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8 Years later my Steam Link is still getting regular updates (slrpnk.net)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] 53 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (10 children)

As someone who continues using a Steam Link for its original intended use of game streaming, this strikes me as a somewhat silly question. Haha.

Maybe I am just not adventurous enough with mine to consider other uses?

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    I often use it to watch Hulu and such on my tv, as even though the tv has its own app, I can't put an adblocker on those, but I can use my browser through the steam link and have all the ads blocked. Just one other type of use for it!

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

    A PiHole can be a good solution for ads like that.

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

    Yeah I have one set up - it's sorta meh.

    Most ads from things you look at can be stopped by just an ad blocker plugin for the browser (uBlock Origin). The Pi can't stop ads when they come directly from the sever of the company you're viewing (like from YouTube or Facebook ads).

    The Pi just has a library of known advertising domains and doesn't let those past the router, but because the major corps like YouTube don't use 3rd party domains, the Pi won't stop it.

    For the TV scenario here id recommend just installing a new Linux based OS on it as this would be just as good as the streaming device, but free.

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

    In my experience, it works a little better if you add some more third party blocklists and custom RegEx.

    However, the main pain point is the first one you mentioned: if the ads come from the same server as the content, blocking the ads also blocks the content. So you do have to rely on other solutions to block ads of that nature.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Chiming in a bit further on this. Quite a few (Google) devices and apps have started using DNS over Https servers to circumvent things like pihole. Blocking known IP's on my firewall has helped effectiveness quite a bit.

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

    Use a dns server that does ad blocking for you. Or, just run a pi hole. Even an old 3B will handle it fine. I do both, but my VPN company provides the dns services.

    Although some streaming services won't let you watch anything if you don't unblock their advertising (which is a good reason to unsubscribe)

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