AdGuard DNS Blog

I've tried hosted Pi-Hole and AdGuard Home. They are good as long as I'm around to fix stuffs. Then I tested something which can be global (home) and also for individual devices -- Control-D, NextDNS, and Adguard DNS. All of them works pretty well. If I really have to choose, then it would be in the order of NextDNS > Control-D > AdGuard DNS. Affiliated with none, and have decided to subscribe to all three to further test them for this year. My eventual plan is to have a tool that works independently for each devices and home-ish setup that I can keep tinkering while taking care of the home-devices that stays home. https://controld.com https://nextdns.io https://adguard-dns.io

As a satisfied customer, I just recommended their adblockimg DNS on here a few days ago but am happy to do it again. If you really don't want to install anything, at least adblock at the DNS level. https://adguard-dns.io/en/welcome.html

ublock origin will help. but does your org do any kind of DNS filtering? depending on your setup (office or remote, etc) setting up something like Pi-hole[0] can offer a tremendous amount of time & hassle-saving as so many of the problematic ads will just not get to your folks. a more managed equivalent of Pi-Hole might be AdGuard DNS[1]. [0] https://pi-hole.net [1] https://adguard-dns.io

For the home-gamers without a strong grip of DNS, note that you can't enter a domain name into your resolver fields, you have to use the IPs: 94.140.14.14 94.140.15.15 2a10:50c0::ad1:ff 2a10:50c0::ad2:ff Also, it looks like https://dns.adguard-dns.com/ redirects to https://adguard-dns.io/ which is a paid service for more advanced DNS filtering, a la NextDNS.

I use PowerDNS's dnsdist[1] which forwards to a blocky[2] server which then resolves from a local PowerDNS recursor. dnsdist is there mainly to provide a fallback if the local server is unavailable so I don't lose complete functionality. I would generally recommend using anything other than your ISP's DNS servers. AdGuard has a pretty good list of available providers: https://adguard-dns.io/kb/general/dns-providers/ [1] https://dnsdist.org/ [2] https://0xerr0r.github.io/blocky/

I use Adguard for Safari Content blocking + NextDNS. Adguard has launched its own DNS based blocker too which I am yet to test. Link: https://adguard-dns.io

I used to use AdGuard's DNS (https://adguard-dns.io/). It looks like they're going to be launching an upgraded version that you can customize in the future. Right now, I'm using NextDNS (https://nextdns.io). It lets me add ad/tracking block lists, block specific domains (especially ones that serve annoying embeds in many sites), and setup rewrites so that I can have my-fake-domain.com resolve to localhost. I can use their DNS-over-HTTPS with Chrome/Edge/Firefox and I can setup my router to to use their DNS. It's basically my own little PiHole without needing the RaspberryPi (which are very hard to come by these days). (Anxiously awaits someone on HN telling me that I shouldn't be using NextDNS)

> The experience is so awful when I browse on my iPad, instead of my Android phone with Firefox+UBlock. I really don't understand how most people can stand to browse with all the ads. Most people don’t. Most people who use anything for iOS tend to use things like: - 1Blocker - super full featured, including custom script and css rules. business model is paid software, not ‘acceptable ads’ paying them for placement or third parties paying for your data - AdGuard Pro - Similar to 1Blocker, less custom config friendly - https://nextdns.io/ - pihole type blocker with unlimited configurations, custom rules, and analytics, native hooks for devices - https://adguard-dns.io/ - similar DNS[1] service to nextdns.io with ability to upload your own rules based configurations - Firefox Focus if using that ecosystem - Brave if using that ecosystem - iCab Mobile if wanting a super configurable browser with filter rules and longest history as indie browser for iOS Folks also use ancillary quieters such as: - Hiya - call / sms blocking - Hushed - throwaway numbers for spam SMS - - - 1. Note that the AdGuard public DNS server including custom DNS filtering rules has just (26 August 2022) gone open source: https://adguard.com/en/blog/adguard-dns-2-0-goes-open-source.html

I think there are two angles to look at this. Yes, there’s the attack on the weblog. But there’s also pressure on archive.today, e.g. an FBI investigation [1] and some entity using fictitious CSAM allegations [2]. [1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/fbi-subpoena-tries-to-unma… [2]: https://adguard-dns.io/en/blog/archive-today-adguard-dns-block-demand.…

Alternatively, you can do something like this: *$denyallow=example.org|example.com Blocks everything except example.org and example.com. Works in AdGuard Home, AdGuard DNS or any other AG product with DNS filtering capabilities: https://adguard-dns.io/kb/general/dns-filtering-syntax/

Two raspberries with Adguard combined with Tailscale is pretty safe and removes a nice chunk of garbage from the internet https://adguard-dns.io/en/welcome.html

Easier just to block the ad servers at the DNS level. I use NextDNS [1] as it lets me configure it, but AdGuard [2] DNS probably also works well. 1. https://nextdns.io/ 2. https://adguard-dns.io/en/welcome.html

People will mention PiHole and that's a neat solution if you want to maintain a server. If you don't, https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html lets you point your DNS servers at AdGuard and let them block ads for you. No maintenance required. One caveat: once in a while, like maybe once a year, my wife or I encounter a site that AdGuard blocks and we need to set our DNS back to "normal" for things to work. But you'll probably have the same issue with PiHole, which relies on lists of spammers or other undesirables. PS: no relationship with AdGuard other than happily using their service.

