this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I would like to pirate on my phone sometimes and the ads on websites are problem. I'm not newbie, I know I can install firefox and get the uBlock on it but firefox android is a little bit slow so I prefer to use Opera browser; opera has an ad blocker but it's a joke compared to uBlock. I'm in a restricted country and my phone is not rooted, so if I use ad block apps like AdAway or Adgaurd they need to create a VPN connection in order to function unless the phone is rooted, and that VPN connection doesn't let me to enable another VPN in order to visit filtered websites or apps.

I'm not stuck, but felt if I ask here there may be another smart solution for ad blocking on android that can solve these small problems; and the solution would help other people so be kind and provide what you have.

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 year ago (8 children)

All the people suggesting firefox...

[–] Nimous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Pihole for network wide ad blocking (no ads on all apps on all devices within the LAN) then self-host a vpn to keep your phone within that lan.

Tis what I do at least.

Blocks pretty much everything except Youtube, and Twitchs video ads as they serve their own ads from their own domain's as well as things like sponsored posts on reddit/twitter/facebook.

Don't watch much Twitch, Youtube (re)Vanced is a thing, and Twitter/FB/Reddit can all die in a fire. So none of those are issues for me either.

[–] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is exactly how I've been doing it. Pihole + Wireguard. Set your pihole device as your DNS on everything ya want. It's shocking how much crap tries phoning home. Especially smart TV's and streaming sticks(Roku ex).

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Set your pihole device as your DNS on everything ya want.

I went one further and defined my pihole as the DNS IP that the dhcp server hands out; then set iptables rules on the router to block all external dns access except for the pihole.

If you're on my LAN, you must use the LAN DNS server, or you will not get DNS resolved at all. Enforcing ad and telemetry blocking network wide.

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hosting a vpn also gives me secure remote access to my various self-hosted services like Radarr/Sonarr/SABnzbd/qbit/etc, without directly exposing them to the open internet.

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[–] darcy@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i dont mean be that guy, but opera is chinese spyware, and firefox is worth the switch. trust me, i used to love opera, but now using firefox (librewolf/mull), i could never go back

[–] xyzinferno@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Looking it up online, the subject of Opera being chinese spyware seems to be debated pretty thoroughly, but with no definitive consensus (that I could find at least). Any articles on the subject I could read up on?

I use Firefox myself, so it wouldn't really impact my internet usage, but I'm just curious about what's going on with Opera.

Funnily enough, I think the last time I used Opera was the Internet Channel on the Wii way back when, which was powered by Opera lmao

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Opera was acquired by a chinese consortium back in 2016 or so. IMO opera telemetry isn't too different from other proprietary browsers like chrome or edge but there were also some controversial decisions on Opera such as not removing a chinese CA cert (wosign?) that was being widely misused etc.

[–] RogueBanana@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not only that I am pretty sure every Chinese company are forced to hand over data by law if requested by the government so there's that.

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[–] Kekzkrieger@feddit.de 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Wait since when is firefox considered slow ? For me the speed is decent i dont have a 1000$ phone so i dont expect it to be as fast as on my pc

[–] monotrox@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago

Im basically exclusively using Firefox on my phone and loading websites is pretty fast, the app just feels less responsive when scrolling compared to chrome/bromite

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[–] moralesformiles@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why not change your system DNS to the public AdGuard address? Then you don't need to use the app. DNS filtering is still more limited than uBlock, of course, but if you refuse to use browsers where that's available, I think that's the next best option.

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[–] Gargari@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago

Firefox + unlock Origin. Use alternative opens-source apps. DNS: Adguard, NextDNS, etc.

[–] Skimmer@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Firefox with uBlock Origin is by far the best option, the only other browser that comes close is Brave, their content blocking and such is pretty good, so I'd recommend trying them if you're hellbent on not using FF. I'd also recommend looking into NextDNS for system-wide ad/tracker blocking in conjuction with the browser.

[–] eroc1990@lemmy.parastor.net 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Firefox on Android allows a few extensions. A few of those are privacy badger, ublock origin, and decentraleyes. Should meet your need at a base level.

EDIT: Spelling

[–] zero_iq@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

Firefox + uBlock origin, and reVanced for YouTube ad-blocking/other features.

[–] angelfire@unilem.org 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Easiest solution I found was manually setting a Private DNS on Android. Adguard public DNS address filters pretty much all of them.

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[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

https://controld.com/free-dns has free DNS resolvers that do the same thing as a pihole. you just go to your phones "Private DNS" setting and at it there. this will work for non-browser apps as well!

