Yes, that was definitely it. I was too lazy to manually whitelist via the logs so I just swapped to an Adguard DNS on my router, but the new Blocklist is a better all in one solution
AdGuard Home -- Opensource DNS Adblocker like PiHole
- Last Updated:
- Apr 15th, 2023 6:39 am
Tags:
- SCORE+5
- FrugalConsumer
- Deal Addict
- Jan 1, 2015
- 1261 posts
- 1416 upvotes
- Toronto, ON
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
Fair enough... their server solution is great and very simple to use compared to Pi-Hole. I've been running it off of Oracle's free cloud service for the past few days and it works very well. I also whitelisted three networks and blocked everything else, so hopefully the instance doesn't get attacked.FrugalConsumer wrote: ↑ Yes, that was definitely it. I was too lazy to manually whitelist via the logs so I just swapped to an Adguard DNS on my router, but the new Blocklist is a better all in one solution
In addition to ad blocking, I also needed region unblocking so I'm using Getflix's DNS service with the AdGuard Home server, so it's become an all-in-one solution for me. Disable the security/virus protection on the routers to improve their performance/throughput and rely on AdGuard Home for ad blocking and region unblocking. I also added Getflix's 5-6 fastest DNS servers to AdGuard Home, so it'll load balance between them and always select the fastest DNS server for me.
Man, I really love this solution. I basically set it up and just forget it, unless I hit a website that needs to be whitelisted. Occasionally I'll likely have to update it too, but I doubt very often.
Last edited by fudge_u on May 25th, 2022 11:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
Not sure... maybe they went with popular stores? Maybe those referral links only work with certain websites? No money made off clicks for certain websites, so no point in wrapping the URLs. Not sure.
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- von Monster
- Sr. Member
- Feb 27, 2007
- 667 posts
- 558 upvotes
That's the concept behind OISD; it attempts to provide adblocking and the expense of functionality it reverses that and only blocks what it can without breaking anything.
From their website:
If you're not also using Ublock/Adguard/Etc with other lists it's beyond rare to have something break, and if it does reporting it gets it fixed in less than a day. Highly recommended if you're just trying to get rid of ads and a few other annoyances without interrupting anyone's internet experience.The Full list blocks:
Ads, (Mobile) App Ads, Phishing, Malvertising, Malware, Spyware, Ransomware, CryptoJacking, Scam ... Telemetry/Analytics/Tracking (Where not needed for proper functionality)
Does not interfere with:
Torrent, Warez, Porn, Crypto Exchanges, News Satire, Slickdeals (or shopping sites in general), Google (shopping), Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Link Shortners, Affiliate/Tracking Links, Gambling, Surveys, etc.
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
Agreed.... it "attempts" to block what it can without breaking anything, but referral links are becoming more and more common. You almost need to unblock or whitelist Honey's list of referral/redirector/cashback sites.von Monster wrote: ↑ That's the concept behind OISD; it attempts to provide adblocking and the expense of functionality it reverses that and only blocks what it can without breaking anything.
From their website:
If you're not also using Ublock/Adguard/Etc with other lists it's beyond rare to have something break, and if it does reporting it gets it fixed in less than a day. Highly recommended if you're just trying to get rid of ads and a few other annoyances without interrupting anyone's internet experience.
https://www.joinhoney.com/whitelist/hon ... opping.txt
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- von Monster
- Sr. Member
- Feb 27, 2007
- 667 posts
- 558 upvotes
It does that though - not using Honey's list specifically but multiple other shopping lists. It does miss a few Canadian specific links, but nothing I've found here. The one I did find -elsewhere- was manually added to the list in under a day with an email from the maintainer confirming.
https://oisd.nl/includedlists/whitelists
No matter which list you use you will always find something that breaks, I just find OISD really simplifies things and makes the "why doesn't this work' questions mostly disappear .
https://oisd.nl/includedlists/whitelists
No matter which list you use you will always find something that breaks, I just find OISD really simplifies things and makes the "why doesn't this work' questions mostly disappear .
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
Ah... that's assuming you only us OISD for ad-blocking and nothing else. I guess that means I'd need to disable all of the other ad-block lists?von Monster wrote: ↑ It does that though - not using Honey's list specifically but multiple other shopping lists. It does miss a few Canadian specific links, but nothing I've found here. The one I did find -elsewhere- was manually added to the list in under a day with an email from the maintainer confirming.
https://oisd.nl/includedlists/whitelists
No matter which list you use you will always find something that breaks, I just find OISD really simplifies things and makes the "why doesn't this work' questions mostly disappear .
