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Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

0xerr0r.github.io

11–20 of 110 posts

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#11
post #8

My problem with network-level adblockers, also PiHole is that they break a lot of services (yeah it's mostly sloppy or malicious intent from service provider but still). On a browser you can quickly disable uBlock for that site, it is much more tedious for these services - also because it's not even clear that the filtering is causing the problem, also because it maybe someone else on the network experiencing the pro…

Is that your experience? Honest question, because only yesterday, after several years with PiHole and uBlock Origin, I found that a Shopify shop wasn't working for me. But that's probably the only issue I encountered after all those years...

Not parent but yes, that's exactly why I stopped using PiHole

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#13
post #7

It's a DNS proxy, like pi-hole, but it seems a lot more powerful than Pi-hole that is basically just a configured dnsmasq server to be user-friendly. https://docs.pi-hole.net/

Usually pi-hole is installed together with Unbound [1] for the function of Blocky.

[1] https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#14

My problem with network-level adblockers, also PiHole is that they break a lot of services (yeah it's mostly sloppy or malicious intent from service provider but still). On a browser you can quickly disable uBlock for that site, it is much more tedious for these services - also because it's not even clear that the filtering is causing the problem, also because it maybe someone else on the network experiencing the pro…

What annoyed me the most is actually clicking on ads from Google Search. Sometime I searched a product and I couldn't clicked on the first result because they are advertisements.

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#15

My problem with network-level adblockers, also PiHole is that they break a lot of services (yeah it's mostly sloppy or malicious intent from service provider but still). On a browser you can quickly disable uBlock for that site, it is much more tedious for these services - also because it's not even clear that the filtering is causing the problem, also because it maybe someone else on the network experiencing the pro…

Yeah, this is always my hurdle implementing house wide. I can toggle it on and off when I have the stubborn link but my girlfriend just gets utterly annoyed. I just manually point some of my devices at my local server and leave it at that. Guess I should look into aws free tier and set it up there as well or just say screw it and use dns.adguard.com again.

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#16

why would I use this over something like Adguard Home?

One thing I like about AdGuard Home is that it supports normal AdGuard's block list, similar to the ones used in browsers. Of course, it ignores the items that it is unable to block (e.g. cosmetic, or third-party etc), but it is nice being able to take the lists I use in uBlock Origin, and just feeding it into AdGuard Home.

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#17

My problem with network-level adblockers, also PiHole is that they break a lot of services (yeah it's mostly sloppy or malicious intent from service provider but still). On a browser you can quickly disable uBlock for that site, it is much more tedious for these services - also because it's not even clear that the filtering is causing the problem, also because it maybe someone else on the network experiencing the pro…

What annoyed me the most is actually clicking on ads from Google Search. Sometime I searched a product and I couldn't clicked on the first result because they are advertisements.

Every time threads like this come up I am reminded that Google has ads. I don't see them, presumably because of uBlock Origin.

I'm typing this response not to smugly boast, but because it's a lead in to the question that your comment raised within me:

Are you using Pihole to block ads at a network level, but not also using a browser extension to block them at the client?

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#19

My problem with network-level adblockers, also PiHole is that they break a lot of services (yeah it's mostly sloppy or malicious intent from service provider but still). On a browser you can quickly disable uBlock for that site, it is much more tedious for these services - also because it's not even clear that the filtering is causing the problem, also because it maybe someone else on the network experiencing the pro…

Pi-Hole Remote (iOS app) is your friend

Re: Blocky – a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What annoyed me the most is actually clicking on ads from Google Search. Sometime I searched a product and I couldn't clicked on the first result because they are advertisements.

Every time threads like this come up I am reminded that Google has ads. I don't see them, presumably because of uBlock Origin. I'm typing this response not to smugly boast, but because it's a lead in to the question that your comment raised within me: Are you using Pihole to block ads at a network level, but not also using a browser extension to block them at the client?

I'm in the same boat as you, but taking it a step further, I'm completely blind to the first 1/3rd of google search results. The first 3 are already ads, and then there's the "quick info" card on most searches. I've subconsciously trained myself to just flat out skip over those results.

So in my case, I don't know that an ad blocker really even helps me on google, because I'm ignoring those first results anyway.

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