I also use DNS based filtering since I run my own Unbound instance, but it isn't really necessary with the above setup. It may be useful if you must absolutely have a smart TV or other such appliances, but considering that they have cameras and microphones, I will never connect such a device to the Internet anyway.

1. You don't need a separate browser extension for blocking cookie notices, Ublock Origin can do that just fine. You just need to enable the cookie notice filters in the settings (they are disabled by default).

2. AdAway on Android allows network-level blocking without resorting to a VPN (it's based on /etc/hosts). Though it does require root.

You can get something like NextDNS for $18/year, which is probably less than what you pay for the power required to serve Pihole or Adguard Home, and you get enterprise level infrastructure for it, along with redundancy, and it works "everywhere".

Yes, you (probably) need a caching resolver at home, and that could be Pihole or Adguard, but going through hoops to setup Wireguard and have all DNS resolve over that, just to reach pihole at home, that sounds like overkill.

Anyway, In case it's not obvious, NextDNS is how i roll, using a "stupid" caching DNS resolver at home.

I would add one more useful tool though: A user-agent switcher[1]. There are still some websites that insist you must use Chrome (or sometimes Edge). They will block you if you try to use them with Firefox, even though they work perfectly well and sometimes even better on Firefox than they do on Chrome. A user-agent switcher gives you the option to simply uninstall Chrome for good.

e.g. My ISP provides a website for streaming live TV (e.g. sports) that claims to be incompatible with Firefox, but actually runs better (i.e. fewer glitches) on it than it does on Chrome. However, it refuses to load on Firefox unless you use a user-agent switcher.

Why do people write websites that refuse to run based on user-agent checks? By all means, warn users that you couldn't be arsed to test things on more than one browser, but why go that extra mile to brick your site when other browsers probably support it quite well?

[1]https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/user-agent-st...

I can’t stand those in-video intros or sponsored promos, where I’m suddenly pitched a random VPN or productivity app.

[1]. https://github.com/dmunozv04/iSponsorBlockTV

PiHole is popular but IMO not worth the effort when the above are so cheap. There are free ad blocking DNS servers, but they aren't customizable.

https://github.com/time4tea-net/py-hole/

You can run it on your openwrt router - see readme. Its just a python script that updates a file that dnsmasq uses. No funny business, you are in charge of everything.

Disclaimer: author of said script.

Only caveat is it doesn’t block ads served by the content provider itself e.g. some streaming services, but from what I hear those are difficult to block with any approach.

Here is the block management setup I personally use regularly:

Desktop

* DNS blocking is active via NextDNS.

* I use Ungoogled Chromium as my primary browser.

* I use the uBlock ad-blocking extension along with its filters.

* The SponsorBlock extension is very useful for skipping sponsored segments within YouTube videos.

Mobile

* DNS blocking is active via NextDNS.

* To block ads in Safari, I activate ad-blocking in Safari through the free Firefox Focus app.

* I use the YouTube app via AltStore. It is a nice feature that it also includes the SponsorBlock extension.

If you'd like, I can publish a comprehensive ad-blocking guide on the Ahmet Çadırcı https://ahmetcadirci.com/ page.

Sometimes this isn’t available.

I would like to support Daring Fireball (a publication I read a lot) but the only way is to buy an ad slot for $11K which seems like a scam to both the viewer and the advertiser.

The advertiser isn’t getting any ROAS (since we are blocking the ads) and since the ads are annoying and repetitive, the viewers would just go elsewhere.

I wish more creators would have a “remove ads” tier or an alternative membership tier as a different way to support their content rather than ads.

I've bee trying these and alternatives in FF via LibRedirect for years. I keep on wondering if it's just me but I have to babysit the setup and cycle through instances every so often.

What is needed is some way to block Amazon Prime ads (and the like), these come from the same Amazon url and currently are unstoppable.

I regularly read https://daringfireball.com and sick of their ads showing up in my RSS feed.

It is bad enough and distracting that ads show up on the site (thankfully Firefox and ublock origin does the job already) but on RSS blocking ads is impossible.

For example, Shopify hates ublock and will sometimes not load apps at all

For example IMDb. And proxying over mitmproxy actually breaks the whole app, because they do certificate pinning.

I’ve just been watching streams after they’re done so that I can get rid of them that way

Edit: nvm author mentions vpns as a solution

firefox sold out on their users quit using them https://youtube.com/shorts/FObvkFtr2ZU

The VPN-based "solution" is basically as realistic as disabling JavaScript. Extremely limiting.

I have used them both paid and free and they are not good. I will pick just one point - support. It's pathetic. Maybe because it's non existent. I stopped paying for it, started using free, then removed it altogether.

uBlock Origin really is that good as others are saying. I haven't really needed anything else. Ads in other apps? Well, that's a hit or miss but then a lot of my finance/investment related apps anyway don't work if I use any ad blocking on local network or device label, sadly. Tweaking around it is how I needed support with NextDNS and then realised I've been paying for something with essentially no support.

Mobile: Blockada to prevent apps from reaching their ad servers. NewPipe.

Desktop: Freetube.

uBO has the bonus to have an element picker that I use to remove the empty areas where ads would show. I do it for sites that I use often. I also remove some useless menus and headers. I particularly hate sticky ones.