how I: reduced ads on my devices
Last October I took part in the Bearblog carnival with What’s In My Inventory?. I enjoyed sharing and comparing my experiences with others. This month I also wanted to participate, but I could not find anything good I actually wanted to share. My cooking recipes have not been very successful in the kitchen, and I do not like writing just for the sake of writing, until I came across a post by monocyte called “how I set up my android tv”. I thought, I like configuring things, so I want to explain how I… try to have fewer ads on my devices.
Geek summary: I use AdGuard in the browser, and a Tailscale VPN for me and my partner with NextDNS configured.
The rest of the article is for normal people.
Let’s go level by level.
Level 1: Ad blocker
First, everything starts with a simple ad blocker in my browser. It is incredible how many people around me live without one day after day. At work, in cafés, even at home (and that is something I do not allow). So if you have not installed one yet, I really recommend doing it.
All browsers have something called extensions and an extension store where you can download ad blockers. Are they all good? No. Be careful, some can be fake and try to steal your data, so personally I recommend AdGuard.
To understand what an ad blocker does, you first need to understand how a website works. A website usually loads text, images, and resources from other sites. For example, fonts might come from Adobe, images from Dropbox, comments from Facebook, and ads from Amazon. The extension has a blacklist of sites it blocks. In this case, it can block Facebook and Amazon, so you no longer see them when the page loads.
Just install AdGuard and see the before and after on the websites you visit.
Level 2: DNS
Extensions have the drawback that they only block ads inside the browser and require per device configuration. But there is a way to do something similar at a system wide level by changing the DNS address.
DNS is like a huge phone book that turns website names into IP addresses so communication can happen and data can be fetched. There are free and private DNS providers. Free ones are fast but not very customizable. Private ones are a bit slower but highly customizable.
The same blacklists used by browser extensions can also be used by these custom DNS providers to block domains that are only used for ads. I use NextDNS, where I can configure lists, profiles, and block adult content very easily. Setting it up on each device is simple. A quick Google search will show you how to do it on any operating system.
Level 3: VPN
You have probably seen thousands of ads saying that if you buy a VPN you can remove ads, right? Well, they do not really do anything magical. Once you know how to set up your own, you realize it is quite simple. I use Tailscale, which has a free plan for up to 10 devices. The setup allows me to assign a DNS to all those devices (as I mentioned, I use NextDNS, but you can use whichever you want).
There are some benefits of using a VPN over DNS alone:
- The VPN overrides the DNS on your devices. This means you only need to configure the DNS once at the VPN level, and if you want to change DNS in the future, you only change it there.
- The VPN groups all your devices as if you were at home, so you can use things like home automation, shared folders (Yesss! The famous shared folders on your network), and even print from outside your home.
Among many other things.
If you made it this far, you are already a geek, so I will share the summary again:
Geek summary: I use AdGuard in the browser, and a Tailscale VPN for me and my partner with NextDNS configured.