Should I root just for an Adblocker? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi
At them moment I'm rooting my device only to use adaway. Do you think the afford to root a device is worth the benefits of adaway especially as there are some other good vpn based Adblockers? I did some researches and found out that the impact on the performance and battery is minimal.
The only reason I hesitate is that I'm using a VPN for public wifis. But on the other hand every connection my Smartphone opens should be encrypted anyway (hopefully) so I maybe can live without that.
So can you give me an advice? What would you do?

I would say: YES!
Reason: I f you use a VPN, in the data summary everything is collected into that VPN. And you are flexible. In my view Adaway is a cleaner solution. I also need a firewall like AF+ Wall. And tasker for improving my battery life. You see, I like the opportunities.

No, you can use Netguard (not from Play Store) and with it you can download/import the host file you want. That's what Adaway does, and Netguard doesn't need root. And take a look to all the feature u have with Netguard itself. It's awesome

One of the best (and IMO the best) android adblocker is AdClear, it works efficiently and it doesn't need root. Using it for years. It works very well when it comes to blocking ads. And, it's free.

Related

Do we really need an antivirus software running all the time?

Hi Guys,
What is your opinion, do you think that today's android operating smart phones are so vulnerable to the visus threat as for exemple our PCs so that we should all run a dedicated program in order to cope with that?
I don't use any. If you don't download any pirated apps from untrusted, you should be safe, however no guarantee, install it if you need it for a peace of mind.
I use LBE Privacy Guard, so everytime I install an app, I can see what it accesses and block it accordingly. For example, many games want direct access to calls, sending sms, which I block with LBE. As far as protection, I think this is probably the safest bet for android.
Maybe scanning apps you install could be a good start , but I don't think having an antivirus running all the times is really benefic ,attacks on such devices are possible but rare compared to computer's one ( related to the fact using 3G network )
As most of users here, I again say, it is really unnecessary to run Antivirus unless you install new apps or anything.
LBE on other hand is good start for checking what apps can do.
I would say not yet but keep an eye on the future .
jje

[Search] no root adblock without vpn

my problem is that i have a non rooted phone with vpn always on and im searching for an app to activating ad block on it.
My fix for it would be to use an android wide proxy or a custom dns that overrides vpn dns.
as title said an root app or an app that provides vpn solution wouldnt be what im searching for. I had once an adblock app that routes traffic trough local proxy beside the vpn but cant find it anymore
Update: i found AdHell but its only for Samsung Devices with knox. Any other solutions?
HeathenMan said:
Update: i found AdHell but its only for Samsung Devices with knox. Any other solutions?
Click to expand...
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any news on this one?
I wanna use protonVPN and adblcoker at same time
a bit of elbow grease to protect self from Privacy Raping
Some [open]vpn clients allow vpn side connection to Socks5. Some even allow toggle of LAN access from device. I am not claiming a finish product exists but perhaps this gives you some joy.
Perhaps your socks5 instance runs in Amazon AWS free tier. Maybe it runs locally on your android handset. Perhaps you run Privoxy itself on android. [@mod: privoxy is F/OSS older than this forum]. There are a few privoxy projects for android on github. Perhaps you pick their brain. It was that against which proxomitron competed [also F/OSS. Thank God for Scott Lemmon].
Using things in differing order you might search the article to which I may not link: Privoxy on Android (with EC2 VPN)
I wanted to bring the Amazon EC2-based Privoxy service to it, by way of a VPN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was no obvious way to contact the author who hasn't posted since 2016.
There is an OpenVPN service you can likely find the name of yourself offering *recently* an adblock toggle and AntiTracker toggle with a hardcode mode to protect you from predators like google and Fbook. It shouldn't be long before others emulate this functionality. It sports the vpn side socks5 option.
Or privoxy tunnel to remote [cloud (openvpn)]. See? Fun with permutations. Maybe from phone with ShadowSocks to cloud to vpn to web. "OpenVPN over shadowsocks". At this point look into sites helping Chinese dissidents.
You definitely then return here with your improvements to share.
The remaining question is how much is your time worth? Not much? Then search the web ad naseum for the 'ideal free' solution. Elsewise pony up some pennies for some cloud time as part of a solution.
Same question here !
And it seems that adhell is now only available for entreprise use
Wasn't AdGuard doing that?
yes you are right. it works with setting a private dns in the system settings with dns.adguard.com - no batterydrain - no more ads - no vpn - no root

