Develop Bugs

Adfree or adaway

hey guys...their is adfree and adway...does anyone know difference between either and which one is better....thanks for any help...

Adfree seems to have less issues updating on my Note 3. Both are equally effective, it's just a hosts file editor.

cpufrost said:
Adfree seems to have less issues updating on my Note 3. Both are equally effective, it's just a hosts file editor.
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I've tried adaway a bunch of times on my phone, running various roms. I could never get it to work right. Sorta just hangs there when it says applying updates.
That said, I haven't tried the adfree but adblock works perfect.

stokedcrf said:
I've tried adaway a bunch of times on my phone, running various roms. I could never get it to work right. Sorta just hangs there when it says applying updates.
That said, I haven't tried the adfree but adblock works perfect.
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Yes this is typical and requires multiple tries to get it right. It can be a PITA if you have to revert back to stock hosts frequently, for example.
Adfree does not have this issue.
IIRC Adblock is a Firefox extension that only works on Firefox. Ads will still appear everywhere else.
Another benefit of using the hosts method is tethering. Since connected devices are using the phone for DNS lookups, ads will not appear on those devices as well!

Never had a problem with adaway. Works like a Charm, but I also Use a DNS changer App
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

AdAway is open source, so it's the better option for transparency especially for a root app. I switched from AdFree over a year ago for this reason and because the AdFree developer refused to post ChangeLogs for updates (I HATE that).
Zero issues with AdAway either.

What is the best adblocker to use

Sent from my Pixel XL using XDA Free mobile app

If your rooted AdAway is by far the best add blocker out there.

Quickvic30 said:
If your rooted AdAway is by far the best add blocker out there.
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I second that, love adaway cant live without it :good:

Just disable it if you can't get to an ad-directed website (browser shows an error) and you're good to go....Then re-enable it.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I love Ad Guard. The paid version is $10 for a year, but the VPN feature means no in app ads.

coolhandz said:
I love Ad Guard. The paid version is $10 for a year, but the VPN feature means no in app ads.
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Yep. I also use premium Adguard. It does the exact same as AdAway and allows me to stay unrooted.

AdAway is the top reason why I root my phone still.

+1 for AdAway.
Besides AFWall, the only reason for me to root my phone.

When I run adaway I get error can't don't load host
Sent from my Pixel XL using XDA Free mobile app

Adaway, without a doubt.
If you have a problem with Adaway on the Pixel XL make sure you have the latest version and go into settings and check the "System Less" button. Older versions without this option will fail to update. See below.

I originally used AdGuard because it blocked all ads in apps, and I wasn't able to root my s6 Edge+. Now that I'm on pixel I use AdAway, because of root. I'm actually thinking about going back to AdGuard though to block all the in app ads. When I installed AdAway I thought it would block YouTube ads, but on the Pixel XL it doesn't work for me.So I run a modded YouTube version.

Mr Patchy Patch said:
Yep. I also use premium Adguard. It does the exact same as AdAway and allows me to stay unrooted.
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Yeah AdGuard premium is awesome for removing all ads, works really well. Far better than AdAway as you don't require root, had been the only reason I''ve needed root for a long long time.

But vpn is VPN...And all data can get controlled by adguard right? That's not a cool solution

DominatingSystem said:
But vpn is VPN...And all data can get controlled by adguard right? That's not a cool solution
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AdGuard isn't using a remote VPN server, it's creating a local VPN server on your device to route traffic through. But yes any VPN can monitor your traffic if they're not acting legitimately. That's where research and analysis come in.
You can discuss concerns with adguard in their forum thread, I find them as trustworthy as any other developer on XDA.
At the end of the day any app you install could potentially be monitoring your traffic, it's all a matter of trust and are you a worthy target.

I like netguard. It's like adguard, but open source.
https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard

Yup adaway is best but sometimes I have to disable it when I'm on slickdeals

Nobody recommended BLOCKADA from XDALabs? It's a really good no-root adblocker.

CyberLykan said:
Nobody recommended BLOCKADA from XDALabs? It's a really good no-root adblocker.
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Yes, I tried it for a while before I rooted. I was quite impressed.

Ad blocker with root?

I've been away from the Android scene on a Jailbroken iPhone for a few years. I just received my Z2 and was hoping folks could provide an answer. If I root it (when my OTG cable comes in) is there an ad blocker in the Magiskmanager that I can use to block ads in Youtube?
Thanks.

Xposed framework may have a YouTube adblocker you could put on and adaway is good adblocker. Worked for me after mounting system rw and making adaway system app it was able to merge hosts file for general as blocking.

