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I've been using AdGuard's DNS resolver on my Android phone for a couple of months, and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

The idea is that it filters out ad networks at the DNS level, so there is no need to root the phone (nor to install any app). You just put dns.adguard-dns.com in your "private DNS" settings and that's it.

Recently, though, I've seen a couple of people around here mentioning how Adguard is not trustworthy, or "kinda shady". What's your take on them? Their privacy policy seems OK to me, but I'd be interested to know more about them.

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[–] noodlejetski@geddit.social 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I prefer NextDNS for blocking ads and trackers, you get to choose your own blocklists and white/blacklist domains of your choosing if you run into some problems.

[–] Devion@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago

Yup, I second NextDNS. It works perfectly, and the free tier is enough for my mobile, wife's mobile and my desktop. AdGuard is included, as are dozens of other (selectable) lists.

[–] f4b10@feddit.it 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is the address to add as private dns service? Thank you.

[–] noodlejetski@geddit.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you set up your own address with the block lists you want through https://my.nextdns.io

[–] f4b10@feddit.it 2 points 1 year ago
[–] Gargari@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

Adguard is good, very good. Their rules are default included on uBO, they know their jobs well so getting very good product. As an alternative you can consider NextDNS

[–] wilberfan@lemmy.film 10 points 1 year ago

I JUST suggested AdGuard to two non-techie normie friends, so y'all better not make me take it back! ;-) That said, I've been using it on my Pi-4 at home and on my Android phone for more than a year now.

[–] svamp@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I have no idea if adGuard is trustworthy or not, I personally use adAway which is open source and under a GPLv3 license. Perfectly satisfied with it.

[–] ominouslemon@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I was using AdAway before switching to Adguard. I loved it, but my problem with it was that it kept disconnecting randomly.

[–] jmp242@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

Huh, that's my complaint with the latest AdGuard - now it seems to just... go away... on my phone pretty frequently. The older version didn't ever stop unless I stopped it. I paid for a lifetime on my current phone, but when I get a new one I'll be checking out the free options before paying yearly for AdGuard.

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[–] forked_bytes@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Add ProtonVPN‘s NetShield to the list. Also blocks trackers.

[–] Harrison@infosec.pub 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There's zero evidence of any wrongdoing or shadiness other than them having employees living in Russia. The company itself moved to Cyprus, many of their engineers left Russia, none of their servers are physically located in Russia, and they publicly disavowed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This doesn't mean Russia couldn't apply massive pressure by threatening family members, etc, of course, but I personally have no concerns at this time and use AdGuard Home (their local adblocking DNS server) in my LAN and their iOS app on my devices. The iOS app in particular uses Apple's content-blocking Safari tech so it should be completely safe so long as you don't pay for a VPN or use a local VPN to block everything outside Safari.

If you're rooted on Android, definitely use AdAway instead, it just replaces the hosts file.

https://adguard.com/en/blog/official-response-to-setapp.html

[–] brcl@artemis.camp 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why do you mention paying for a VPN as unsafe?

[–] Harrison@infosec.pub 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Specifically, the way iOS content blocking works is guaranteed safe. All it does is write to a file loaded by the Safari browser to block content, the app can't do anything at all itself. No indication any VPN sold by AdGuard (or the local device-wide fake VPN) is particularly unsafe that I've seen.

[–] brcl@artemis.camp 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So if I just use private relay and AdGuard should be enough?

[–] Harrison@infosec.pub 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah that'll block all ads and trackers that're possible without severe annoyance with a non fingerprinted browser etc.

[–] EponymousBosh 3 points 1 year ago

I've been using it for a while now, no complaints.

[–] laughingm0n@lemmyhub.com 1 points 1 year ago

I have been a long term user of AG Home. My only complaint is some streaming services. We have YouTube TV and the audio gets out of sync sometimes....can confirm it was in fact AG but I guess it could be the older Pi I was running it on.

[–] zwekihoyy@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

it was good when I used it but I switched to nextdns and have liked it a bit more. adguard is based in Russia (I trust the company but who knows what laws could come about) and nextdns has been way more performant for me.

note: nextdns is based in the US so you're not really winning there but I choose to trust them so far