- I use some form of script/cross-site/ad/tracker blocker
- I do not
0 voters
1 Like
obsolete post now
there is a poll system:
[poll type=regular results=always chartType=bar]
* I use some form of script/cross-site/ad/tracker blocker
* I do not
[/poll]
if you want to edit?
unless the forum blocking as too few posts?
I know this theme / discussion comes up every couple months, but I still prefer a broken web experience, in exchange for a perceived less-intrusively tracked onlne life.
Can’t beet Googs and their telemetry, including IP connection logs of folk that block their tracking pixels, but it makes me more comfortable to at least try
4 Likes
In my opinion the inconvenience of broken web sites sparks the question if I really want to interact with that website. In some cases I will add an exception, in most cases I will find an alternative.
2 Likes
The worst thing, is I need sites to have ads- they can be super useful for sites to keep going.
I just really wish ad companies would simply be super good at drilling down on the CONTENT, not the consumer.
I can’t find a damn realiable way to do it without breaking sites or services I use and without spending an eternity on it to find a way around it. So I end up using it in conjunction with a regular ad blocking extensions on my browser.
So than I ask myself: what’s even the point of a DNS blocker if there’s already an ad blocker that does it locally?
PiHole, for example, has been nothing but problems for me. Especially when it comes the time to update it. God help me if ONCE it updated fine without breaking. So I resorted to AdGuard that works, but it’s too basic on the settings so I can’t create custom entries for DNS routing inside my LAN (it didn’t work either on PiHole, but that’s not the point) so I stopped using that too.
Moral of the story: it’s not working for me and I don’t have the mental energy to keep up with it.
If you want to just block ads and spam domains then it doesn’t make sense.
I use Adguard home at my router to block adult sites and also some domains that I waste time on and I am powerless to stop myself from going there.
I gave the password from my router to someone else and now I am happily filtered without a possibility to quickly stop the locally filtering plugin and have a bad judgement call and visit reddit or worse. 
1 Like
Well that’s how most of the user base use it for so I thought I could be part of that group I guess.
Luckly I’m so scattered in my mind that there is NOTHING that could ever stop me from wasting my time with something. Even a pen is enough.
1 Like
To all who think think this blocking is a hassle and overly faitguing, EFF has your antedote: *Privacy Badger. Three hits on seperate websites and it’s blocked. It’s a start…
There is a difference of local-device ad blocking vs. network-wide ads / telemtry / and more telemetry domain blocking at the router DNS level.
To see how bad this shit has gotten, go to the pi-hole.net website and read about all the shit that is usually blocked with it. You will not ever get this level of ad blocking from your web browser.
Many people have a Roku device. These “smart” devices have come up with an ingenius way to rake in $260,000,000 every year. How? By showing you ads of tv shows and whatnot. I guess it’s not obtrusive or unrelated, and possibly helps you find something new to watch oh sure.
But do you know what’s in those logs?
When asked on their forums, Roku doesn’t respond.
What about the fact that Netflix and Apple apps auto-start on the TV, and if not blocked, you’ll boot Netflix and Apple TV at least daily (I pull power because of this) even if you don’t watch it for days or more.
It’s only netflix and apple that do thus, AND, it’s happened twice now with logs confirming, that netflix works with all of that stuff blocked that auto-starts (all red in pi-hole) and uses a different playback domain but irregularly, sometimes I can push through but often I get error.
We need to send these companies a message, hey stop being peeping tom’s and get your nose out of my asshole.
It shouldn’t have to be so frustrating to block telemetry, but if you all would like, I could post my pi-hole blocklists. It’s very extreme, so I would probably need to modify it for you all–to the point I block mozilla domains because it connects every time I boot the browser, just unneccessary shot like that. If you all would like help with this, I think we could find a collection of blocks that we could add to and update, and share if need be.
I think this blocking saves electricity use. Sure it may take 30ms to resolve a domain, but 60% of electricty is lost in transmission through our power grid so think about that.
With great power (the Internet, world-wide) and generally very fast connection sppeds, comes GREAT responsibility.
Our fingers literally control remote power use in less than the blink of an eye. If we accidentally tap a link we don’t want, that just lit up a server (or tens of different servers) and causes who knows how much unintended electricity use.
