Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.

On 04/08/2023 16:50, Tweed wrote:
> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.
>

You might be better off (or certainly no worse off) trying out a few
different browsers. Personally I find that Opera has less pop ups and
adverts than any other browser, but the ITVx thing refuses to run on it,
so I use Firefox as well

And ... a few minutes spent faffing around with the site tracking
options in Firefox might pay dividends - and also costs nothing.

--
random signature text inserted here

On 04/08/2023 16:50, Tweed wrote:
> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.
>

It works in a totally different way. Put simply its a URL to DNS filter
which prevents the web page getting to the ad server farm as it does not
know how to get there,IP address wise.

Its better than the web filtering in a web browser because the webpage
cant seem detect it ( at the moment).

It does need occasional maintenance its not completely self reliant.You
could always try both methods .

Also you can manually add your own ad server farm if its not in the
lists it downloads.

Getting hold of a raspberry pi might be a problem at the moment. I use
pfBlockerNG on my pfsense firewall works the same way with similar but
broader features IMHO.

grinch wrote:

> Tweed wrote:
>
>> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts?
>
> It works in a totally different way. Put simply its a URL to DNS  filter
> which prevents the web page getting to the ad server farm as it does not
> know how to get there,IP address wise.
>
> Its better than the web filtering in a web browser because the webpage
> cant seem detect it ( at the moment).

Web pages don't need to do much to "detect" adblocking, e.g. the html of
the page contains the desired content plus a banner obscuring the entire
page with the message

"oi! go away you freeloader"

then there's a javascript that does two things

1) inserts the adverts into the page
2) hides the banner

So if your adblocker blocks the javascript to avoid the adverts, it also
leaves the banner obscuring the page ...

Adverts and Ad-blockers are always in an arms race, and it generally
gets more involved than above.

Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.
>
I use a home made pihole equivalent, I just use the file of web sites
to block and use it with my system that provides local DNS. The big
advantage for me is that it provides ad blocking for everyone in the
house. I do run a guest Wi-Fi network for use if one needs to bypass
the pseudo-pihole.

I don't think ad-block detectors can 'see' pihole as it's off on
another system and out of their reach, all they can dig around in is
inside your browser.

--
Chris Green
·

grinch <grinch@somewhere.net> wrote:
> On 04/08/2023 16:50, Tweed wrote:
> > Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
> > that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
> > noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
> > device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.
> >
>
> It works in a totally different way. Put simply its a URL to DNS filter
> which prevents the web page getting to the ad server farm as it does not
> know how to get there,IP address wise.
>
> Its better than the web filtering in a web browser because the webpage
> cant seem detect it ( at the moment).
>
> It does need occasional maintenance its not completely self reliant.You
> could always try both methods .
>
> Also you can manually add your own ad server farm if its not in the
> lists it downloads.
>
> Getting hold of a raspberry pi might be a problem at the moment. I use
> pfBlockerNG on my pfsense firewall works the same way with similar but
> broader features IMHO.

Raspberry Pis are again available, though still in fairly short
supply. PiHut have some for example.

--
Chris Green
·

On 05/08/2023 15:45, Chris Green wrote:
> Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
>> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
>> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
>> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.
>>
> I use a home made pihole equivalent, I just use the file of web sites
> to block and use it with my system that provides local DNS. The big
> advantage for me is that it provides ad blocking for everyone in the
> house. I do run a guest Wi-Fi network for use if one needs to bypass
> the pseudo-pihole.
>
> I don't think ad-block detectors can 'see' pihole as it's off on
> another system and out of their reach, all they can dig around in is
> inside your browser.
>

The URL gives a fairly straight forward and up to date guide to what
PFblockerng is and how to configure it on PFsense. PFblockerng does not
as far I remember work with open-sense.

The box I quote below is similar to what I use as a firewall , AES-NI is
probably becoming necessary to work with future versions of PFsense.

Both are open source so therefore free but here are paid versions and
support should you need it. I did not register for maxmind but
PFblockerng works without but lacks the ability to block individual
countries.

It blocks a lot more than just adverts spam malicious sites and other
nasties ,it is a free version of a professional firewall.

One last comment,if you can build a Linux/FreeBSD box from an ISO file
the PFsense build is not that much more difficult. It presumes you can
as a minimum.

https://www.comparitech.com/data-privacy-management/block-ads-malware-pfsense-pfblocker/

Protectli Vault FW4B - 4 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel
Quad Core (Celeron J3160), AES-NI, 4GB RAM, 32GB mSATA SSD - Compatible
with pfSense

On Friday, 4 August 2023 at 16:50:17 UTC+1, Tweed wrote:
> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.

What drives me potty is sites that come up with "switch up your ad' blocker" when I don't have and never have had one. Some sites like Reach are an absolute PITA, so I just avoid them.

