DNS for Dummies

NoTimeDaddy

I tried to understand a couple of the DNS posts and failed to understand it. Please help a Dummy.

I use GOS, Vanadium, Mullvad. Under Mullvad I activated "DNS content blockers" (all 6). That doesn't seem to do anything, I still get a lot of ads.

What should I do? My goal is as little ads as possible while maintaining reasonable privacy and security and keeping it simple.

Johnnyloans

NoTimeDaddy I still get a lot of ads.

How DNS works:

normal:
your phone: "Hey, where can i reach youtube.com?"
DNS provider: "over there at this address 1.2.3.4"

For DNS content blockers:
phone: "where is ads.google.com?"
DNS provider: "I don't know" (your phone never connects to download the ad)

Many ads are on the very same site that you want to view.
Youtube.com has the videos and the ads.
Twitch.tv has the videos and ads.
etc

It used to work well because people would monetize their sites by obtaining ads from: google, yahoo, or meta. They had website names that are only for ads.

To block more ads that you see, you'd have to have the firefox plugin "ublock origin."
chrome (google) kneecapped ad blockers. The only web browsers that exist are: Firefox, safari, and chromium (everything else you've heard of)

Ads inside of apps:
Likely the same story. The ads are mixed with real services and content that you need. Also, blocking network from an app won't always disable ads. The app can ask for an ad from play services--which has network access in this scenario.

NoTimeDaddy

Thank you for you explanation. What should I install or set-up under GOS/Vanadium to not have ads in apps or websites?

NoahRaketic

NoTimeDaddy Vanadium has a built-in ad blocker. This will cover anything that most DNS ad blockers will cover, but a DNS ad blocker can sometimes remove ads from apps depending on how they're served.

Any app that performs cosmetic filtering (if that even exists) for ads in Vanadium or apps would be invasive and would reduce security.

EllaWren

hello

NoTimeDaddy

NoahRaketic the built-in ad blocker seems not very good. I still get very big and annoying ads on my news-site. Are there any other options?

NoahRaketic

NoTimeDaddy If you need aggressive ad blocking, then the Brave browser will be your next best bet.

Johnnyloans

NoTimeDaddy Are there any other options?

Brave is chromium so I assume it'd be similar to vanadium ad blocking.

Or the accrescent store > ironfox
Extensions > ublock origin

For sites your frequent, you can use element picker to clean it up cosmetically. Probably would be easier to learn this feature on desktop first.

NoTimeDaddy

What about RethinkDNS and similar apps or services?

ralm

NoTimeDaddy If blocking ads and other foul content is your main concern, I think you'd be better off without a VPN. Private DNS will get the job done.

I can't say for RethinkDNS or Adguard, but with NextDNS you can stack unified hosts lists popular with root solutions, such as HaGeZi lists at varying degrees of aggressiveness. As with any ad block technique, the more aggressive you are, the more chances of something on a site not working.

Most browser solutions will be weak compared to DNS solutions. The exception is Firefox (or forks) with UBlock Origin.

NoahRaketic

ralm I can't say for RethinkDNS or Adguard, but with NextDNS you can stack unified hosts lists popular with root solutions

Not sure what "root solutions" is supposed to mean precisely, but if you mean rooting the phone, then you definitely should not be encouraging users to do so.

ralm Most browser solutions will be weak compared to DNS solutions. The exception is Firefox (or forks) with UBlock Origin.

This is false. DNS blockers are much more coarse than subresource filtering, and the Brave browser has exceptional ad blocking capabilities just as uBlock Origin does, without the security problems of Firefox.

ralm

NoahRaketic ...if you mean rooting the phone, then you definitely should not be encouraging users to do so.

I'll concede to being wrong about Brave since I haven't touched it in years. But you're wrong to say I encouraged rooting Graphene.

NoTimeDaddy

I very much appreciate everybodies input. In my experience using phrases such as "you are wrong" is often the beginning of an unpleasant argument. Must of us feel hurt by such a phrase and tend to react with retallitaion, such is human nature. Maybe try to soften your statements -- even if you are 100% conviced you are right and the other person is wrong. It makes for an overall nicer social experience, in this forum and in life. Thank you.

Johnnyloans

NoTimeDaddy

Wise words

n3t_admin

Thanks for the insight.

NoTimeDaddy

I am thinking staying with Vanadium and Mullvad but installing RethinkDNS. It seams FOSS, secure and private. And it can be setup with Mullvad and Proton. Sounds good?

n3t_admin

NoTimeDaddy well, you already received your answer. DNS blocking is not very effective, especially on websites, since many ads are served via JavaScript and are injected directly into the website, which can't be blocked via DNS. RethinkDNS does pretty much the exact same thing, which is why you need extensions (Firefox, security problems) or something like Brave which is pretty good at blocking ads due to their built-in ad blockers that doesn't require extensions. I don't know how far you'll come with RethinkDNS, but my guess is, not very far.

Novalissoide

n3t_admin how far you'll come with RethinkDNS

RethinkDNS as 'Always-on VPN' + 'Block connections without VPN'. And with recommended blocklists and 'firewall' settings in RethinkDNS itself, isolate all apps. Vanadium already has content blocking. I rarely see any ads, certainly not outside the page at hand.

https://grapheneos.org/features#vanadium

High performance content filtering engine using EasyList + EasyPrivacy with per-site toggle via drop-down permission menu

NoTimeDaddy

Ok, thank you. I'll try Brave

n3t_admin

Novalissoide Vanadium already has content blocking.

Yeah, which leaves a lot to be desired, since the dev team writes:

https://grapheneos.org/features#vanadium

We plan to move to a better content engine with support for more advanced filter rules and cosmetic filtering in the future. Expanding the standard filters will depend on having support for the extensions used by uBlock Origin, AdGuard and other filters.

I don't know if Vanadium has support for custom lists (I suppose not), so that's a pretty big downside, compared to Brave - which is a lot more flexible in that regard. I'm not saying it doesn't work; I'm saying it could work better.

Novalissoide

n3t_admin RethinkDNS does the fine grained stuff. I'm not claiming that Brave and Ironfox+UbO won't block ads, they might do this even better since they seemingly puts tons of effort into acheiving it. But Vanadium+RethinkDNS is not bad in this regard while being arguably more secure.

And I've been testing Vanadium+TorVpn in Private Space recently. You know all these sites that supposedly tests for browser 'Fingerprinting', and in just one single instance one site claimed 'recognition', but it only took me tapping 'Desktop site' in Vanadium for the site to retract that claim! 😊