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iOS 9 Content Blockers Mini-Reviews
- Thread starter Apple_Robert
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Sorry if this has been asked (I couldn't find an answer) but are there any negatives with running more than one content blocker at the same time?
I'm running these two right now (ABP and Magic), I alternate between them trying to see if one is better than the other, and I just recently enabled both at the same time but I don't really notice any performance issues.
I'm running these two right now (ABP and Magic), I alternate between them trying to see if one is better than the other, and I just recently enabled both at the same time but I don't really notice any performance issues.
There's nothing really proven yet as far as I'm aware, however being that the filter lists must be gone through each time you load up a webpage in order to know what content to block, running more than one would theoretically increase the amount of data that needs to be checked. Thusly, that may affect the speed at which a website would load, depending on the total amount of filters being looked through.Sorry if this has been asked (I couldn't find an answer) but are there any negatives with running more than one content blocker at the same time?
I'm running these two right now (ABP and Magic), I alternate between them trying to see if one is better than the other, and I just recently enabled both at the same time but I don't really notice any performance issues.
That's the idea, but I've not tested it myself nor have I seen any numbers comparing using one versus using multiple blockers at the same time. I would say generally it's unnecessary for most people to use more than one and it might complicate an already somewhat convoluted issue for those less tech savvy, but thus far it doesn't seem like there are too many negatives.
Here is a pretty good filters description:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rs-mini-reviews.1918483/page-19#post-22486628
Do you recommend using all the filters in that list in the post? For example, aren't English filter and Easylist redundant? Do I need the Safari filter for iOS, is it mirroring Easylist?
You should choose what you need on your own.
If you don't like EU cookies, use Prebake filter.
If you don't like seeing all these "like" and "share" buttons, use "Social Widgets filter"
If you want to block trackers like Google analytics and such, use "Spyware filter"
Safari filter is crucial for iOS so just never disable it.
General recommendation: stick to Adguard filters when it's possible (means prefer English filter to EasyList or German filter to EasyList Germany).
Thanks for the reply. Does the last line in your post mean English filter and EasyList are redundant? How does one go about choosing one over the other, or should one have both enabled? This is not an easy task for an average user who doesn't have the time to spend researching this to the nth degree.
No, they are not redundant. English filter is based on EasyList, so you'd better use either it or EasyList, but not both at the same time.
Thanks for the quick reply, that's redundant in my defintion.
Back to the topic, I will stick with Easylist and remove English just because it seems Easylist is more comprehensive than English.
There is indeed no conclusive answer, but what I understood from reading some of the materials and mailing-list responses, I think that Safari does some additional optimisation on its own when it receives the raw block lists from the content blockers. This could mean that Safari will create a single list internally each time a block list is updated and merges all of them together, where possible. There is also a limit of the number of rules Safari will parse and if there is a performance issue, Safari will stop the filtering incidentally. It should thus not happen that enabling 10 blockers will immensely slow down your browser. That being said, using multiple block lists will require more parsing time so you should make sure that you are optimising it a bit if you want to get the most out of it.
No, it does not. I was reading webkit code while researching some weird bugs. It does some optimizations for every content blocker separately.
Here is a code that applies content blockers to the web request:
https://github.com/WebKit/webkit/bl...ontentextensions/ContentExtensionsBackend.cpp
Look into "ContentExtensionsBackend::actionsForResourceLoad" method there.
It iterates over the list of compiled content blockers and looks for an action matching the web request. More than this, even if it finds an action that should block the request, it won't stop iterating and will check every content blocker.
Rules number limit is per-blocker. Also the rules limit is set not for your sake, but because of ridiculously slow content blocker compilation.
Every content blocker is also compiled separately. Most of the time is spent on compiling their regular expressions (they use their own limited implementation) and building a prefixes tree which should speed up the searches.
The prefixes tree idea is not bad, but it is too "common". Nobody needs covering every use case, this is for matching URLs only. In my opinion, it costs them much (rules limit for instance). Why couldn't they take a look at popular ad blockers implementations first?
For me Weblock.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weblock-adblock-for-apps-websites/id558818638?mt=8
Blocks annoying app ads too like in Tapatalk.
The only disadvantage on my iPhone is it only blocks ads on WiFi not 4G
Though works great on my iPad Mini 4 WiFi version even while tethered to my phone.
IMO: Adguard
Free, super fast, updated constantly, and doesn't break any sites functionality.
I've tried Purify, Magic, and BlockBear before but they just don't have the efficiency of Adgaurd for me.
Is it worth enabling 'use simplified filters' in Adguard or does it restrict effectiveness too much?
Just take into account that this feature is experimental.
Currently - it disables a huge part of cosmetic filters, leaving some ads visible.
But this will be changed in the nearest future, we experiment with another options.
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Adguard not supporting iCloud for syncing whitelists etc is a deal breaker for me, I know you're supposed to be adding an account system to sync between the different platforms, but I don't want to have to create another account when I'm only going to be using Apple devices and iCloud syncing exists.
Purify supports iCloud syncing for whitelists and I find it really useful.
Purify supports iCloud syncing for whitelists and I find it really useful.
Makes sense. Instead of forcing user into creating an account we could provide an opportunity to sync through a 3rd party like icloud or dropbox (like 1password does).
@avatar-adg: This may not be an Adguard issue per se, but I never noticed it prior to trying 2.1.5 in OS X (and did not use Adguard previously). Have noticed that with default English filter, spyware, and social media filters enabled, on some websites, the back button in Safari (or gesture, or keyboard shortcut) doesn't actually go back in browsing history. It simply reloads the page I'm on. Very intermittent issue which is present only a minority of the time. Have yet to figure out how to reliably reproduce.
Searched this thread and online and didn't find any talk of this.
Disabling the browser extension fixes this behavior. Similarly, using the old API seems to, as well.
What's more: on iOS, similar behavior was seen with the social media filter in that with it enabled, I occasionally had the same thing happen there.
Running OS X 10.11.3 / iOS 9.2.1 on new hardware.
Known issue / any thoughts?
Searched this thread and online and didn't find any talk of this.
Disabling the browser extension fixes this behavior. Similarly, using the old API seems to, as well.
What's more: on iOS, similar behavior was seen with the social media filter in that with it enabled, I occasionally had the same thing happen there.
Running OS X 10.11.3 / iOS 9.2.1 on new hardware.
Known issue / any thoughts?
I have same issue with back gesture which occasionally doesn't work. Here is particular website where it happens quite often
Newsru.com
I have English, Russian, spyware and social media filters enabled and also in advanced settings I have simplified filters enabled.
Also, on that site I see large empty boxes sometimes (may be because I have simplified filters enabled).
@exi @Orka
Thank you, I was able to reproduce this issue on newsru.com.
Filed a bug report:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardBrowserExtension/issues/175
That's weird, on iOS Adguard can not mess with browser navigation, it just registers a content blocker. Anyway, we'll also check this.
Yep, that's the cause.
Thank you, I was able to reproduce this issue on newsru.com.
Filed a bug report:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardBrowserExtension/issues/175
That's weird, on iOS Adguard can not mess with browser navigation, it just registers a content blocker. Anyway, we'll also check this.
Yep, that's the cause.
This issue happens on Euronews website as well, go here and click some links to reproduce.
http://ru.euronews.com
As for empty boxes, I turned simplified filters off and still see some empty large boxes...