There is a modified Youtube apk that reportedly removes ads. AFAIK none of the xposed etc modules work any longer.
For the rest of the ads, you can use Adaway (rooted)
or DNS66 if not rooted.
Cheers

N10AP said:
There is a modified Youtube apk that reportedly removes ads. AFAIK none of the xposed etc modules work any longer.
For the rest of the ads, you can use Adaway (rooted)
or DNS66 if not rooted.
Cheers
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I've used Adaway on my rooted One Plus works great.
For the Moto Z2 I reverted it back to unrooted, got tired of system updates causing bootloops.
DNS66 seemed to cause massive wakelocks and was not blocking correctly.
Block This Ad Blocker worked so much better, very close to the performance of Adaway.

How to block ads?

How are you guys blocking ads?
I've been using adaway for years and it's been great until recently.
Now I still get tons of ads on xda-developers.com while just browsing.
I've updated the hosts file and even added a few more sources, restarted the phone, still ads.
Any recommendations on better hosts sources or anything?

I use adguard. I think it's the best for rooted and non-rooted phones.

AdAway works fine for me, but I also use AdGuard in conjunction, so I don't know which app is blocking which ads.
Once my AdGuard subscription ends, I'm going to continue using just AdAway and see if it does the same job as AdGuard. If it does, I may as well save some money and not renew my AdGuard subscription lol.

I always use Adaway and currently working fine. Are you on the latest version 3.3?

Unified Hosts Manager and its magisk module.

galaxys said:
I always use Adaway and currently working fine. Are you on the latest version 3.3?
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Just checked and I'm on 3.2.
It usually says there's an update, so that's weird. I'll try updating to 3.3 and see if that fixes it.
Nope, updated, rebooted, still ads on xda.
Guess I'll have to try another adblocker.

I use adguard, stock.

I've had great luck with DNS66 since I'm not rooted.

I love AdGuard. It works fine and I never see ads. I pay for Google play music do I get YouTube red with it. So ads are a thing of the past for me. I'm also stock and unrooted. It works well either way. 25 for a lifetime license for one computer and a device is a good deal for me. I think it's worth it.

Adaway, works perfect

Interesting. Not sure why I have problems with adaway lately, but oh well. I disabled adaway and installed unified hosts via magisk. Back to no ads again on xda.
I like adguard, though, so I'll probably get that for the wife since she doesn't have root.
Thanks for the help, guys!

Well, nevermind.
Somehow ads are back and worse than ever. There's an ad after every few threads in the 2 XL forums.
I have the unified hosts module in magisk right now.
I was going to try adguard but it wants me to download a new browser, which I don't want, so it won't continue with setup.
Not sure why suddenly this thing can't block ads when it was fine on the March update.
Edit: just uninstalled the magisk module, installed adaway again, rebooted and it seems to be working.....for now...
Edit 2: nevermind. Went back to the xda home page and ads are back.

I've never had the experience of AdGuard telling me to install a different browser. I do use chrome. If you use something different just use chrome for a second to download it, then go back to your old browser. Unless your adons for adaway are interfering with it somehow. ?

If you browse the forums a lot, why not use the XDA app or Tapatalk? No ads with either.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 AM ----------
MacTheRipperr said:
I've never had the experience of AdGuard telling me to install a different browser. I do use chrome. If you use something different just use chrome for a second to download it, then go back to your old browser. Unless your adons for adaway are interfering with it somehow. [emoji848]
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In Adguard's description it specifically says Yandex browser and Samsung Internet browser only. Unless you're using a different Adguard.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

EeZeEpEe said:
If you browse the forums a lot, why not use the XDA app or Tapatalk? No ads with either.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 AM ----------
In Adguard's description it specifically says Yandex browser and Samsung Internet browser only. Unless you're using a different Adguard.
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I'm actually using the AdGuard application that was downloaded from their website. It's not a browser extension. It's an actual application that routes all traffic through it to filter out ads. It works on any browser, application that I've used before.

MacTheRipperr said:
I'm actually using the AdGuard application that was downloaded from their website. It's not a browser extension. It's an actual application that routes all traffic through it to filter out ads. It works on any browser, application that I've used before.
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Ah that makes sense as non-browser Adblocks aren't on the Play Store. You paying for the monthly or did the lifetime premium?
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

E30Nova said:
Well, nevermind.
Somehow ads are back and worse than ever. There's an ad after every few threads in the 2 XL forums.
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MacTheRipperr said:
I'm actually using the AdGuard application that was downloaded from their website. It's not a browser extension. It's an actual application that routes all traffic through it to filter out ads. It works on any browser, application that I've used before.
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I have been using the AdGuard app and it works very well. But lately I am seeing ads on xda front page articles. Manually updating AdGuard filters does not help. Those ads are probably on a server that has not been added to AdGuard filters (yet). I could manually add the server to my hosts file, but I am too lazy.

EeZeEpEe said:
Ah that makes sense as non-browser Adblocks aren't on the Play Store. You paying for the monthly or did the lifetime premium?
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The lifetime is completely worth it. Plus those guys are transparent about all of their work and how the app works. I trust them.

