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AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

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Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#251

Post by KolenCh »

kelnos wrote: post #206
sangnoir wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PiHole works 90% of the time, but when it did stop working, I'd have to spend a bit of time fixing it. I don't know what problems you had with your Pi that resulted in 10% downtime, but that sort of hyperbole sounds a lot like shilling. Cases of SD card corruption are 99.9% due to the use of underpowered power supplies - just buy the official Raspberry Pi power supply if you can be bothered to search for a proper 2…

I think it's weird when people suggest that a self-hosted on-prem solution requires no maintenance and has so little downtime such that the time spent fixing issues doesn't matter. I run a bunch of local services on RPis and a decade-old Mac Mini. I love having the control over things, but I don't pretend I don't spend a decent amount of time maintaining it. I only run things that don't need to be highly available, s…

Not addressing Pihole directly, as I don’t have much experience there. But have you maintained a router? Running open source firmware or not, router does require a certain level of maintenance, open source ones arguably more. But that doesn’t make it problematic enough to have a lot of downtime. Given some people runs pihole-like software directly on a router, I’m skeptical the down time there is significant enough to stay away from. I mean having high availability internet at home is hard, but I expect the rate of failure of a router to be similar of magnitude comparing to pihole. If you can’t tolerate the latter, I wonder how you solve the availability issue of the former?

Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#252

Post by illiac786 »

hbcondo714 wrote: post #250
illiac786 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not two ad blockers. One is an ad blocker the other is a tracking blocker. They conflict simply. If you want both across all apps (not just the Browser) you need a VPN service with included as locking, such as protonVPN, IVPN, Etc. There are a lot.

but NextDNS' own homepage says it "blocks ads and trackers on websites and in apps" - https://nextdns.io

Yes, they are a DNS ad blocker. iCloud private relay is a tracking blocker, to hide your IP. Both are not compatible in general, unless the "IP tracking blocker" explicitly allows to configure nextDNS as a DNS server, which is not the case of private relay.

I guess nextDNS should list exceptions like private relay, but the list is long and it's confusing. For all intend and purposes I agree with the statement, they block ads on most devices.

They also have help articles specifically for VONs:

https://help.nextdns.io/t/60hgxn7/guide-using-openvpn-nextdn...

Seems doc about private relay is missing though...

Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#253

Post by JoshTriplett »

johntash wrote: post #151
JoshTriplett wrote: post #92

Standing reminder that any device smart enough to run a real web browser shouldn't use one of these and doesn't need one. uBlock Origin works much better for any device capable of running it, both in terms of user experience (the browser understands a block rather than a mysteriously failing request) and because it can block first party ads and clean up page layout. The primary use case for these is for blocking ads…

> Standing reminder that any device smart enough to run a real web browser shouldn't use one of these and doesn't need one. Why not? Or why not use both? > The primary use case for these is for blocking ads on devices that don't allow running a real browser and yet still shows ads, such as "smart home" devices, TVs, etc. What about non-browser apps on mobile devices or even desktops? Lots of apps have invasive ads an…

> Why not? Or why not use both?

Because DNS-based blockers aren't visible to the browser, so they just look like HTTP errors or worse, and cause a variety of misbehavior. They're much more likely to produce errors that feel like the site just doesn't work. They can't distinguish between requests to different URLs on the same server, and many sites distribute both ads and content from the same servers. So they're always either going to miss ads or break sites, or both.

Browser-based blockers can block some URLs while allowing others, in addition to many many other improvements like substituting no-op scripts for things the site expects to call (preventing sites from hanging because they're waiting on tracking, for instance).

> What about non-browser apps on mobile devices or even desktops?

Ignore "download our app!" prompts and stick with mobile websites wherever possible; Firefox Mobile has excellent adblocking via uBlock Origin. Look for ad-free alternative apps. If that isn't an option, purchase ad-free paid apps.

Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#254

Post by sangnoir »

dddw wrote: post #228
sangnoir wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PiHole works 90% of the time, but when it did stop working, I'd have to spend a bit of time fixing it. I don't know what problems you had with your Pi that resulted in 10% downtime, but that sort of hyperbole sounds a lot like shilling. Cases of SD card corruption are 99.9% due to the use of underpowered power supplies - just buy the official Raspberry Pi power supply if you can be bothered to search for a proper 2…

Nextdns is great on phones. I don't bring a raspberry pi with me when I leave the house

Incidentally, Raspberry Pis are also excellent WireGuard servers!

Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#255

Post by berniedurfee »

JadoJodo wrote: post #3

I ran a competing project[0] on my home network for a few years before I discovered NextDNS[1]. What I lost in performance (requests don't leave my house) I gained in portability: ALL my devices can take advantage – at home and away – and time-saved. PiHole works 90% of the time, but when it did stop working, I'd have to spend a bit of time fixing it. At $20/year, I simply couldn't compete with NextDNS. Note: This is…

I’m with you. For twenty bucks it covers my home network and the app covers me when I’m out of the house.

Turning it off occasionally reveals the horror of the un-ad-blocked internet. I never forget to turn it back on.

Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#256

Post by stzsch »

teruakohatu wrote: post #176
stzsch wrote: post #91

I got my glinet gl-axt1800 mainly for the adguard support out of the box, as a way to keep my smart tv experience sane. Works pretty well.

Are there allow lists for services such as Apple TV. Do smart tvs not fall back to hardcoded ipv4 addresses?

There might be allow lists, but I fine tuned the domains manually when setting up the TV, as they may vary by region.

My LG A1 does not hardcode addresses. I also rooted it to prevent updates from doing so in the future.

Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#257

Post by teruakohatu »

stzsch wrote: post #256
teruakohatu wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there allow lists for services such as Apple TV. Do smart tvs not fall back to hardcoded ipv4 addresses?

There might be allow lists, but I fine tuned the domains manually when setting up the TV, as they may vary by region. My LG A1 does not hardcode addresses. I also rooted it to prevent updates from doing so in the future.

Thanks for the info

Re: AdGuard Home: Network-wide ad- and tracker-blocking DNS server

#258

Post by itsTyrion »

JadoJodo wrote: post #3

I ran a competing project[0] on my home network for a few years before I discovered NextDNS[1]. What I lost in performance (requests don't leave my house) I gained in portability: ALL my devices can take advantage – at home and away – and time-saved. PiHole works 90% of the time, but when it did stop working, I'd have to spend a bit of time fixing it. At $20/year, I simply couldn't compete with NextDNS. Note: This is…

I gave up on using anything that isn’t the default/auto DNS for when I’m on the go more, as it breaks every single public wifi hotspot that has a login/I-agree-to-not-do-illegal-shit-etc page that obv cannot be resolved
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