I think it’s something to consider.
1 Like
If you’re willing to go back to pi-hole, I can (probably) figure out what version I’m on and haven’t updated yet. I love the peace of mind it gives me, especially when using Windows. It’s like having a clean Linux system with Windows programs and games. Easy wireless drivers and ease of use.
PiHole stops the lookup, and connection of resources from the blocklists.
Adblocks in a browser typically just block the running of script / displaying of elements on a page.
Things like tracking pixels etc, might still get a connection, even if the result is not displayed.
Also, other apps / games / installers / systems might lookup / touch outside servers against your wishes.
Obviously all this means layers of software can work together, or against each other and can cause desired assets to be blocked in multiple ways, and other things may just slip through all the attempts to block them, but it’s all a trade off of functionality vs security/privacy
This is what these companies WANT. They want it to be a burden to block them, they want it to be complex–but it doesn’t have to!
Go install Privacy Badger addon from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and it’ll figure out whats tracking you automatically and block it after three connections on different websites.
I’ll give you my pi-hole version numbers to stay on, haven’t updated in probably two months or more.
I only ever use uBlock origin in its default state.
Anything else and it starts breaking things like the Digikey search functions, or JLCPCB’s online file processing for PCB design files, etc and isn’t worth the hassle. I’m not bothered enough by the miniscule amount of stuff that gets past uBlock that I care to put another device into the network either.
It’s a pain in the ass when websites start forgetting my filters/login info/configuration stuff because of it too.
Just go set up pi-hole, and you’ll be amazed at how much stuff NON-browser related is loading.
Don’t tell me youvthink your network is “idle” when you boot up. Also, if you have any Internet-connected “smart” TVs, I think you’ll be disappointed at how much “miniscule” amounts of data go through.
Also if you have Android especially, well there is this domain called “mtalk” amd along with it, is eight extra “mtalk” domains, and if you have a fire tablet, Amazon adds its own extra junk but of course w/o the google specific stuff.
You should REALLY look into this, you’re missing so much traffic that it’s disturbing at this point. I would MEVER use these devices without these blocking programs that go outside just “the browser”.
Please, just at the minimum, go install wireshark, then turn on wi-fi onn ANY of your devices and watch it go absolutely nuts!
Hi bud, realx!
It’s okay for different people to choose different levels of security, privacy, focus and variety.
Privacy Badger is a great addition, and it can help in the whole eco-system, but as you use PiHole anyway, you can see the traffic it still allows from sites that you might not even realise, by looking at the DNS lookups that slip past.
As said above, I use a bunch of tools, and have Privacy Badger installed, but it is the least useful tool among the group.
It does do good filtering, and does not interfere as much as real script / site filters, but it is too “generic” to be a lot of use.
I mostly just have it because I like the EFF, and wish to help them with my training data.
A DNS based blocker is best start, then system wide firewall, then browser based script blockers, then things like PB. then cookie opt-outs. in that order.
Personally I also use a VPN, but that does not do much in this case, but dis-associated my IP from a specific geographic location; my ad profile the big companies build looks straight past that in identifying me.
So I mean to day, it is good to question back-and-forth, and refine / improve, but I think Northern Wing has seen the pros/cons, and gone another way. chillax 
1 Like
Yeah, that totally makese sense. I was reacting more instictively to it, looking at the final result instead of digging into what’s the difference (I knew that even before this, I’m just fed up with it and react poorly 
)
Nhaa, it’s not that. It works, I can block fairly reliably many many domains. The problem is that lists are usually broken and made for the US. This means that, if you live in the EU, you might find that Discord is broken just because you’re in the EU.
Reliable but effective lists don’t seem to exist and I don’t want to dig into millions of records every time to find why a site is not loading.
This is amazingly smart, thanks!
Thank you for your kind offer. I’ve run PiHole for a year at the time and, once a year at least, it needs to update. And that’s when shit hits the fan. I guess on version can work forever (?) but I don’t know how much sense that makes, since the team adds nice features from time to time and improves the program.
Yeah it sounds like it’s just too much of a hassle for some websites. Oh well, maybe EU adoption of the pi-hole or similar will help this ossue in time.