E30Nova said:
Just checked and I'm on 3.2.
It usually says there's an update, so that's weird. I'll try updating to 3.3 and see if that fixes it.
Nope, updated, rebooted, still ads on xda.
Guess I'll have to try another adblocker.
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Clear your cache in Chrome, because if you've already gotten some ads prior to installing AdAway, those ads will still appear even after AdAway is installed, unless you clear your cache. For the record, no ads here, but I also use an expanded list of hosts sources, which I will provide a bit later.
EDIT: Here is that list.
Code:
http://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts-file
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt
http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt
https://adaway.org/hosts.txt
https://isc.sans.edu/feeds/suspiciousdomains_High.txt
https://mirror.cedia.org.ec/malwaredomains/justdomains
https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?hostformat=hosts&showintro=0&mimetype=plaintext
https://ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch/downloads/RW_DOMBL.txt
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists_disconnect.me/simple_malvertising.txt
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists_disconnect.me/simple_malware.txt
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists_disconnect.me/simple_tracking.txt
https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/blocklist.php?download=domainblocklist

Do you have data saver turned on in chrome settings? Data saver is Google compressing a full webpage, with ads, to reduce mobile data usage.

Ad blocker that works on S4?

In the absence of root and Adaway, I searched and found a lot of references to DNS66. I tried it but it doesn't work. I don't need it for browsing as I use Opera, but I would like it for apps.
I have found that a few apps that I've used on my old Tab S now don't work on the S4 and wondered if anyone has found an ad blocker that works without root?

khocking said:
In the absence of root and Adaway, I searched and found a lot of references to DNS66. I tried it but it doesn't work. I don't need it for browsing as I use Opera, but I would like it for apps.
I have found that a few apps that I've used on my old Tab S now don't work on the S4 and wondered if anyone has found an ad blocker that works without root?
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uBlock Origin for various browsers. Not sure about other apps though.

Doesn't the Samsung browser allow to add content blockers in the "extensions" in the settings? My s9 does and that's where you add the various ad blockers..adblock fast, adblock plus, disconnect, adguard several others..
Edit.. just realized you're asking about Opera.

tool2269 said:
Doesn't the Samsung browser allow to add content blockers in the "extensions" in the settings? My s9 does and that's where you add the various ad blockers..adblock fast, adblock plus, disconnect, adguard several others..
Edit.. just realized you're asking about Opera.
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Actually I'm asking about other apps like games. Opera has a built-in ad blocker that works perfectly and you don't need any third party apps.

khocking said:
In the absence of root and Adaway
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There's been rough instructions on how to root in the Q&A section for a bit now, and I put together a little guide after using those instructions on9 9-12-18.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-s4/how-to/guide-rooting-wifi-version-galaxy-tab-t3841763
After rooting, you can use magisk modules or adaway or anything else.
I also remember reading that without root it's possible to use secure folder to block all ads on samsung devices (i didn't look into it), there's also a bunch of non-root adblocking apps available that require you to run a notification all the time.

mistermojorizin said:
There's been rough instructions on how to root in the Q&A section for a bit now, and I put together a little guide after using those instructions on9 9-12-18.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-s4/how-to/guide-rooting-wifi-version-galaxy-tab-t3841763
After rooting, you can use magisk modules or adaway or anything else.
I also remember reading that without root it's possible to use secure folder to block all ads on samsung devices (i didn't look into it), there's also a bunch of non-root adblocking apps available that require you to run a notification all the time.
Click to expand...
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I'm going to wait to root until the systems have been streamlined. I'm also leery of breaking the warranty less than a week into it.
In the meantime, I've tried Blokada which seems to be working without too much affect on battery life etc.

Try Adguard. The free version works for any browser. The paid version also blocks ads in apps.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Disconnect Pro works great, it just really expensive.

Adhell 3 works, but it takes a while to learn to use it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS9/comments/8su2an/anyone_using_adhell_3/e1291fy/
You must follow the instructions on the readme txt file available, section [ For users with v3.1.1 ] in the mediafire folder and use version 3.1.1.230

ilatimer1 said:
Disconnect Pro works great, it just really expensive.
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I must have got it free once, because it lets me install it for free, and yes it works great!

khocking said:
In the absence of root and Adaway, I searched and found a lot of references to DNS66. I tried it but it doesn't work. I don't need it for browsing as I use Opera, but I would like it for apps.
I have found that a few apps that I've used on my old Tab S now don't work on the S4 and wondered if anyone has found an ad blocker that works without root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So dns666 actually worked for me, but took a few refreshes. Could take time to clear the cached DNS entries maybe?

dns66 works great. there is a little key icon on status bar though. to get rid of it, swipe the notification until the gear appears and go down to VPN and turn it off so the key won't show up. also, if DNS66 is not blocking ads you might need to update your hosts and add some if applicable. you need to update it regularly because sometimes one or two do not update on their own and it seems to throw the whole thing off.