VPN-based adblockers not working

Hello there,
it seems that on the S9+ (and maybe S9, tho users over there report everything is fine) all the VPN-based ad blockers like DNS66, Blokada and the likes do not work correctly. When switching between wifi and mobile, the connection randomly dies, not letting anything through anymore until you restart the phone, or disable the blocker. It is documented in a github issue for DNS66 here. This is annoying, as I found this solution the most user-friendly. I know there is Adhell 3, but a) it's annoying to resign and reinstall every 3 months and apply for new keys and b) it doesn't block everything, not even if I manually feed it with all the hosts files that DNS66 uses. It blocks ads alright, but misses quite some.
Is there any known fix for this, or any other adblock suggestion besides that? I know that rooting and adaway would be best, but I won't root anymore since Samsung here in Europe straight off denies any warranty requests for rooted devices, even if it's got nothing to do with the root itself.
Adguard would a suggestion, but it does use a VPN blocking service for system wide blocking. It's not free and is subscription based. At one time I used adguard over dns66 as adguard worked and dns66 did not (VPN issues with dns66).
For non rooted users there is really no other options. Unless you want to setup a pihole server, somehow get your dns setting on your phone to point to the pihole server and go that route. In the case of dns changes on non-rooted devices it's either a VPN based change or knox. So your options are limited to one or the other. Of course this becomes moot if your plan on only blocking ads when you use a wifi connection.
I've done the pihole route before too, it works but doesn't catch everything. Some ads originate from the same domain as where your visiting, in which case dns adblocking won't work. For those scenarios cosmetic filtering would.
Otherwise I use adhell3 and adblock plus plugin on samsung browser. For practical intents and purposes I steered clear of VPN based setups for a reason. Also I don't mind recompilimg adhell3 once in a while, he's really put a lot of work into making it as simple as possible. I've got my android studio setup so that I just pull the latest changes, build the apk and install.
If adhell3 isn't your cup of tea then the only app I know is Disconnect Pro which costs $24.99 in the galaxy app store. Disconnect Pro functions the same way as Adhell3 does.. as a front end configuration for knox. I've read somewhere that Adhell3 has more features then Disconnect Pro, but I didn't look to much into that to find out what one has over the other.
If I were to suggest something I would suggest adhell3 combined with adblock plus plugin for your browser. combined those work the best for me... some ads might slip through, but dns based ad blocking is not the same as cosmetic ad blocking. Adguard should still do cosmetic filtering, but it's been a while since I used that app.
I am use this one on my S9+, it's free and work fine.
https://block-this.com/

Adblockers for Pixel 3 Root and Non-root recommendations.

