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

0xerr0r.github.io

21–30 of 110 posts

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

#21

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…

I have a silly "trick" for this. In Firefox you can add a SOCKS5 proxy and click "Proxy DNS with SOCKS5 proxy". This bypasses the system DNS.

So for example, if you make a container with this, then you can just quickly open the URL that's blocked in the other container and it will bypass the network-level DNS adblock.

There are other ways to do it without a container, I'm sure, maybe with an add-on/toggle or something.

My VPN provider gives free SOCKS5 access to a few servers, so it didn't cost me anything more.

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

#22
post #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.

Also AdGuardhome will use optimistic caching, which is great.

https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/discussions/4002#...

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

#23

why would I use this over something like Adguard Home?

Or dnscrypt-proxy, especially if you care about not disclosing your IP address to resolvers.

I run dnscrypt-proxy on my OpenWrt Router. It's like Syncthing. Install and forget, like how softwares should work in general.

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

#24

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?

personally i use both. PiHole and uBlock. But PiHole is network wide so smart TVs iPads, etc in the house also get the benefit.

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

#26
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...

Home Depot search breaks for me when using Blocky, and is the only consistent issue I observe.

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

#27
post #4

> Uses random upstream resolvers from the configuration - increases your privacy through the distribution of your DNS traffic over multiple provider The whole project is really interesting but this line caught my eye. For spreading DNS providers, would randomly routing to different ones be more or less private than rotating providers every X minutes? It feels like so many sites request so many different resources tha…

rethinkdns dev here

> For spreading DNS providers, would randomly routing to different ones be more or less private than rotating providers every X minutes.

Less private for the simple fact that now you'd have to rely on multiple upstream resolvers to respect your privacy. Stick to one; ideally the one with better privacy guarantees like the Mozilla endpoints to Cloudflare DNS.

Or, use anonymizing protocols like Oblivious DNS over HTTP and DNSCrypt v3.

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

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yup, skip all sponsored and ad content. I do the same on Amazon and ebay - even when the advertised product is _exactly_ what I want, and the best price available, I refuse to purchase from a sponsored listing.

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

#29

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.

Honestly, I love this aspect of my Pihole. Stops Google stealing those pennies from the businesses who were already gonna be the #1 result anyways.

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

#30
Can't block Youtube shorts with these DNS adblockers, I know I can use browser extensions on a computer (and I do), but I really want to block shorts on iOS/Android apps. Tried the squid https proxy rabbit hole, but could not get it to work with mobile devices.

Any hints?

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