1y ago

Adblock Client for Mobile?

Hey everyone, I'm still pretty new to using my GrapheneOS phone and have been slowly transitioning to a more privacy oriented technology lineup than I previously did.

I searched for clients on Google and found "Total Adblock", "Adblock", and "Adblock Plus" but I'm not quite sure how to audit an adblocker for security flaws or malicious intent. I also would prefer to install apps through the F-Droid store and learn how to compile from source code on mobile (if that's possible on GrapheneOS or if that's even something desirable)

Thanks for any help! Been lurking a lot on Lemmy and have really enjoyed the energy in the community. Definitely has made learning Linux and the countless times I've had to fix my Arch system much more enjoyable. GrapheneOS has been quite stable too other than the phone having interfacing problems with my cellular provider's network...

54 comments

If I were you I would set your phone's DNS to dns.adguard.com.
You may want to double check that by searching it but adguard has a DNS server that will block the majority of ads from ever hitting your phone regardless of where you are, kind of like having a pi hole on your phone.
- I have a question. If I set my Phone's DNS to that address, will it affect my internet speeds in any way? Slowing it or boosting it? I already have sucky internet and don't want my speed to be slower due to that private DNS.
  
  No, it's not a VPN. Your traffic does not go through it. All using it does is change which server that your device asks for IP addresses for the websites you visit. When your device asks for the IP for an ad, Adguard gives you one that points back to your device and prevents the ad from being loaded. Otherwise it acts like any other DNS-Over-HTTPS server.
  
  It may, you need to try it. Depending on where you are/server load etc. It may be better, worse, the same
- Isn't it dns.adguard-dns.com?
  
  Nope.
- What is the difference between setting the DNS and using the Adguard app?
  
  I'm not 100% certain. I think the difference is the adguard app also adds in some in system protections in exchange for battery life because it's always running. I didn't much care for the app but the DNS service has been perfectly fine for my casual use.
- Fantastic! Wasn't aware of this.. thank you

I'm on grapheneos and set my private dns to dns.adguard.com like the other guy suggested (also set it on my router too!)
I use Fennec (Firefox stable fork) from fdroid and it has the uBlock Origin extension, and I go hardcore and enable every single filter except the language filters lol. DarkReader extension also is super nice and is set to my auto enable on my system color setting.
Also I use noScript and go to the settings and enable "temporary allow top level domain scripts" and it allows a good amount of sites to work without having to manually allow extra stuff. There's still a lot that break, but much less breakage then blocking all js by default. I would skip noscript altogether if you don't want to manually enable js files and keep tweaking until the site works. It's really overkill for everyday browsing.
Using Mull browser (also on fdroid) too if you don't mind some breakage, it's Fennec but with arkenfox.js, so basically all the maximum privacy and anti-fingerprint resistance settings enabled. I don't really need that level of privacy, and Fennec + uBlock Origin is private enough to me to defeat all the trackers and it "just works" without ever tweaking anything on any website.
Bonus tip: try out Droid-ify app instead of fdroid. The fdroid app is super archaic and Droid-ify is an actual modern version with seamless updates for fdroid apps.
- Is there a reason you recommend forks of Firefox rather than the official version with the same add-ons enabled? Firefox already has support for Ublock and will have full desktop add-on support soon.
  
  Has all the telemetry, analytics, and pocket crap removed, and some proprietary blob or something lol. I know if they ever add more spying stuff the future that it'll automatically be patched out in the fork I use. Besides that, it's the exact same experience. Even Firefox Sync works which I use.
  On top of that, it's available on f-droid so it doesn't rely on Google Play at all, which is very important if you're trying to minimize Google stuff on your phone.
- Thank you for all the great suggestions! I've been slowly implementing a potpourri of the recommendations I've gotten across tech in my life so its been quite exhausting the past month trying to digest it all.
  I love the DNS.adguard.com pihole! I started using it about 3 weeks ago and its made my mobile browsing experience so much better. It was perfect to see all those terrible ads and popups that just make it distracting and impossible to read vanish into smome. Not to mention redirects and videos I didn't want to play...
  Just checked out Fennec and Droid-ify and is there a particular reason Droid-ify was written entirely in Kotlin? I only recall that Kotlin was named after the island near St. Petersburg, but that's it... I only started using Arch Linux about 3 months ago as my daily driver and used Windows for 18 years prior. Been hard to unlearn a lot of habits instilled from undergrad from my shitty Python and MATLAB courses + decades of Windows usage.

adaway is a classic hosts based ad blocker, usually have effect for in app ads. for ad in webpage, i suggest firefox with ubo installed

Adguard dns
- or mullvad dns

NextDNS is pretty damned good

As others have said, DNS blocks are good. My favorite is https://rethinkdns.com/ which you can use by itself, or with their app. Using the app gives you many more options, and nice features like logging.