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[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox and Kiwi browsers both support full Ublock Origin

[–] Elkenders@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago

Perhaps worth trying kiwis built in adblocking before you start. I recently installed kiwi so I could run 'i still don't care about cookies'. Seems really nice

[–] noodlejetski@geddit.social 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

is this any better than adguard dns or just similar?

[–] noodlejetski@geddit.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

way better, as it lets you choose the block lists, add custom domains or whitelist the ones that are being blocked, check the statistics on which domain is being blocked the most, and some more nifty stuff. and it's also not made by a Russian company.

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[–] idkman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can try out nextDNS. It has a list of blockers and you can track and block what request are being made by your phone.

Additionally, DNS-crypt proxy can be a good alternative too.

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[–] Blizzard@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 year ago

You wouldn't be able to use AdGuard properly with Opera anyway because Opera don't accept user certificates (issued by AdGuard or AdAway) so it wouldn't filter https traffic.

Try Vivaldi, amazing browser, built-in adblocker. Hopefully will be better than Opera's. Personally haven't tested it as I'm using said AdGuard which Vivaldi has no problem with - one of the reason I moved from Opera to Vivaldi.

Or simply change DNS to AdGuard.

[–] jayandp@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Kiwi Browser is Chromium based and supports desktop add-ons like uBlock Origin.

[–] Nimous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Yes but that shit is a terrible browser!

[–] jayandp@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Works fine for me, so I'm not sure why you think it's terrible. Only mobile browser with Developer Tools too.

[–] jerb@lemmy.croc.pw 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You realize Opera is the exact same engine, right?

[–] gunpachi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I think maybe OP doesn't like kiwi's UI/UX

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[–] gunpachi@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  1. Create a free Nextdns account.
  2. Add some blocklists
  3. Use the private dns settings on your android to set the dns. (i think this feature is present in Android versions which are 9 and above)

Voila ! you have blocked ads without wasting your VPN slot.

As an added bonus you can also configure nextdns to block your specific phone vendor tracking as well.

If you are interested in trying different web browsers you can check out Fennec from F-droid or Brave browser. These are my go-to browsers on android.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 5 points 1 year ago

In your case I'd sacrifice a bit of speed and went with Firefox. Another option is AdGuard + AdGuard VPN, the apps can work together.

[–] Turbo@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Have you heard about pihole for DNS blocking ? You m might have success when at home on wifi as this would greatly cut down on ads and trackers.

Otherwise, if you think Firefox is too slow to pirate (not sure I understand that, but ok) you can try another browser .. maybe try Brave? Ya, maybe some negative publicity lately, but I'm not sure it bothers me, or perhaps I don't understand what exactly they might be selling of my info..

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[–] wisefoolkp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

RethinkDNS and Firefox+Ublock-Origin

[–] nooneescapesthelaw@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mullvad vpn has an ad blocking feature Although ive never tried it

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[–] janguv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

I'm in a restricted country and my phone is not rooted, so if I use ad block apps like AdAway or Adgaurd they need to create a VPN connection in order to function unless the phone is rooted, and that VPN connection doesn't let me to enable another VPN in order to visit filtered websites or apps.

Ultimately, I think rooting is the way to go, but only if you have a device with a decent XDA thread guide and support. If you choose not to root, Adguard has their own VPN service integrated if you wanted to pay for that (haven't tried), or else you can add your own proxy servers through the app – so you can add individual server IPs for (say) Nord and connect to them while still using Adguard in VPN mode.

[–] burgersc12@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Been using dnsforge.de along with ublock origin on fennec. Seems to work well enough, but I might go back to personalDNSfilter to block ads with local VPN if i notice anything slipping through

[–] ALERT@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago
[–] rambos@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Pihole + firefox + ublock for adds here. Im not using this, but its also possible to set your home server connect to VPN provider and then route all traffic through that. Then you can use your selfhosted VPN to connect with phone and use both at the same time. Or just enable add blocking on your VPN provider, I guess most of them have one

[–] 7Sea_Sailor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Personally I use my own selfhosted AdGuard Home instance, configured on my phone as the private DNS server, therefor connecting via encrypted DOT. I've also got this server configured as the DNS on my home network router, meaning every and any device in the network profits from the adblocking, no matter how the respective DNS is configured. If you dont want to mess around with linux, docker and selfhosting in general, NextDNS seems to be a very valuable option as well. In any case, this is a lot more efficient than having an adblocking extension in your browser, since AGH/NDNS will also block ads and tracker in any other app that isn't Firefox.

[–] SaltySalamander@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

personalDNSFilter for whole phone adblocking.

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