On Sun 06/08/2023 20:36, notya...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, 4 August 2023 at 16:50:17 UTC+1, Tweed wrote:
>> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
>> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
>> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
>> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.
>
> What drives me potty is sites that come up with "switch up your ad' blocker" when I don't have and never have had one. Some sites like Reach are an absolute PITA, so I just avoid them.

If you are using DuckDuckGo, Windows Defender (or any other anti-virus,
or some otherwise irrelevant extensions to Google Chrome) you will have
to suspend them as most nowadays contain an ad-blocker. It took me a
while to find DDG does it!

Mark Clayton wrote:

> What drives me potty is sites that come up with "switch up your ad'
> blocker" when I don't have and never have had one. Some sites like Reach
> are an absolute PITA, so I just avoid them.

Google's forthcoming attempt to lock down the web and restrict which
browsers will work (WEI) web environment integrity

<https://youtu.be/tm3gH-ycykw>

warning shouty bloke off the interwebs.

On 04/08/2023 16:50, Tweed wrote:
> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.

I use it, in conjunction with the uBlock Origin browser extension.

IME, some websites that detect ad-blockers /do/ still trigger with Pihole.

Worth noting that Pihole is only good at the DNS layer. It cannot
manipulate/re-render websites, so without the browser extension, you can
expect to see fairly ugly 404 blank div elements in websites that
contain ads. Browser extensions tend to get rid of these which looks a
tad neater.

A browser extension won't block things like mobile app ads though,
whereas Pihole will has some success in doing this.

It's not necessarily a 'one or the other' thing.

--
|Bob Pullen Award-winning broadband
|Support ADSL/VDSL/FTTP
|Plusnet Plc. www.plus.net
+--------------- twitter.com/plusnet ----------------

Plusnet Support Team <support@plus.net> wrote:
> On 04/08/2023 16:50, Tweed wrote:
>> Anyone here using pihole to block adverts? How does it work for those sites
>> that try to operate ad block detectors? Do those detectors succeed in
>> noticing that pihole is in use? I’m trying to work out if installing such a
>> device has any advantages over the adblocker I’ve added to my browser.
>
> I use it, in conjunction with the uBlock Origin browser extension.
>
> IME, some websites that detect ad-blockers /do/ still trigger with Pihole.
>
> Worth noting that Pihole is only good at the DNS layer. It cannot
> manipulate/re-render websites, so without the browser extension, you can
> expect to see fairly ugly 404 blank div elements in websites that
> contain ads. Browser extensions tend to get rid of these which looks a
> tad neater.
>
> A browser extension won't block things like mobile app ads though,
> whereas Pihole will has some success in doing this.
>
> It's not necessarily a 'one or the other' thing.
>

I’m looking to block ads I’m my Times newspaper app on my iPad. As it isn’t
presented directly via a web browser the blocking extensions seem not to
work. They’ve gone from not many adverts to an excess - which is very
annoying since I pay for the subscription. I think the pi hole may be the
only way around it.

Tweed wrote:

> I’m looking to block ads I’m my Times newspaper app on my iPad. As it isn’t
> presented directly via a web browser the blocking extensions seem not to
> work. They’ve gone from not many adverts to an excess - which is very
> annoying since I pay for the subscription. I think the pi hole may be the
> only way around it.

Depends whether the adverts are sourced from the same hostname as the
newspaper articles?

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> Tweed wrote:
>
>> I’m looking to block ads I’m my Times newspaper app on my iPad. As it isn’t
>> presented directly via a web browser the blocking extensions seem not to
>> work. They’ve gone from not many adverts to an excess - which is very
>> annoying since I pay for the subscription. I think the pi hole may be the
>> only way around it.
>
> Depends whether the adverts are sourced from the same hostname as the
> newspaper articles?
>

I don’t know how to determine that, other than to try the pi hole. I
suspect not, as when I’m overseas the adverts are for local stuff.

On 07/08/2023 13:17, Tweed wrote:
> Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>> Tweed wrote:
>>
>>> I’m looking to block ads I’m my Times newspaper app on my iPad. As it isn’t
>>> presented directly via a web browser the blocking extensions seem not to
>>> work. They’ve gone from not many adverts to an excess - which is very
>>> annoying since I pay for the subscription. I think the pi hole may be the
>>> only way around it.
>>
>> Depends whether the adverts are sourced from the same hostname as the
>> newspaper articles?
>>
>
> I don’t know how to determine that, other than to try the pi hole. I
> suspect not, as when I’m overseas the adverts are for local stuff.

I've never personally used it, but it might be easier to try something
like Adguard before investing in a Raspberry Pi board and going to the
trouble of installing/configuring Pihole?

https://adguard-dns.io/en/welcome.html

--
|Bob Pullen Award-winning broadband
|Support ADSL/VDSL/FTTP
|Plusnet Plc. www.plus.net
+--------------- twitter.com/plusnet ----------------