Best ad blockers - are free ones decent?

dowie · 3 Jan 2021 at 18:36

Hey guys, can anyone recommend some ad blockers, please?

I've generally not bothered with them before as I don't care about adverts mostly and also think free sites should be supported etc.. but now if I look on news sites (in particular US news sites) adverts are all over the place, in particular some gross ones I've got no interest in being on my screen while I try to read the news.

Like there is some tea tree skin peel thing for blocked pores etc.. and some other things like that occasionally and I've got no interest in stuff like that being on my screen when I merely want to read a news article... so ideally I guess a browser extension I can turn on and off.

Orcvader · 3 Jan 2021 at 20:09

uBlock Origin is available for all browsers. You can also whitelist the sites you want to support. Just press the extension icon and then the off button, and it will remember to stay off for that site.

montymint · 3 Jan 2021 at 20:10

i use a mix of uBlock origin on my pc and pi.hole which gets my phones (great for blocking ads in apps!)

dowie · 5 Jan 2021 at 19:19

Thanks for the replies guys, will try uBlock

Lmg80 · 5 Jan 2021 at 19:31

One of the benefits of NordVPN, phone and apps completely ad free

Glanza · 5 Jan 2021 at 19:34

dowie said:
Thanks for the replies guys, will try uBlock

Make sure you get Ublock Origin and not the copy version Ublock

Deleted member 77746 · 5 Jan 2021 at 19:36

I was on adblock plus but just on trying ublock origin now from suggestions in this thread.

sideways14a · 5 Jan 2021 at 19:55

Addblock and pihole = most garbage doesnt reach you.

bledd · 5 Jan 2021 at 19:58

I use Adblock Plus. I found ublock broke too many websites.

Raiden85 · 6 Jan 2021 at 03:59

I'll recommend uBlock as well, been a great ad blocker so far and I've used it for a good few years now.

So far since I've installed it, it's apparently blocked 2.48mil ads :eek:

this_is_gav · 6 Jan 2021 at 14:49

I'm a uBlock Origin user on desktop too, but like Blockada on Android. It sets up a local VPN (obviously not a normal VPN) which can easily be turned on or off from the pull-down menu, so I can get in-game adverts if I want them but block them at other times or on other games/apps and browsers.

It's got the advantage (similar to Pi-hole I assume?) in that websites don't realise that ads are being blocked, so you don't get annoying pop ups about needing to disable ad blocking.

Blackjack Davy · 6 Jan 2021 at 15:30

uBlock Origin user for years hasn't let me down yet.

Shadowness · 6 Jan 2021 at 15:37

I'm desperate for an ad blocker for iPhones. Haven't seen an ad on my PC in YT for donkeys, but on my phone they're every bloody 5 minutes!

m4cc45 · 6 Jan 2021 at 20:07

Shadowness said:
I'm desperate for an ad blocker for iPhones. Haven't seen an ad on my PC in YT for donkeys, but on my phone they're every bloody 5 minutes!

ADGuard does the job - doesn't block anything through the youtube app but seems to work on the website via Safari.

I use uBlock Origin on PC - make sure you have a look through the included lists - I've ticked a few and had better results because of it.

M.

Gman · 6 Jan 2021 at 20:19

uBlock and Pihole
even seems to circumvent the spotify free restrictions when using the web browser. No adds on my playlist and lets me select individual songs and skip when i want.

VortexA1 · 7 Jan 2021 at 00:51

sideways14a said:
Addblock and pihole = most garbage doesnt reach you.

bledd said:
I use Adblock Plus. I found ublock broke too many websites.

I use Adblock and recommend it as well.

izzop · 7 Jan 2021 at 11:02

AdBlock here alongside Vivaldi, no issues with broken sites.

sideways14a · 7 Jan 2021 at 17:02

Shadowness said:
I'm desperate for an ad blocker for iPhones. Haven't seen an ad on my PC in YT for donkeys, but on my phone they're every bloody 5 minutes!

If your using pihole and on your home wireless i think it would filter out most adds as it dumps the dns requests for ad driven websites so you might want to build one. However you cant do that on 4g/5g or whatever....

liquidphantom · 8 Jan 2021 at 14:01

In firefox I also use noScript alongside Adblock just to catch some other sneaky things, it does mean having to manually allow through certain things on websites when you first visit them but it protects against XSS

bledd · 9 Jan 2021 at 09:34

sideways14a said:
If your using pihole and on your home wireless i think it would filter out most adds as it dumps the dns requests for ad driven websites so you might want to build one. However you cant do that on 4g/5g or whatever....

You can wire guard VPN into your house through 4g and use pihole to block ads when away from home.

Best ad blockers - are free ones decent?

Pet Northerner