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- von Monster
- Sr. Member
- Feb 27, 2007
- 667 posts
- 558 upvotes
The authors recommendation from his faq:
and from his Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/oisd_blocklist ... blocklist/Do you have any other recommendations besides this blocklist?
Yes. This is a domain blocklist, designed to be used in a network wide DNS based ad-blocker (Eg. Adguard Home, Pi-hole). Since it cannot block youtube ads, hide ad-placeholders, or ads being served from the same domain as the wanted content, a browser add-on ad-blocker (Eg. uBlock Origin or the AdGuard Browser extension) is recommended.
What I do as use it as my only list in my Ad Guard Home instance, but also run uBlock origin in my browser and whitelist what I need to there. Anyone not using their own adblocker on my network gets the majority of crap blocked by AGH/OISD, and I get to fine tune my experience how I want without having to deal with the support issues blocking everything at the DNS level provokes .Should I leave the default lists enabled?
When using this list in browser add-on blockers (eg. uBlock Origin); Yes definitely, as this is not meant to be a replacement for it's default lists.
When using this list in network based DNS blockers (eg Pi-hole, Adguard Home); I'd say NO, but I'm not unbiased. (If wanting to use the groups-feature in Pi-hole for example, it's only logic to use multiple lists)
Where the default lists are known to break stuff (shopping referral links, google shopping, video playback, etc), the whole idea of this blocklist is to have ZERO breakage, That's why if you share my opinon on having a functional internet experience as first priority and an ad/tracker/etc blocking as second you use this as your only blocklist.
If you don't share that opinion, please DO keep the defaults enabled, or use the oisd extra add-on alongside oisd full/basic.
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
Ya... I figure if I just use the built-in ad-block lists along with OISD, then I'm not going to bother with using a browser extension for blocking ads. I already have million extensions running, don't need another to bog things down.von Monster wrote: ↑ The authors recommendation from his faq:
and from his Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/oisd_blocklist ... blocklist/
What I do as use it as my only list in my Ad Guard Home instance, but also run uBlock origin in my browser and whitelist what I need to there. Anyone not using their own adblocker on my network gets the majority of crap blocked by AGH/OISD, and I get to fine tune my experience how I want without having to deal with the support issues blocking everything at the DNS level provokes .
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- Dave98
- Deal Fanatic
- Sep 10, 2005
- 5701 posts
- 3662 upvotes
- GTA
an in-browser extension will always block ads better than a DNS based solution. I wouldn't recommend removing, personally.
- von Monster
- Sr. Member
- Feb 27, 2007
- 667 posts
- 558 upvotes
I like OISD for the DNS solution, and then adding on with uBlock Origin using the default lists. Most things just work, and I don't accidentally break any mobile/iot/etc or the families regular (nonfiltered) internet.
But really, everyone has to find a solution that works for them and their households - took a trip recently and just realized how unbrowsable the internet is nowadays if let unfiltered.
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
I don't really visit any harmful sites so I'm not too worried about it. If the odd thing slips by, I'm not going to worry about unless it actually causes an issue. If anything, I'd get uBlock Origin just to block Youtube ads.
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- Dave98
- Deal Fanatic
- Sep 10, 2005
- 5701 posts
- 3662 upvotes
- GTA
It's not even that. Like the other post mentioned, things like cosmetic filtering (for removing blank spaces left behind), and blocking youtube ads, just provide a better experience. To me, removing it is just downgrading the adblocking experience for little, if any, gain.
In browser extensions also do like 95% of the work anyway when you have it installed. I really only have pihole/adguard home installed for non-laptop/desktop devices.
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
I'll monitor things and then decide whether I want to add an extension back or not. I have the DNS setup at the router level with DoH enabled in my browser, and so far nothing's jumped out at me. There's an acceptable amount of things I'm willing to tolerate, but if my browsing experience becomes unbearable I'll consider adding uBlock Origin again.Dave98 wrote: ↑ It's not even that. Like the other post mentioned, things like cosmetic filtering (for removing blank spaces left behind), and blocking youtube ads, just provide a better experience. To me, removing it is just downgrading the adblocking experience for little, if any, gain.
In browser extensions also do like 95% of the work anyway when you have it installed. I really only have pihole/adguard home installed for non-laptop/desktop devices.
Trying to catch everything out there becomes a pain in the ass, and at some point you need to decide on what's acceptable and what's not. If it's something cosmetic and minor to the point where it don't even notice, do I really care? Even if I do notice how much does it actually affect my experience?
