VPN is on the router and the provider has app's to secure phone's, tablets etc. on the go across multiple OS.
Q-6
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Best Mac Adblocker for PRIVACY and data protection? [MERGED]
- Thread starter Silly John Fatty
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Q-6
Currently I am using my Mac Pro 4,1 now running ProxMox to run 2 Virtual machines of PiHole. All LAN machines use these 2 DNS servers exclusively. I have full privacy enabled on 1 instance and full traffic viewing on the other while I play around with this.
Any thoughts on replacing with a Raspberry Pi? I have to believe even in the USA that your payback on electricity saved would be pretty reasonable. Less noise, simpler… just get a Linux with a Docker instance on there and you’re gtg…
Couldn't agree with you more with regards to Power Consumption. Right now I'm also running Windows 11, Kali Linux, Ubuntu and several other VM's in a test environment on that machine. When I've settled on what I'll be using here in a home lab I'll look at greener hardware for sure. For now it's amazing that these old machines are still plenty powerful enough to run consecutive VM's at great speeds.
There's a massive discount on AdGuard's lifetime subscription right now:
AdGuard Personal Lifetime Subscription Deal
<p>Keep your device safe from malware and enjoy ad-free browsing with AdGuard's advanced blocking technology. Get a discounted lifetime license key now—no recurring fees!</p>www.stacksocial.com
Finally I've been using AdGuard for the two weeks now and I'm thinking of buying it. Is this website legit however? Because it's much more expensive in the AdGuard shop.
I'm a little bit suspicious when it comes to downloading that stuff from someone who is not the developer. Maybe the app is modified or something. But it is cheaper by a lot!
Do you have to download the software from their site or do you just get a license that you can enter in the software downloaded from AdGuard?
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Yes, it's legit. I buy stuff from here all the time because they're always having sales. They'll give you a key and you just add the key to your AdGuard account on the website and you're good to go. The personal plan is 5 devices and the family plan is 9 devices.
You're not downloading the software from them, you're just buying a lifetime key. You download the software from AdGuard.
You're just buying the license to add to your AdGuard account.
I did it and that's how it was.
Weirdly enough, on my 2010 Mac Pro (High Sierra) it didn't ask my anything about Proxies, whereas it did on the Macbook Air M1 (latest OS).
The OS warned me on the MacBook that the App might track all traffic and activities online. It didn't tell me anything about that when I installed it on the Mac Pro. Probably High Sierra is just old and the newer OS's warn you about that kind of stuff. I still hope everything is alright. I could not use AdGuard if I didn't allow this. Kind of annoying … I hope AdGuard is trustworthy and not a bunch of criminals.
I've been using it for years. They say they don't track what you're doing. That's entirely up to you to trust them or not. It's the only ad blocker I've used that blocks all of Facebook's nonsense so that I only see friends, family, and the pages I'm following. There really isn't anything comparable for Safari. It'll also block ads in any app you want ad blocking in. It'll circumvent Google's Manifest V3 nonsense as well because it's blocking ads at the desktop level, not the browser level. I highly recommend it personally, but trust is a big thing when it comes to stuff like this.
I've been really happy with Brave. It's open source and has an incredibly efficient adblocking engine: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser
Brave does a good job. I put a PiHole on my network, but I like Brave too for those not so inclined.
Thanks, never heard of that. I'm kind of not wanting to leave Safari, that's my problem. I have all my Bookmarks there, my tabs synchronize, my reading list, etc. … and I know it will always exist and work. With those smaller browsers you never know how long they're going to be updated, how long they're going to exist, if all features are available, and often they're just clumsy and important features are missing or not working they way I expect it. Sadly! Maybe it's not the case with Brave however.
I think Brave will be around for a while. The CEO is the co-founder of Mozilla and also the co-creator of Javascript and he seems quite serious about this browser. It's the best browser I've used so far. It's also the only browser on iOS with ad blocking that doesn't suck besides Safari.
I can using the ASUS router with Asuswrt-Merlin firmware installed on the router, not sure about other router brands.
Once you have flashed the ASUS router with the Merlin firmware you can install router level ad-blocker (i.e. Diversion or unbound) and other router level software such as enhanced firewall etc.
Or alternatively use a different web browser such as Orion.
So there are many options and depends on how detailed controls you want but the easiest method is the following. There are 3 ways to block ads.
1)Browser extension: works only in the browser. Golden standard is uBlockOrigin but due to Apple restriction no Safari version exist. Instead you can use Adguard for Safari EXTENSION which is free and FOSS I believe. The paid stuff is just some extra features if you want (I think)
2)DNS Block: This works system wide. Without going into much details, every internet device has to contact another computer/server to requests websites (like macrumors.com) . Those are called DNS servers. You are most likely using your ISP's DNS server.