I have been super happy downloading the free adguard dns profile on my iphone and blocking ads across the entire spectrum. Makes reading on internet so much better. Here is the link if anyone is wondering. https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html go to Our server addresses > Plain DNS > default servers

I just use adguard as my DNS on my phone, blocks out most, not all ads! Functionality is not limited to the browser, ads are also blocked in freemium type apps. I also use the same DNS on my router so that I dont have to configure each device on the network. https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

If self-host is your thing, there are blocky [0] or Adguard Home [1]. I self-host DOH using blocky so my Android devices can use it via "Private DNS" that is active on both wifi and cellular. [0] https://0xerr0r.github.io/blocky/latest/ [1] https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome [2] https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html how to configure

> a configuration page for Pihole in your NAT router's web interface likely isn't coming soon. I hope that changes. In the meantime, the majority of routers do allow you to specify the DNS resolver instead of using whatever it learns via WAN DHCP, so you could put in a filtered public resolver (as opposed to your own Pihole instance) which gives pretty similar results if you don't need to whitelist anything. Plus, you can do the same on mobile devices that roam beyond that router (and avoid VPN through said router). I've been using dns.adguard-dns.com (94.140.14.14 and 94.140.15.15) [0]. They were founded in Moscow but now operate out of Cyprus (EU) and I don't have much of a reason to trust any other DNS operator more than them. [0] https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html -- "method 2"

Add the AdGuard DNS configuration profile to your iDevice as a whole (no need for any separate app), and ads are blocked for everything except apps whose ads are drawn from the same source as their content. https://adguard-dns.io/en/blog/encrypted-dns-ios-14.html So yeah. While it won’t kill ads in apps like YouTube or Pinterest, it will kill nearly all ads in web pages and apps that source their ads from external providers.

I mean, you should have an adblocker on every device anyway. On my phone I use https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html (No need to download the app, just select "Configure AdGuard DNS manually"). As a bonus, on android, it blocks ads in shitty mobile games too.

dns.adguard.com is also a free option https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

What happens if you set your Apple TV hosting device to use Ad Guard DNS, or your local LAN router to use the same? https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

Many VPN providers (I like Mullvad) offer DNS filtering options that will work on an iPhone. Edit: May be available for free with DNS changes: https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html (I haven't tried this)

There are already AI for preemptively blocking DNS records that look suspicious, a few of the DNS services I'm aware that OP could (and should) set up for his father are NextDNS [0] or AdGuard DNS [1][2]. Apart from dynamic detection using AI and heuristics both of these services also ship with DNS-level blacklists, you may also blacklist or whitelist specific websites if any lists generate issues on safe websites. [0]: https://nextdns.io/ [1]: https://adguard.com/ [2]: https://adguard-dns.io/en/welcome.html

There are several public DNS servers that have block list functionality built in. This has the advantage of working on any kind of device that allows you to manually specify a DNS server IP address, without having to install or maintain software. For example, AdGuard maintains public DNS server IP Address options that: filter nothing, filter out ads and trackers, or filter out ads, trackers and adult content. https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

AdGuard has a hosted version too. I use the free public version with no issues. https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

Adguard provides public DNS servers that can be used for blocking ads on your phone as well, no VPN required: https://adguard-dns.io/kb/general/dns-providers/

I configured my kid's tablet to use AdGuard's public DNS https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html No more in-app ads. Strange thing, I tried it on my FireTV to block youtube ads, but it didn't work. I wouldn't be surprised if the FireTV monkies around with user settings. The other explanation could be that youtube uses the same hostname for videos and ads, so the DNS blocking can't distinguish. I ended up side-loading a 3rd party YT client that doesn't play ads. https://smartyoutubetv.github.io/

It isn't really primarily about organization oversight, though. The weird goings on are in practice usually at the behest of the people paying the salaries of all of the people involved (which includes law enforcement, which goes through corporate channels). There's no real independent oversight for that common case. Everyone is on the payroll. (-: As a concrete thought experiment, consider if (say) a WWW/DNS hosting company providing such free proxy DNS service decided to covertly record the domain name lookups from the general public that fail in order to compile a list of domain names for the company to prospectively squat on. Having multiple employees handling the public service doesn't stop this if it is the company's actual business decision to sneakily do this. It really is a statement of bus factor, not about oversight. To make a statement about oversight one has to take into account something else not covered by this list: which of the list entries has attempted to show some level of independent auditing or oversight of its data protection. * https://blog.cloudflare.com/announcing-the-results-of-the-1-1-1-1-publ… CloudFlare has had some independent auditing done, by an accountancy firm. DNS4EU holds itself subject to GDPR rules on Personal Data with respect to query data, and so is auditable by the Czech ÚOOÚ. AdGuard likewise, except that it holds Personal Data in Frankfurt. CZ.NIC likewise, except that it hasn't…