Eventually it gets to the point where you end up spending more time whitelisting sites and you don't know if it's your browser extension or AGH/Pi-Hole server where it needs to be done. The way I look at it, this is a huge upgrade over what my Unifi Dream Router could do and it won't affect the throughput. My throughput took a hit when I enabled some of the security features, and then I was reading the stuff that Ubiquiti uses is a bit archaic compared to what's available out there.
Since I also setup AGH in the cloud, I can setup the DNS at my brother's and parents place. I've whitelisted the three of our IP address so no one else can connect to the server.
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- Gee
- Deal Expert
- Aug 2, 2004
- 38392 posts
- 12018 upvotes
- East Gwillimbury
I use IONOS VPS
512 Meg
1 Core
10 Gig SSD
Unlimited Traffic
Choice of Linux Distro
https://www.ionos.ca/servers/vps
Cost is 1$ CAD per month
The bandwidth is only 500 mbps, but for DNS that is plenty. Using it to run AdGuard Home for over a year
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
Thanks.... will check them out. Backed up my configuration in Oracle so if things go down or Oracle decides they want to start billing, I have an escape plan. Oracle's free tier is supposed to be free for life with no strings attached, but they could change their mind one day or try to pull a fast one on customers.Gee wrote: ↑ I use IONOS VPS
512 Meg
1 Core
10 Gig SSD
Unlimited Traffic
Choice of Linux Distro
https://www.ionos.ca/servers/vps
Cost is 1$ CAD per month
The bandwidth is only 500 mbps, but for DNS that is plenty. Using it to run AdGuard Home for over a year
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- weedb0y [OP]
- Deal Expert
- Aug 6, 2001
- 17811 posts
- 5762 upvotes
- Stuck in a Box
AdGuard etc, works really work for mobile apps.Dave98 wrote: ↑ It's not even that. Like the other post mentioned, things like cosmetic filtering (for removing blank spaces left behind), and blocking youtube ads, just provide a better experience. To me, removing it is just downgrading the adblocking experience for little, if any, gain.
In browser extensions also do like 95% of the work anyway when you have it installed. I really only have pihole/adguard home installed for non-laptop/desktop devices.
- dmehus
- Deal Addict
- Mar 25, 2012
- 4335 posts
- 3421 upvotes
- British Columbia
Nothing wrong with Oracle Cloud Free Tier. I'm frugal, too. You just want to make sure you're actively using your account, I suspect, so they don't flag your account as inactive.fudge_u wrote: ↑ Agreed. I didn't want to pay for a VPS/Cloud server so I was trying to track down a free service, and the best I could find was Oracle. As far as I can tell there are no catches. Ideally, I'd rather use a paid service but only if I could find a lifetime license/subscription to a reputable service without having to pay an arm and a leg.
Cheers,
Doug
Banking & Savings: Tangerine & EQ Bank
Credit Cards: American Express SimplyCash, Rogers World Elite MasterCard, Scotiabank Scene+ Visa (wasTangerine Money-Back World MasterCard)
Investments: Scotia iTRADE | Pension: Municipal Pension Plan
Credit Cards: American Express SimplyCash, Rogers World Elite MasterCard, Scotiabank Scene+ Visa (was
Investments: Scotia iTRADE | Pension: Municipal Pension Plan
- fudge_u
- Deal Guru
- Jun 29, 2004
- 14353 posts
- 15717 upvotes
- Oil Country
I didn't login to my OCI account for a few months and they ended up deleting my VM. I setup AGH in a Proxmox LXC on one of my systems today and already noticed it works better than it did on the OCI. As nice as it was to have AGH in the cloud, it just seems to perform better when it resides on a local network. It seems to do a better job filtering and at least you can properly track which devices are having issues if you encounter any.
"Retail is for suckers."
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- the K-Man
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 (AMD) - Tweaks, Upgrades, BIOS, Mods, Experiences
- Gee
- Deal Expert
- Aug 2, 2004
- 38392 posts
- 12018 upvotes
- East Gwillimbury
I have an instance on Proxmox for local use. But I can’t use it on my cell phone when I am away from the house. (Don’t want to VPN)fudge_u wrote: ↑ I didn't login to my OCI account for a few months and they ended up deleting my VM. I setup AGH in a Proxmox LXC on one of my systems today and already noticed it works better than it did on the OCI. As nice as it was to have AGH in the cloud, it just seems to perform better when it resides on a local network. It seems to do a better job filtering and at least you can properly track which devices are having issues if you encounter any.
That is why I set up the cloud version on IONOS. It give me DNS over HTTPS (DoH) which I can use on Android and iOS