Any favorites recommended that work well with the pixel 3? Looking for a non-rooted option (for now).
Blokada is the best option I can find. It's available on f-droid as well as directly from their website. Totally free and very configurable. No root required as it's using the built-in VPN functionality.
WITH ROOT, the king is Adaway for sure. Simple, lightweight and works great.
WITHOUT ROOT I'd personally recommend DNS66. Blocks host names via DNS through Android's VPN interface. Without ROOT that's as good as it gets, or another app very similar like sirebral123 mentioned above. Both are available on F-droid site.
How about just using the Brave browser? Built on chromium, faster than chrome, doesn't track you around, and it has ad blocking built in. Available in the play store and I use it on my desktop as well.
Droid1019 said:
How about just using the Brave browser? Built on chromium, faster than chrome, doesn't track you around, and it has ad blocking built in. Available in the play store and I use it on my desktop as well.
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That doesn't remove ads that appear in apps.
Blokada is working pretty well. Thanks. Any preferences on hosts or dns servers to select or add? I was able to download it here on xda labs app. Same version available in fdroid.
To people recommending VPN apps to block ads.... you realize you are then funneling all of your phone's network traffic through their servers, right? That would make me wildly uncomfortable.
GldRush98 said:
To people recommending VPN apps to block ads.... you realize you are then funneling all of your phone's network traffic through their servers, right? That would make me wildly uncomfortable.
Click to expand...
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They run a local VPN on the phone, there is no 3rd party server
Sent from my Pixel 2 using XDA Labs
Cares said:
That doesn't remove ads that appear in apps.
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If I find an app i like and use on a regular basis, I just pay for it and that takes care of the ads for me and supports the developer.
Well I feel like a horses ass. That's actually pretty clever.
I use a combination of PiHole at my house/work and brave browser.
Droid1019 said:
If I find an app i like and use on a regular basis, I just pay for it and that takes care of the ads for me and supports the developer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everyone should sign up for Google Opinion Rewards. It's a great way to get money for the Play Store and is perfect for this exact scenario.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.paidtasks&hl=en_US
Droid1019 said:
If I find an app i like and use on a regular basis, I just pay for it and that takes care of the ads for me and supports the developer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are public apps that don't offer a pay to remove ads thing like sports score apps.
You may wanna give "adguard for android" a shot, i have a paid version, works like a charm..
Droid1019 said:
If I find an app i like and use on a regular basis, I just pay for it and that takes care of the ads for me and supports the developer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but not every app has a "pay to make the ads go away" feature.
I'm rooted but prefer using Adguard. Being to disable ads for individual apps or website is a plus. Also, the app has a feature to allow the use of custom DNS which I have changed to use Cloudflare DNS. The VPN it creates is a local VPN, data DOES not get funneled to their site. i've been using adguard for over 2 years and paid lifetime. They do have a free trial
I can speak to both options. My phone and my wife's (Pixel 3 XL and Pixel 3) are both rooted and use AdAway. My sons' two phones (Huawei Mate SEs) and their tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8") are not rooted and each have a lifetime licence of AdGuard. I notice pretty much no difference in terms of what they block. I can't do an A/B spead comparison, but none of their devices seem adversely impacted by AdGuard. I very seriously considered going to the OP6T for my wife and I and going with AdGuard and no root since I am on T-Mobile and would have used the OG Pixel XL and Pixel both as trade-ins. My decision to stay with Google phones and root had nothing to do with ad blocking. In fact, the three devices with AdGuard are easy enough to root. The Mates are BL unlocked, and the S2 is pretty easy already. Any difference between AdGuard and AdAway is simply not worth giving them root access that they don't need.
How do the VPN ad-blockers (like AdGuard) affect battery life? I assume they use more than Adaway or other root methods.
dsmero said:
I use a combination of PiHole at my house/work and brave browser.
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Me too. Pi Hole is really good. Easy to install on a Raspberry Pi and it blocks ads and spyware on all devices connected to your network. Should you encounter a web site which doesn't work it is easy to suspend Pi Hole for a predertermined time, or until you re-enable it. A nice little project on very cheap hardware. You don't need the most expensive Raspberry Pi either - but I would recomment connecting it via ethernet so if anyone is interested make sure you buy a Pi with an ethernet socket.
[emoji1360] i already buy it before two years with life license. Its amazing
sneilkanth said:
You may wanna give "adguard for android" a shot, i have a paid version, works like a charm..
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Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Question Ad blockers

