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Username: @maiseld

I am running AdGaurd home on a Raspberry Pi on my home network.

It should be throwing every ad url into a sinkhole (0.0.0.0), but instead I am still getting ads for sites like Youtube, (and maybe some others, but mostly Youtube).

I'm trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. How do I block Youtube ads? Btw this is the Youtube site, not the mobile app. I suspect Youtube may be trying to stream the ad through the IP:Port that is working for me, so I know it is a constant battle to block them.

If all the data from the internet is running through my Adblock DNS (which I configured on my router) before it gets to my router, than it should be working properly.

Also my home network is using two routers: 1) which connects to the internet and 2) a secondary router that connects to the first one via WDS. My devices are connected to the secondary router. I will check my secondary router if it is configured with the correct DNS settings, but I think it is. And even if it wasn't configured, that shouldn't affect AdGaurd home's function from blocking the ads correct?

Any ideas of what I am doing wrong? Anything I need to configure on my AdGaurd home page?

Screenshots

Screenshot 1

System configuration

Information	value
Platform:	AdGuard Home
Browser:	All of them
Filters:	Ad Blocking: AdGuard Base
Other extensions used:	None, the issue persists on all browsers

[zloyden]

How do I block Youtube ads?

Unfortunately, DNS blocking is not enough. However, you can block YouTube ads (not mobile app, but there is another way to watch it without ads) using our extension or app.

[maiseld]

zloyden,

Can you provide a technical explanation as to why DNS blocking from Ad Guard home does not block Youtube ads from Youtube in a browser?

I want to be able to run one thing, use any browser, from any device in my home, and use Youtube without ads. Please explain why that is not possible.

When you go to Youtube:

• It loads the video you want to see from a hostname like random.example.com
• Ads are also loaded from the same random.example.com

If you block random.example.com altogether, you won't be able to watch anything on the site. DNS solutions are completely useless in this case.

The AdGuard app and browser extensions look at the full URLs you connect to (e.g. https://random.example.com/this-is-an-ad) and also inspect the source code of all webpages to detect smart ads. That's why they can block Youtube ads.

[maiseld]

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for that explanation.

Still, I wish that somehow when I use Adgaurd Home on my Raspberry Pi - it was able to know the URL of the webpage that a device on my network is requesting, and also somehow was able to "inspect" the source code of the webpages before it got to my computer, however at that layer its really all just signal/data and not the uncompiled code - so that wouldn't work..... unless the webpage was "tested" on the Raspberry Pi first, and somehow buffered the video, and then sent the "clean" video to the requesting device on my network.

I don't know if you guys have such technology? I guess you would need to have a custom browser that spoke to that central Adgaurd Home Raspberry Pi DNS and was able to accept video uploads from it.

Or perhaps there's like an AdGaurd-type application on my PC (and each device) that works for all browsers, rather than me having to install an extension on each one?

I don't work for AdGuard, but yes, they have programs for Windows and other operating systems: https://adguard.com/en/adguard-windows/overview.html

By the way, webpages aren't "compiled." Your computer gets plain-text files that your browser then uses to render the site. What guarantees that no device or hacker snooping on your connection can see their exact URLs or manipulate their code is that almost all connections today are encrypted (HTTPS). The stand-alone AdGuard apps require you to install a certificate to bypass this protection: https://kb.adguard.com/en/general/https-filtering

[zloyden]

Yes, it's like @BrunaPitanga said - such blocking will be the incorrect one. Actually, the YouTube ads are complicated ones and we have solution in filters (AdGuard Base), another one in AdGuard Extra. This approach means filtering the DOM of the page and other requests.

Still, I wish that somehow when I use Adgaurd Home on my Raspberry Pi

I'm not sure if we have this, it's better to ask in AdGuard Home repo. You can create an issue with your questions or I can address them there.

Or perhaps there's like an AdGaurd-type application on my PC (and each device) that works for all browsers, rather than me having to install an extension on each one?

We have the app for desktop and mobile platforms, so you can install it and filter browsers. It also supports our extensions like mentioned AdGuard Extra.

[maiseld]

Thanks for those links. Yep you can't block content if you cannot decrypt and see it.

https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome#comparison-limitations
Here they say they plan to add a content-blocking proxy to AdGaurd home, essentially a reverse proxy like I was describing. Following the thread, I don't think it's complete yet.
AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome#1228
But someone developed this
https://github.com/Barre/privaxy
Which seems to be a proxy offered outside of the home network? (But provides VPN and Ad Blocking). I hope that they might use this to integrate it into Ad Gaurd.

And I know they are busy... I can use the other solutions in the meantime.

Privaxy and any other similar solutions you manage to find will also require you to trust a custom certificate to be able to decrypt all your Internet traffic (i.e. give attackers the ability to steal your data and passwords). Adding certificates from random people to your devices is a terrible idea.

If all you want is to watch Youtube videos without ads, you can just go to one of these Invidious or Piped instances:

• https://docs.invidious.io/instances/
• https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped/wiki/Instances

They're third-party interfaces for Youtube videos. Each instance is controlled by different individuals who have installed Invidious or Piped on their own servers.