Finally got rid of ads on Samsung Weather app

[jope28]

I got used to the Samsung weather app on my S10e, but was surprised that I started seeing ads on the weather app once I upgraded to S21.

Just wanted to share how I got rid of the ads. The weather app is simple and has a nice clean interface once that ad banner isn't there.

Setting the Dns to dns.adguard.com managed to block the ads there.
Haven't seen any negative effects due to changing up the dns so far, just the ad-blocking benefit lol

 

[SpookDroid]

While many use and swear by this service, it's fair to note that Adguard is a Russian company, although their servers are not in Russia (just like many VPN companies are Chinese and host their servers abroad), some have reported random speed drops (drastic enough to notice) while trying to access Google services, and there are no known external audits to their privacy practices (so while no damaging reports are out there, there's also no confirmation of what happens to your personal data once it goes through their servers). And finally, since this is an ad-blocking service, companies actively try to detect them and block traffic altogether (i.e. trying to play a video on a TV site and the video player won't load, etc.). Because you're fiddling with the phone's settings directly, there's no 'easy' way of toggling this on/off to access certain sites like you can with 3rd party VPN apps (but also not super hard to revert to the original DNS).

Again, this is more of a 'proceed with caution...but it should be fine' addendum, but one that does need to be stated.

 

[Deleted member 90790]

Big fan of Adguard. Also have their VPN.

 

[kolyan2k]

Anyone use Diversion? Router script for ad blocking. DNS blocking is nice, but it only blocks ads on 1 device whereas with diversion you block on entire network

 

[J Dubbs]

You shouldn't need to use adblockers on Samsung's flagship phones.... that's wrong on every level :-\

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

Anyone use Diversion? Router script for ad blocking. DNS blocking is nice, but it only blocks ads on 1 device whereas with diversion you block on entire network

I run a pi-hole.

NextDNS may also be worth looking at, though I've not used it myself.

 

[kolyan2k]

I run a pi-hole.

NextDNS may also be worth looking at, though I've not used it myself.

Are u running it on router itself?

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

No, on a raspberry pi 4.

 

[jope28]

and there are no known external audits to their privacy practices (so while no damaging reports are out there....

You could use the Mullvad one as an alternative.
They publish the 3rd party audit of their free Adblocking DNS server.
https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls/
It works just as well.

 

[jope28]

DNS blocking is nice, but it only blocks ads on 1 device whereas with diversion you block on entire network

You can change the DNS settings on your router as well.
Simple to use this adblocking method for all devices connecting to your router.
And if Adguard isn't your cup of tea, Mullvad, alternate-DNS and many others offer the same as an alternative.

 

[kolyan2k]

You can change the DNS settings on your router as well.
Simple to use this adblocking method for all devices connecting to your router.
And if Adguard isn't your cup of tea, Mullvad, alternate-DNS and many others offer the same as an alternative.

I tried that but it didn't work, didn't block ads. How do you do that?

Edit: worked this time. Not sure what happened before

 

[jope28]

I tried that but it didn't work, didn't block ads. How do you do that?

Edit: worked this time. Not sure what happened before

Sometimes it takes a while for it to take effect since it might've still had the old DNS results cached.