first time posting on the P6 forum (last had a P3).
previously, I used dns.adguard.com for the Private DNS setting. however, that was not blocking all of the ads from within some apps. it worked pretty well until then. Now, I downloaded blokada 5, and that successfully blocks almost all ads. the lone problem is that when connecting to a website, it often slows it down.
curious to see if anyone has a similar experience or recommend an alternative to dns.adguard.com.
thanks!
jco23 said:
first time posting on the P6 forum (last had a P3).
previously, I used dns.adguard.com for the Private DNS setting. however, that was not blocking all of the ads from within some apps. it worked pretty well until then. Now, I downloaded blokada 5, and that successfully blocks almost all ads. the lone problem is that when connecting to a website, it often slows it down.
curious to see if anyone has a similar experience or recommend an alternative to dns.adguard.com.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally use both NordVPN as well as AdAway with root; AdAway has a VPN function of its own, and you can use your own host lists, but the VPN solution is more resource intensive than the root solution.
V0latyle said:
I personally use both NordVPN as well as AdAway with root; AdAway has a VPN function of its own, and you can use your own host lists, but the VPN solution is more resource intensive than the root solution.
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interesting - thanks for the quick reply.
i do have windscribe, but rarely use it. i have not rooted this device yet, as my understanding rooting will disable Google Wallet/GPay - and I use those more often than I would need to hide ads.
+1 to AdAway, plus if your preferred browser supports it, install an adblocker in it as well - I use uBlock for Firefox.
There's also MinMinGuard which has recently gotten an update to make it work on current systems, but that requires Lsposed if you don't already use it, as well as individually enabling it for every new app you install. Honestly, though, with AdAway plus a browser adblocker, I almost never see any ads in any app, so I don't find MinMinGuard necessary anymore.
Ad blocking apps like Blokada and DNS-based ad blockers like AdGuard can be effective at blocking ads, but they can also slow down your browsing experience. This is because ad blockers need to process and filter out ads, which can take up resources and cause delays.
One alternative to dns.adguard.com that you could try is Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1. This is a free, fast, and secure DNS resolver that also includes ad-blocking capabilities. Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 uses their own ad-blocking technology which is based on the same technology used by their enterprise-grade Web Application Firewall (WAF). This can block ads at the DNS level, which can be less resource-intensive than using an app like Blokada.
jco23 said:
interesting - thanks for the quick reply.
i do have windscribe, but rarely use it. i have not rooted this device yet, as my understanding rooting will disable Google Wallet/GPay - and I use those more often than I would need to hide ads.
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Click to collapse
No root will not disable Google Wallet/GPay, you just have to install Safety net fix module and all works great, for banking apps just hide root into settings. I use all my banking apps, card tokens and gpay/wallet everyday. Rooking root + adaway.
anawilliam850 said:
Ad blocking apps like Blokada and DNS-based ad blockers like AdGuard can be effective at blocking ads, but they can also slow down your browsing experience. This is because ad blockers need to process and filter out ads, which can take up resources and cause delays.
One alternative to dns.adguard.com that you could try is Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1. This is a free, fast, and secure DNS resolver that also includes ad-blocking capabilities. Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 uses their own ad-blocking technology which is based on the same technology used by their enterprise-grade Web Application Firewall (WAF). This can block ads at the DNS level, which can be less resource-intensive than using an app like Blokada.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried installing the 1.1.1.1 app from cloudflare, and it did NOT block the ads on my scrabble app. thx for the suggestion though.
Have you tried using a browser like Brave which would help with your browsing experience. I use a combination of Blockada for system wide blocking, pihole for in-home network based blocking and browsers like Brave/DDG for blocking and so on. I have a tasker based activity for turning on/off blockada when in home/out of home. It's my non-root solution.
Additionally you can also lookup -
ahadns.com - you get a customised secure dns url, you can setup filter lists and the URL is configured based on the seelctions.
nextdns.io - something similar to the above. 300,000 free ad-blocking queries per month and past that, the non-blocking DNS service will work till the next month.
cbarai said:
Have you tried using a browser like Brave which would help with your browsing experience. I use a combination of Blockada for system wide blocking, pihole for in-home network based blocking and browsers like Brave/DDG for blocking and so on. I have a tasker based activity for turning on/off blockada when in home/out of home. It's my non-root solution.
Additionally you can also lookup -
ahadns.com - you get a customised secure dns url, you can setup filter lists and the URL is configured based on the seelctions.
nextdns.io - something similar to the above. 300,000 free ad-blocking queries per month and past that, the non-blocking DNS service will work till the next month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, just stumbled across your post and thought that if you use piehole at home, you should be able to just use a VPN to you piehole when on the road so you don't have to rely on third party apps. Don't know about performance though, but you might give it a try.
Cheers
Been taking NextDNS for a test ride. Easy set up with a lot of features, up to 300,000 queries per month for free. What's not to like?
Fast and running pretty smooth so far, day 7.

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