Which ad blocker do you use? Does it put spyware on your PC? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:04:41 am
content: An ad blocker seems like a great way to get spyware on your PC like those evil tool bars that people accidentally click on and then I have to get them off their computer. Are ad blockers for you tube like this? I used to have a set up where you could just disable certain things and the ads wouldn't come but I can't seem to make the computer both functional and block ads with this latest version of windows.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:08:49 am
content: I use ublock origin. It is open source so anyone can inspect it.https://github.com/gorhill/uBlockIt is available for Windows and Linux. I have used it for about 1.5 year now with no issues on Linux and Chrome.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:12:26 am
content: I also use lede, open source, on my router. I also recently installed an adblock on lede. Both are open source and use the same block lists as ublock origin.https://lede-project.org/https://github.com/openwrt/packages/tree/master/net/adblock/fileslede just got updated this week to 17.03 with the latest dnsmasq 2.78.With blocking on the router, it stops ads on all your devices. On my Android devices, ublock origin doesn't work on Chrome.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:16:28 am
content: With ublock origin/Chrome, I can watch youtube videos without ads. On my android device, I get ads using the youtube player.Today, I don't bother watching youtube videos in realtime. I download them using youtube-dl and watch them using VLC.https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/youtube-dl is also open source.If you don't like Chrome, then use chromium. Chromium is open source.https://www.chromium.org/Sense a theme with the software I choose to use?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:27:02 am
content: A combination ofAdblock PlusandGhostery.Neither contain any malicious code, spy on your web browsing habits or identify you personally in any way. Ghostery does have the option of "contributing" blocked material to their servers to improve their product however I believe it's off by default.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:30:02 am
content: I always thought using chrome (and probably IE) was just giving up all your privacy?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:43:15 am
content: Quote from: Beamin on October 07, 2017, 06:30:02 amI'm not a fan of Chrome for a number of reasons but IE was always reasonably secure and stable. Unfortunately not that it's no longer developed (and Edge sucks) it's out of date and no longer supports many modern sites.I personal use Opera. It works very well and as a bonus comes with VPN built-in with an unlimited data quota.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:45:48 am
content: Quote from: Beamin on October 07, 2017, 06:30:02 amMy decision to go with chrome over other browsers was a few years ago and I just stayed with it. I will investigate Firefox Quantum on Nov 14 to see its much hyped improvements.I chose chrome over chromium because chrome gets updated faster with known security vulnerabilities patches by a week or two versus chromium (at least on Lubuntu).I also use chrome beta on the "test" machines and stable chrome on my "main" machine. My main machine is where I do emails and banking. The test machines are for everything else.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 08:16:03 am
content: I use Adblock Latitude together with the Pale Moon browser on my Linux machine. So far Wireshark shows NO traffic going back to Adblock's servers. I do however see lots of traffic to Adobe as I need Flash installed on my machine for a handful of websites including the BBC.

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 09:21:31 am
content: I use Opera, it has a built-in ad blocker. I like the browser a lot, it's fast and light weight.

author: dmills
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 09:24:31 am
content: I just use a **massive** /etc/hosts file that null routes all sorts of stuff, not a lot of need for anything else.Regards, Dan.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 09:28:10 am
content: Quote from: Benta on October 07, 2017, 09:21:31 amIt has become my default browser, even on older machines running XP. Can't really fault it. Causes me far less problems than Chrome.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 11:01:35 am
content: I use Pale Moon with uBlock Origin, NoScript, Crush Those Cookies, and a hosts file with somewhere around 30,000 entries. It's pretty rare that I see an ad of any kind, any where.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 11:16:33 am
content: The trouble with the HOSTS file is that it is inefficient and usually relied upon as a "legacy" solution to resolving (or not resolving) host names to IP addresses when you aren't running a proper DNS server. It relies on you updating it manually and it's machine specific.In some cases (such as with Windows 10), the HOSTS file is ignored and specific hosts (mostly Microsoft domains) will resolve to their actual IP addresses.Speed can be a factor too since HOSTS isn't indexed which means that with each request, it looks at each line until it finds (or doesn't find) a hit. Sure, with modern machines, this might not be noticeable, but why introduce complexity into a system that doesn't require it?

author: eugenenine
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 04:14:22 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on October 07, 2017, 06:43:15 amYou can always use chromium which is chrome without the google.I think your talking about a different IE though, usually when people say IE they imply Microsoft Internet Explorer which has always been the most unstable and least secure browser since AOL.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 04:17:01 pm
content: Adblock Plus with acceptable ads left on. That way, it encourages ads to be "acceptable" rather than trying to evade blockers.

author: HoracioDos
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:08:43 pm
content: Opera built-in blocker and uBlock Origin in Firefox

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2017, 06:26:39 pm
content: Quote from: dmills on October 07, 2017, 09:24:31 amWhat does the hosts file do? etc= Linux?I'm running windows with FireFox BTW I don't use my Linux machine for just watching youtube. I use edge for this site and only this site because I like the spell check that makes for fast typing although the dictionary is pretty weak. I have got so used to auto complete on somethings that I don't bother to type out full words.