I searched for clients on Google
Before adblock, how about changing your search engine?

Custom Nextdns. For the Browser, Mull with Ublock. Vanadium sucks, it may be good for security but has no privacy features whatsoever. What website works without Javascript? Bullshit. Noscript on Firefox is so much better.

For the browser, use Firefox (Fennec or Mull in F-Droid) with Ublock Origin. For anything else, honestly if the app has ads you should avoid using it anyway.
- Any advice on adjusting to a search engine like Searx or enhancing how to use DuckDuckGo since Fennec comes with it?
  Is there a gospel-like resource on Search Engines and using particular query delimiters? Just been tough reading some of these documentation pages with legion jargon words
  
  if you want to configure Fennec to use Searx, set the search engine URL to https://searx.example.org/search?q=%s
  Other than that, I only have one tip for non-Google search engines - always set the correct region.

AdGuard

As far as I remember adaway is the og adblock for android, it is available on f-droid and pretty much the only app that I used since ever, and one of the few reasons I still won't let go of rooted phones, https://adaway.org/
On top of that I would recommend you to run your own DNS server with unbound, add to that pi-hole and wireguard and you have your own pi-hole set-up on any device you want.: https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/vpn/wireguard/overview/
- i can recommend adaway with root aswell. for a lot of ads on websites you still need uBlock tho

Been using dnsforge.de as DNS, works well. I also have Mull/Ublock Origin and use ad-free apps like Spotube, LibreTube, InnerTune, and AntennaPod.

Incorporating it into your DNS as bizarroland@kbin.social said is a great option. The Mull browser from F-Droid allows uBlock as an add-on but is just browser specific. Setting up both would be a fantastic approach for overall mobile privacy.
- whoops im drunk thinkin of Mullvad Browser
- Mull browser isn't on F-Droid?
  
  I can't remember, you might have to manually add the DivestOS repo from here. https://divestos.org/apks/official/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=E4BE8D6ABFA4D9D4FEEF03CDDA7FF62A73FD64B75566F6DD4E5E577550BE8467

I have tried Blokada and RethinkDNS already (I guess DNS66 is no longer maintained - I may be wrong) but finally zeroed in on PersonalDNSFilter.
I don't see it being mentioned much - but IMHO it is much more lightweight and customizable than the other two.
I point to Cloudflare DoT for DNS, and use the OISD blocklist, and that's all I need for device-level blocking ( I already use Firefox + uBO in my Android device so I'm good on that front).
https://www.f-droid.org/packages/dnsfilter.android/

RethinkDNS.

Do not track app in iOS; Rethink DNS in Android

Adguard DNS is nice but sometimes you need to let some app pass. I've switched to blokada. Sadly they've pulled the app from f-droid but version 5 is available on github
- I still use blokada 5, but more and more ads keep getting through. Its nothing like it was a couple years ago. Id love to find something better.

DNS based exist such as DNS.adguard.com . But I use a good VPN with their own blocklists. No need for extra stuff.

Check decloudus.com

For browsing, best use a browser with adblocking included, as that's faster than using external apps. Browser can eliminate the calls right at source, while an external app can only intercept them.
Mull (Firefox fork) with uBlock Origin is the gold standard, or Cromite (ex Bromite) for Chromium fork.

Check if this helps?
https://forum.f-droid.org/t/need-an-ad-blocker-for-grapheneos/20208/5
I like Netguard, enable settings, advanced, manage system apps, filtering and blocking hosts. Go to settings backup - put a hosts url (say from: GitHub - StevenBlack/hosts: 🔒 Consolidating and extending hosts files from several well-curated sources. Optionally pick extensions for porn, social media, and other categories. 66 ) and press to download it. Extra fun, block internet access to apps you don’t want to :wink:
Wow, not sure how I missed this in the GrapheneOS FAQ which I’ve read parts of already recently. Thank you so much. Based on the information there, I came to the decision to configure AdGuard’s DNS-over-TLS server in the Private DNS option within GrapheneOS. Ad blocking seems to be working so far. Quad9’s DNS-over-TLS server also looks interesting, but it seems more focused on general malware rather than ad blocking.

Blokada
- Blokada works fine, but download the .apk from its Homepage, the version in the Play Store is a, by Google, "decaffeinated" light version. Google hate adblockers.

Does anyone use Block This!. I've been using it for years but I hardly see it come up in these posts as a suggestion.

I used adguard with nextdns

Is there a reason nobody recommends dns66 of fdroid? I uses adaway for many years with root. But the rootfree version never really worked for me. Dns66 replaced it.
- It's old and outdated. Look when the latest version has been released
  
  Crazy! Still works better than the newest version of adaway, though.

InVizible Pro

Set custom dns to Control D (p2.freedns.controld.com).

54 comments