reports of people being pretty much being billed for the sum of the numbers that are in "Data Usage" on the Android device. This is exactly what happened to me. The number on my Verizon bill was what my "Data Usage" number said, not what the real used data was. Not sure if this is a carrier, AdBlock, or Android issue. It's definitely dishonest of Verizon, but it doesn't make me trust AdBlockPlus at all, either. No way the carrier had spyware ON my device. Was running a Moto X dev edition with a Custom ROM & kernel at the time. Google the phrase "adblock plus data usage android" and read some of the forum discussions / reports about the whole thing.