[readscore]

I'm experienced in DNS but have never seen the point in DNS blocklists. It feels like the wrong layer.

I do adblocking with a browser extension. The adblocking has more context, can modify the page, and has easy UI integration for debugging and turning it off.

What else are DNS blocklists for? Clients except browsers?

For the record, on my desktop I use systemd-resolved (for DNSSEC) and dnscrypt-proxy2 (for encryption). On my router I run unbound as recursive resolver for other devices.

On my phone I use quad9, and adblocking via Firefox.

[Larrikin]

I enjoy having ads blocked in apps and on my iPad, where ad blocking is extremely limited otherwise.

If you look at the logs from your media box, (whether that is your TV, Roku, or whatever) there's a massive amount of tracking that gets sent up.

Combined with Tail scale I can even block ads and tracking on my devices when I'm not home.

[readscore]

Thanks I understand now.

All my devices are plain Linux distro machines, or Android.

[muppetman]

Adblocking via the browser is the best option if it's available. All the games the kids play on their iPad try to insert ads, track them, all that sort of stuff and DNS based Adblocking stops that. My wife's iPhone isn't subject to ads when she's reading the news in Safari. On my Google Pixel I don't see ads in browsers either, Firefox I use uBlock but even the Google Newsfeed uses Chrome for webview, so DNS adblocking stops me having to see the sponsered stuff in there.

There's so many places other than "the browser" to see ads, to even question that seems like not really having knowledge of what the Internet is used for in 2024. Edit: Sorry that's a bit rude, I just meant maybe you don't use it the same way a lot of others do. Sorry for sounding obnoxious and rude.

DNS blocking doesn't stop stuff like ads in Instagram, or Youtueb etc, but it certainly helps in a lot of other situations like Ads in the Imgur app etc etc.

[readscore]

> There's so many places other than "the browser" to see ads, to even question that seems like not really having knowledge of what the Internet is used for in 2024.

I understand that many people use apps and smart TV sticks, but I'd forgotten that many have ads. I use some apps, but none that have ads.

My family use apps but say that they appreciate targeted ads.

[muppetman]

Yea sorry I've updated my comment to reflect the fact the way I phrased that was quite rude - my apologies.

For the silly games my kids play on their iPad, blocking ads means they can "skip" ahead quite often instead of being forced to watch an ad before they're allowed to try again/progress to the new level. They're subject to enough advertising with Youtube anyway, just from all the content they watch that's subtle advertising.

[NamTaf]

My ISP-supplied router tries to ping back to some “AI driven wifi analytics” bullshit every 30 seconds. I put in a custom block for that. My TV would also probably love to phone home if I connected it to wifi to use the applications on it.

The value is not just that I can block at the network level rather than the application/device level, it’s also that I can see what random connected devices that aren’t general computing devices are trying to do. If they have hard-programmed DNS servers, blocking 53 for any device besides my Adguard server quickly solves that.