I’ve held off on really committing to an ad blocker because I’ve mostly trained myself to ignore them. However, a new type I recently came across makes it impossible to ignore. While reading a few articles on a particular website I saw the familiar banner type of ad across the bottom of the screen. However, every 10-15 seconds or so the ad encroached on entire screen from all 4 edges toward the center of the screen until it created a thick boarder that covered a lot of the text I was trying to read. There was no way at all to close the ad, I just had to wait a few seconds until it went away. And it would continue to do this every 10-15 seconds while I was reading. This is something I cannot learn to deal with.
I know there are different types of ad blockers. Some are free, some cost money, and some require you to root your phone if that’s the device you’re using. I have tried the private DNS method and I didn’t care for it. It still left blank boxes where the ad would have been and labeled them as an ad. It also didn’t get rid of the ad types that float over the bottom of the screen or cause featured videos to pop up as you scroll that you have to close. I’ve tried a few free ad blockers without root as well and they didn’t accomplish everything that I wanted.
Could someone tell me how things work if you root your phone and use AdAway or something similar? Does it get rid of all the banners and popup ads completely without leaving a blank box where the ad would have been? Does it cause any errors with Google search, captchas, or other functions? What are the pros and cons beside needing to root my phone?
P.S. I am not open to using the VPN method to block ads unless it is a very reputable company and it completely removes ads, not just leave a shell of where the ads would normally be. The thought of routing all of my Internet traffic and personal information through a private VPN that could me manupulated with malicious intent is not something I want to deal with.
On my browser I rarely see ads however I use librewolf and its a security build of firefox but if you are seeing these ads in a browser I would recommend at least trying a few extensions. I currently use 4 extensions the main one is called NoScript then Disconnect then Privacy Badger and I top it off with Ublock-origin…These seem to do the trick for me. You can make adjustments and allow/disallow etc.
I take it you are referring to an ad blocker to be used on your computer’s browser. I just installed this one recently and it seem to work pretty good.
I don’t use one on my streaming devices because I don’t browse all that much on my Shields. At best I use TVBro to get to some site to download an apk and that’s it. I do my browsing on my laptop.
PC and phone. Most of my web browsing is on my phone. I have always liked Chrome for the home page that shows me articles based on my interests. Most of my accounts are linked with Google and all my bookmarks are there. If there’s a secure browser that will let me import all my bookmarks, provide that type of home page, and eliminates virtually all ads then I will give it a go. However, I am currently under the impression that AdAway with root would accomplish what I want without having to change browsers or install anything else. I’m kind of hoping someone on here can confirm that before I take the plunge.
Can’t comment on the phone or streaming devices but I use Chrome as my Browser on the PC and have been using Free Adblock extension for over 10 years. I’ve never seen an Ad
Update:
I really like what I’m reading about AdAway with root. It should work on all browsers and all apps installed on my phone. And since I have an S20FE I’m not worried about no longer receiving OTA updates because it’s near the end of its life cycle. I’m going to wait until Monday and then attempt to root and install AdAway. I will report back with the results.
Well, so much for that idea. I can’t root my phone because the bootloader is unlockable. I’m going to test out a different browsers with ad blocking and get away from Chrome.
A great ad blocker that does’t require phone to be rooted is Blokada,it’s free and open sourced and it works great on my phone…blocks those pesky youtube ads like nobody’s biz… i luv it,they also have a paid version but the free version works great,even blocks ads on several news sites that i monitor,for a free adblocker it’s great!