There are free DNS servers that have a blocklist of ad serving websites. All you have to do is put these server numbers in your device (any) or even your router (so any device connected to that router gets ad blocker).
Here is Adguard's servers:-
94.140.14.14
94.140.15.15
Another Service is ControlD:-
76.76.10.2
76.76.2.2
3)VPN adblocker: this is basically a VPN service that has their own DNS adblocker built in their service just like method 2 above. I recommend ProtonVPN and Mullvad for VPN service.
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Please note that DNS adblocker has a limitation in which it can not block in-video ads like YouTube so it is best practice to use a combination of DNS adblocker (for system wide adblocking) AND an extension blocker together because they complement each other.
1)Browser extension: works only in the browser. Golden standard is uBlockOrigin but due to Apple restriction no Safari version exist. Instead you can use Adguard for Safari EXTENSION which is free and FOSS I believe. The paid stuff is just some extra features if you want (I think)
2)DNS Block: This works system wide. Without going into much details, every internet device has to contact another computer/server to requests websites (like macrumors.com) . Those are called DNS servers. You are most likely using your ISP's DNS server.
There are free DNS servers that have a blocklist of ad serving websites. All you have to do is put these server numbers in your device (any) or even your router (so any device connected to that router gets ad blocker).
Here is Adguard's servers:-
94.140.14.14
94.140.15.15
Another Service is ControlD:-
76.76.10.2
76.76.2.2
3)VPN adblocker: this is basically a VPN service that has their own DNS adblocker built in their service just like method 2 above. I recommend ProtonVPN and Mullvad for VPN service.
---
Please note that DNS adblocker has a limitation in which it can not block in-video ads like YouTube so it is best practice to use a combination of DNS adblocker (for system wide adblocking) AND an extension blocker together because they complement each other.
Brave is not a small browser. It has 20 million daily active users. They have the cryptocurrency project worth $466M in total. They also have their own independent search engine which I recommend.
At this rate, I see Brave more stable than Mozilla who are begging Google for money to keep it as the default search engine.
Privacy wise Brave is better than Safari since its open source and everyone can see and review the code. Anything you have in Safari is probably exportable.
May I ask why would you say this? Chrome based browser "feel" heavier for me.
It's not heavier. Brave is stripped of everything Google and a lot of unnecessary bulk has been removed. It's incredibly streamlined and fast and the built in ad blockers block ads with no hit to the browser's speed.
I meant compared to safari and firefox, Chromium browser feel heavier to me. note word feel, its not scientific just an impression.
isn't adguard a russian thing? i switched to 1blocker. i think the family was like $10 a yr for every device.
To me the simplest (ha!) methods:
1. PiHole locally, managed by you, for first level blocks. Auto download the update lists from a list you trust, or just let PiHole do it all out of the box.
2. OpenDNS (a Cisco company) for second level blocks. Easy to specify topics / items you also want to block.
3. Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro for network intrusion detection & local honeypot.
1. PiHole locally, managed by you, for first level blocks. Auto download the update lists from a list you trust, or just let PiHole do it all out of the box.
2. OpenDNS (a Cisco company) for second level blocks. Easy to specify topics / items you also want to block.
3. Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro for network intrusion detection & local honeypot.
I do not think so, they all work the same way. Adguard maybe more privacy friendly and foss, 1blockr is more of a decent native macos app so pick your choice.
1blockr are really dedicated to the cause and I have a soft spot for them but truth remains its not foss, and in my book, what is not foss is not privacy friendly.
Yes. I have it on MacOS , ios and iPadOS. Especially useful to kill youtube ads.
have you tried FireFox? Security analyst tell me chromium browser are more secure than FF though, whatever that means
I think 1blockr is Russian. I have it for Safari on iOS.
Yes, I've been using it on and off since it was called Netscape, but the ad blocking leaves much to be desired on iOS.
It's because Chrome and Chromium browsers have like 90% marketshare around the world, so websites are generally catered to function the best with those types of browsers. Having said that, "secure" and "private" are two entirely different things. Firefox is far more "private" than Chrome or Edge, but not as private as Brave out of the box, though Firefox can be tweaked a lot to be very private.
If Firefox allowed uBlock Origin on iOS like the Android version, it would be so much better. But as of right now, Brave has the ad blocking built in out of all browsers that aren't Safari on iOS. But even the iOS version of Brave is gimped compared to the Android version.