I was already working my way off of chrome but without a suitable adblocking extension I'm going to move to whatever I have to. I've been using firefox off and on and it seems great and I see someone in the comments recommending Librewolf. Going to have to check that out.
I have been planning for a while to setup a pihole but hadn't yet bothered because I have sufficient ad blockers but definitely going to be doing that now as well.
Well done Google, you succeeded in making at least one person up their adblocking game.
You can use nextdns [0]
pretty much to the same effect of a pihole, yet you can get up and running in minutes. You can then configure wherever you please: your browser, your laptop, your phone, or even your router.
Agreed. At the end of the day there is no one tool that will fend off all of it. However, NextDNS/Pihole + uBlock Origin gets you most of the way there. uBlock Origin is particularly helpful for blocking first-party ads.
I use NextDNS in my network and I'd say it's well worth the price. I could of course accomplish it with PiHole, but NextDNS just works, and covers my phone when I'm not at home.
On Android 12+ (if my memory serves well), you can use DNS over TLS without having to install any additional software. It seems to cover all of the connections, but I don't think DoT is used when your phone connects to your network for VoWifi and eSIM provisioning connections (I didn't see them in my NextDNS logs)
Thank you for this! I had tried OpenDNS setup through my router but it blocked some stuff I didn't want it to and wouldn't, for anything, release the block so I moved back off of it. I'm definitely going to give nextdns a shot!
NextDNS also has a free plan, albeit you'll hit the limit quickly.
I don't expect everyone to pay for a service like this, but I think that paying for a service like this is reasonable if you can afford it. There's always a modicum of trust that you must confer on the provider (they're resolving all your DNS queries, and you can view logs if choose to), but paying for it does better in aligning incentives. Otherwise self-hosting is the most privacy-friendly option of all.
I do that: well, not pihole but I run unbound on a Pi and I've got my Firefox set to never use the "trusted resolver" (i.e. network trr set to 5... I think the default is still 0/off but you never know).
That way I'm preventing DNS over HTTPS and known ads (and known telemetry) domains cannot resolve sneakily through HTTPS.
I can still, if I want to, have unbound use DoH so that my ISP doesn't spy on me.
But on my LAN there's no DNS over HTTPS.
And unbound accepts wildcards to prevent domains from resolving, which is really sweet.
I wrote my own tiny script (in Clojure / Babashka) which combines several huge DNS blocklists, allows certain domains I'm okay with, merge what can be merged into a single line using wildcards, etc.
Switched to Firefox recently and it was surprisingly painless. They've really catched up to Chrome in regards to usability, and of course surpass them in terms of privacy and integrity.
I actually like multi-account containers better than profiles. I know it isn't the same thing but I just want to open a work tab for work stuff and a personal tab for other stuff. Couple that with simple tab groups and you have an amazing single window workflow.
It's absolutely amazing with retarded services like MS Teams that don't allow you to be in two tenants at the same time. Same with their admin portals.
Funny how MS is pushing edge and Firefox is the best option to manage their services.
Pihole blocks stuff for everything on your network. No need to train your family or do anything to machines are devices. While it does not block everything, and sometimes too much. It does block a lot.
By blocking too much, for one of the banks I use blocking their app telemetry causes the app to crash. And sometimes I do want to click on an ad Google serves up when it matches my search and I am buying something.
I can see a sort of 'defense in depth' argument, especially for sending traffic from TVs etc. through your pihole. But in the browser (FF esp.), uBlock origin is excellent.
highly recommend librewolf as well. If you use youtube a lot, you should check out sponsorblock for youtube, youtube windowed full screen and improve youtube! extensions. They make youtube usable again.
1. Its built-in Ad block still works on Youtube - before Google catches up, too small a browser competitor
Doesn't work in laptop browser.
2. Tab sync: port tabs from Edge from phone to laptop & vice-versa, regardless of OS version. This used to work on Safari from iPhone SE (1st gen) but now it doesn't with new iPhone/iOS
I have been planning for a while to setup a pihole but hadn't yet bothered because I have sufficient ad blockers but definitely going to be doing that now as well.
Well done Google, you succeeded in making at least one person up their adblocking game.