twovests OP wrote on October 22, 2018 at 3:23 PM

Reply to comment by devtesla in remember to re-root your phone at least once every 6 months, or you will forget how to do it and you will be very sad and confused, like me by twovests

i always thought that you had to jailbreak iphone to get to the hosts file? this is a firm blow to my android superiority complex

devtesla wrote on October 22, 2018 at 4:24 PM

You definitely need to jailbreak an iphone to get the hosts file. What ios offers is safari content blocking which allows apps to provide a list to safari of things to block. I use 1Blocker. You can use whatever app you want to manage lists but the actual blocking mechanism is always the same and always really fast.

I haven't set it up yet but I'm really interested in using a Pi-hole to block ads at the network level instead of on a device.

twovests OP wrote on October 22, 2018 at 5:40 PM

Oh wow so this is like, legit ad blocking? And it's easy to set up?

I only ever get ads on YouTube or rare apps with hard-coded ads (like those little icons that were embedded on the bottom of old forums).

devtesla wrote on October 22, 2018 at 5:58 PM

Pi-hole? Yea it's as easy as it could possibly be, though like youtube is really good at getting around adblockers and does give Pi-hole trouble. It'd be cool for stuff like smart TVs and news apps. I'm not sure if it's really practical for most people but I like its philosophy a lot.

twovests OP wrote on October 22, 2018 at 7:05 PM

Ah I meant the ad-blocking stuff. I was asking, is it easy and accessible for folks who don't know much about computers? Because if so, that's a big advantage over rooting (and over pi-hole).

devtesla wrote on October 22, 2018 at 7:10 PM

Oh yea safari content blockers rule, it's just download an app and flip some switches in the settings. Easy to turn off too if something breaks, just hold down the refresh button.