I finally decided to put ad blockers on my iPhones and Macs.

Right now I am using 1Blocker - just the free functions to block ads in Safari for now, but may add paid features later.

So far it does a pretty damn good job. Almost all ads on websites, along with those annoying pop up ads are gone. However, it doesn't do anything for websites linked through the Facebook iPhone app. Also can't block ads in the YouTube app.

1Blocker is pretty Mac/iPhone/Safari centric though.

What is everyone else here using? I have read that AdGuard is pretty good too.

I use Add Blocker and Add Blocker Plus (free versions) on the Mac/Safari for years now and have had acceptable results. Sometimes Google gets through. It also provides for the reader function for news sites.
Not nearly as good as ublock origin was but they stopped supporting Safari awhile back. If you decide to go to a different browser check out ublock origin.

I'm not positive, but won't a commercial pay-for VPN give you equal or better blocking capability from providers that give you various switches you can activate for those services ?

I use uBlock Origin on my MacBook. I don't see any ads on YouTube.

A few weeks back, I mashed the wrong button and accidentally opened YouTube in private mode. It took me a while to figure out why I had all of the annoying YouTube ads. uBlock by default (i.e. you can change it) doesn't block ads in private mode so you can easily open websites that don't function when you try to open them with an ad blocker.

About 6 months ago, upon the advice of some 'high profile members' here who are networking experts, , I retired my old networking hardware and replaced it with an appliance running PFsense (firewall/router) and an EnGenius WAP.

PF sense has about 3 different ways to block ads, including the AdGuard list and others. But I chose to block only the most severe of offenders.

Problem is, when I locked it down tight, some web sites would no longer function properly.

But since it's so easy to do, some days I lock things down tight, and other days I let some ads in. So you may have to try out a few combinations of blocking to get something that works for you.

Another vote for uBlock Origin

Haven't seen ad add on You Tube (let alone anywhere else) in years

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I use uBlock Origin on my MacBook. I don't see any ads on YouTube.

Which browser are you using?

64 bit Firefox

I’ve recently started using Brave as my search engine on a couple of forums that have become unreadable because of the adds (thank you Para). So far, I have been pleased. Slightly different approach but you might want to consider that.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
I’ve recently started using Brave as my search engine on a couple of forums that have become unreadable because of the adds (thank you Para). So far, I have been pleased. Slightly different approach but you might want to consider that.

It would probably be even better if you used Brave as your browser. But I don't know if they make a version that works on Macs/Iphones.

I use a pihole server that blocks ads for everything in the house, TV included. I also run a VPN so that I can have ads blocked on my phone when I’m not home.

I bought the lifetime subscription to 1Blocker, as I recall, thanks to Para too! The main reason I wanted one was I was sick of YT adds.

Now if I could find something for Spotify….

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:
It would probably be even better if you used Brave as your browser. But I don't know if they make a version that works on Macs/Iphones.

Brave is available for both iOS and macOS.

I used to use Adblock Plus and was happy with it, but switched to uBlock Origin a year or two back when Youtube became more oppressive with their ad policies and began actively blocking people who used most ad blockers.

Both of them work equally well against webpage ads, but uBlock is the gold standard for staying one step ahead of Youtube's ever-changing ad block blocking schemes.