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What are some useful apps that are only found on F-Droid? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/android@lemmy.world
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[–] 30 points 3 years ago (23 children)

Adaway is an open source ad blocker for Android using the hosts file.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago (13 children)

    FYI you don't need apps that pretend to be a VPN to block ads anymore, you can just go to Settings > Network and Internet > Private DNS and set it to something like dns.adguard.com to block almost all ads, no install required!

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (7 children)

    I am afraid the UK isps Virgin, three and Sky have blocked me completely from trying to browse anything at all if I try to enable this setting at all.

    IF I enable it on any of them I have no Internet at all. Sucks but in the UK it's basically turning off you're Internet. I still have an older version of blokada working but when it updates it kills my Internet like the rest of them so I'm constantly fighting that.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (4 children)

    That's odd, it works on GiffGaff and Lebara for me, and for everyone else I've set it up for. Maybe an issue with your phone? Does it work over WiFi?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago* (3 children)

    My phone works perfectly until I enable it and I've tried a few different dns options with it and yes even use the longer domains designed for it.

    Never had my phone work at all while they are On sadly I think it's been blocked by these isps honestly.

    its a nothing phone on Android 13 and here's proof enabling it takes me immediately offline https://ibb.co/t3mpwNS.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    Sorry for the late reply, your link tries to add the . from the end of your sentence to it and breaks so I couldn't see your screenshot until I removed it. I notice you still have blokada enabled, have you tried switching it off completely and then enabling private DNS? I'm not a network expert but it seems like they could be treading on each others toes maybe.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    Your partly right in that bitwarden was interfering but while I can get sky WiFi to work with private dns it still cuts off my mobile network which is 3.

    Now that's not completely as bad as it sounds because I use WiFi calling a lot at home .

    Ive seen the same issue in the past with virgin which even cut of my home pcs if I tried to use a dns that wasnt theirs.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    is it better than blokada?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Blokada is a VPN based adblocker, but Adaway can work as a hosts file based blocker, if the phone is rooted. Hosts file based blocking uses zero cpu cycles, as it's a feature of the network stack, it's just a file containing list of addresses to redirect, so it should use less battery than blokada. By default on all OSes this hosts file is not editable by regular users, that's why you need root. Wikipedia article about hosts file

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    no root means I wouldn't be able to use adaway, right?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Without root it works the same way as blokada, as a local VPN. I always root my phones, so I don't have experience with that, I guess it's similar.

    But you can just try it, and if you don't like it you can get back to blokada. Also as both of them are just VPNs, you can just switch between the two, while both are installed. Also on their website there is a good FAQ: https://adaway.org/

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Isn't it also available on the Play Store?

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Google killed VPN-based adblockers on the play store.

    Can't say whether this is true or not, I've stopped using google play long ago

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