What ad blocker do you prefer?

[Simon]

Well I know the problem for my use case is real. My question was just if there’s an elegant workaround. I’ll have to check out @paal’s suggestion.

[fischej (Jeff Fischer)]

@ron

You do lose blocking when you leave your own home network, though it’s possible to set up a Pi-hole + Wireguard VPN so you can take your Pi-hole protection with you when you travel.

The VPN solution sounds interesting. I’m trying to imagine how that would work, but I don’t really have the networking chops to do so. I use Tailscale as a VPN, which points back to my local network, so if I have my local router using AdGuard’s DNS servers, would that accomplish the same thing as your Pi-hole + Wireguard solution?

[gingerbeardman (matt)]

So whilst using AdGuard DNS you can’t access a website that you ought to be able to? Which website?

I only ask because you referred to other blockers, and not AdGuard DNS, which made me think you hadn’t tried it and were going off experience with other blockers. I can believe your scenario, I just wondered if it had happened using only AdGuard DNS.

[ron (Ron Risley)]

@fischej

if I have my local router using AdGuard’s DNS servers, would that accomplish the same thing as your Pi-hole + Wireguard solution?

I’ve not looked at AdGuard, but I assume it would be pretty much the same. The main difference would be that, with the Pi-hole solution, your upstream DNS resolver (I use Quad9) would get access to all your DNS queries. With the AdGuard solution, it’s AdGuard that would get that information. Whether you consider your DNS lookups to be sensitive or not is a highly individual issue – it was vitally important to me in the past, but isn’t so much now that I’m retired.

[john4 (John Springer)]

I use AdGuard, but have whitelisted a lot of sites because you can’t read them with an adblocker on. Plain ads aren’t usually offensive. WHAT I REALLY WANT: A “Login with Google” blocker!!!

[gingerbeardman (matt)]

@john4

A “Login with Google” blocker!!!

1Blocker does this.

[nello]

@john4

I use AdGuard, but have whitelisted a lot of sites ….

Does the free version (just using AdBlocker’s public DNS) support a personal whitelist?

How did you whitelist a site?

[mpainesyd (Michael Paine)]

This discussion is starting to bamboozle me (a bit like quantum mechanics!).

I have just purchased Joe Kisell’s Take Control of Your Online Privacy as it covers many of the issues raised above, including ad blocking.

Take Control of Your Online Privacy – Take Control Books

[Dips]

I hadn’t considered using 1Blocker to get rid of “Login with Google”! Is this under “Annoyances” or a custom rule?

[nello]

@mpainesyd

… Joe Kisell’s Take Control of Your Online Privacy … covers many of the issues raised above, including ad blocking.

Thank you for reminding me that I have version 5.1 of this book!

In the chapter titled “Block Ads,” he mentions:

1. AdGuard,
2. 1Blocker,
3. unBlock Origin,
4. Adblock Plus,
5. AdBlock,
6. Privacy Badger, and
7. Ghostery.

Blocking ads via DNS is in the chapter but that’s in the chapter “Prevent Snooping” in the section “Use an Enhanced DNS provider,” where he mentions:

1. NextDNS, and
2. AdGuard DNS.

[nello]

@ron

For many years, I’ve used Pi-Hole.

Apparently, AdGuard Home is similar to Pi-Hole; here’s a comparison:

GitHub - AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome: Network-wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server

[ron (Ron Risley)]

I didn’t realize that AdGuard was self-hostable FOSS. I had usually seen it referred to as a hosted DNS resolver. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Halfsmoke]

@nello

Apparently, AdGuard Home is similar to Pi-Hole

To my mind, Pi-hole is better than cloud services for ad blocking for people who like to tinker because Pi-hole owners have near-total control over both the hardware and the software and because Pi-hole is very widely adopted.

[tonybull]

Thanks, that’s the one.

[nello]

@ron

I didn’t realize that AdGuard was self-hostable FOSS. I had usually seen it referred to as a hosted DNS resolver.

@Halfsmoke

To my mind, Pi-hole is better than cloud services for ad blocking for people who like to tinker because Pi-hole owners have near-total control over both the hardware and the software and because Pi-hole is very widely adopted.

@ron and @Halfsmoke:

Just to be clear …

AdGuard DNS is apparently available as both:

• A cloud service, and
• Free and open-source software (FOSS).

[john4 (John Springer)]

For AdGuard, click on icon in safari bar, then gear icon for settings, then Filter, and you can set sites to NOT have ad block in the “AllowList”. AdGuard is still free I think.

[paal (P. Boersting)]

@paal

@Simon

I guess you could always reconfigure the router on the fly but since that usually requires reboot, likely not the quickest or most elegant workaround.

I too would need a solution to this. Just an idea, maybe you could use the Cloudflare app ‎1.1.1.1: Faster Internet on the App Store

I have looked at what to do on the Mac since the Cloudflare app is only on iOS. I have no solution tested yet, but the important thing to know is that you can always override the DNS settings your Mac gets from the DHCP on your router. I would like to create one Shortcut “Run Shell Script” action to override and another to restore the settings back to DHCP. I am not able to look further into this right now.

[gingerbeardman (matt)]

I was thinking about annoyances.

Or you could do: accounts.google.com/gsi/*

But maybe you just need to disable it at the source: Google?

1. Open https://myaccount.google.com/security
2. Scroll down until Signing in to other sites
3. Click on Signing in to other sites and Turn Off Google Account sign-in prompts

[Halfsmoke]

@gingerbeardman

• Open https://myaccount.google.com/security
• Scroll down until Signing in to other sites
• Click on Signing in to other sites and Turn Off Google Account sign-in prompts

I think that’s a great thing to do no matter what. I do wonder, though, if it’s required to be logged into Chrome or a Google account while surfing for the restriction to take effect.

[Vereschagin (David Vereschagin)]

I have the Fabston Blocklist installed on Little Snitch but, checking just now on GitHub, I see the blocklist hasn’t been updated since November 2024.