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    Blocking Youtube Ads

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved pfBlockerNG
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    • BBcan177B Offline
      BBcan177 Moderator @thezfunk
      last edited by

      @thezfunk said in Blocking Youtube Ads:

      @xentrk said in Blocking Youtube Ads:

      The blocking files block YouTube ads when watching using a web browser. I do get YouTube ads when using the app on my iPad or streaming media player.

      That's exactly what I am noticing. The web browsers are fine, it is the Amazon Fire TV's and Google TV's that still get ads. Sometimes my tablet and phone as well. There must be something else with those Android devices that allow them through.

      DNS over HTTPS :)

      "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

      Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
      Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
      Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

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      • T Offline
        thezfunk @BBcan177
        last edited by

        @bbcan177

        Anyway to get around that on Android?

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        • M Offline
          motific
          last edited by

          @thezfunk I’d packet capture the dns queries made by those devices and see what comes up.

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          • T Offline
            thezfunk
            last edited by

            I wonder if I block all traffic to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 will solve the issue since I don't use them for DNS anyway. I am sure Google must be using their servers for that purpose.

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            • S Offline
              sesipod
              last edited by

              Any update to the 8.8.8.8 block ???

              T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • R Offline
                reg1982
                last edited by

                @BBcan177 just out of curiosity is blocking youtube ads still doable ? It worked for me a long time ago... thanks

                BBcan177B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • BBcan177B Offline
                  BBcan177 Moderator @reg1982
                  last edited by

                  @reg1982 I think it's always going to be hit and miss. There are some feeds that might help but YMMV.

                  "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                  Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                  Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                  Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

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                  • D Offline
                    dma_pf
                    last edited by

                    Not quite sure if I should put this in this thread or the pfBlockerNG-devel feedback thread. ButI have an alias in my pfBlockerNG-devel setup to block Youtube ads. I saw in on the widget on the firewall's dashboard that some packets were blocked. Here's a cut and paste of the widget:

                    DNSBL_YoutubeAds 9,481 3680345 Oct 18 03:05:11

                    I clicked on the 3680345 to bring up the Alerts for the alias and this is part of what I got:

                    0_1539851786828_youtubealerts.png

                    All of these alerts are coming from the same iPad. But the iPad was sitting on the kitchen counter at 4:25 in the morning and was on the charger and not being used.

                    How can it be that the iPad is constantly reaching out to Youtube when it is not being used? And at some time stamps have upwards of 1700 duplicate attempts ?

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                    • D Offline
                      dma_pf
                      last edited by dma_pf

                      Since my last post above this came up in the Alerts
                      0_1539852734051_youtubealerts.png

                      Is that 36,132 accurate?

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                      • D Offline
                        dma_pf
                        last edited by

                        I did some more snooping around and checked Diagnostics/States and filtered it by the address of the iPad. I get what appears to be thousands of open states from the iPad to the DNSBL VIP that look like this:

                        0_1539855927098_youtubestates.png

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                        • M Offline
                          motific
                          last edited by

                          The iPad may have been on standby but the app was probably still open. That number of attempts to reach the all-seeing googly eye does look pretty concerning but I have seen ad-slingers doing that with in-game ads and tracking.

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                          • T Offline
                            thezfunk @sesipod
                            last edited by

                            @sesipod Blocking Google's DNS servers did not stop my Android ads. I am telling you, I don't have issues on Windows machines with ads, it is just Android's YouTube app. In the last two weeks it has gotten worse. I now get an ad at almost every single video again. My FireTV, Firestick, Android phones and tablets with the Youtube app are unanfected by the blocking on my pfSense box.

                            I have yet to take the time for packet capture deep dive. I just got OpenVPN working so I can route my traffic from my phone through home whenever I am out and I also implemented encrypted DNS.

                            They were only mildly annoying before but the worse they intrude the more driven I am to shut them off. I am now considering a whole VPN solution for security reasons although I know that won't stop the Youtube ads.

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                            • T Offline
                              thezfunk
                              last edited by

                              It looks like some people over on reddit might be onto something:

                              https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/9w5swx/i_think_ive_managed_to_block_youtube_ads_with/

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                              • L Offline
                                lmannyr
                                last edited by

                                did you ever figure this out?

                                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • M Offline
                                  motific @lmannyr
                                  last edited by

                                  @lmannyr - I suggested a nice long packet capture to check DNS requests to look for any patterns but I don’t think anyone has done it.

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                                  • L Offline
                                    lmannyr @motific
                                    last edited by lmannyr

                                    @motific Any specific settings I should use under "Diagnostics: Packet Capture"? I'm not sure what I'll be looking for but I sure can try.

                                    Also to clarify, the ads do not show up using desktop browsers. I only see youtube ads when using the youtube app with iPads and iPhones. Don't have an android to test with.

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                                    • D Offline
                                      difiks
                                      last edited by stephenw10

                                      I stopped using chrome and switched to the Brave browser (Download from the official site- https://brave.com). I forgot about advertising on YouTube.
                                      Brave was created by Brendan Eich, one of the founders of the JavaScript programming language, using the Blink engine (developed by Google). All popular browsers are created on this engine - Opera, FireFox and Chrome itself.

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                                      • T Offline
                                        thezfunk
                                        last edited by thezfunk

                                        I have managed a respectable level of YouTube cleanliness but it has taken a multi-pronged approach. DNS blocking helps with either a Pihole or pfBlockerNG but you will need browser/app level blocking as well.

                                        On a PC that isn't very hard and there are some well known and effective addons that I use in Firefox and have no issues. The problems were with all my Android devices whether that be phone, tablet or streaming boxes of various manufacturers. Even though I was forcing DNS as best I could through my pfSense, I was still getting regular ads. Better than nothing, but still highly annoying. The Youtube applications will circumvent any rerouting or DNS blocking you use. Encrypted DNS is good to hide our DNS requests from our ISP but it also allows Youtube to get around our filter/block. The only way to try and prevent this, from what I was reading, was to root all my devices. That is not something I want to have to learn and especially, mange for each device. Luckily, I finally found a new solution.

                                        Replace the stock apps. On my phone, I use YouTube Vanced. It is a 3rd party Youtube app that seems to work exactly like the stock app and I never get anymore ads. I love it. On my streaming boxes, I use Smart Youtube TV. Gloriousness has ensued. The only issue I have had is that Youtube Vanced crashes on my old Nvidia Shield tablet. Probably because it is running an out dated version of Android.

                                        One final note. With pfBlockerNG (and DNS redirect) I had an issue logging into Netflix. It would give an error but their network tests would all pass. I read somewhere online that Netflix absolutely has to touch 8.8.8.8, no exceptions. I thought that was weird because Netflix was working on some boxes already but not the new one I installed. I block and redirect all DNS traffic to my pfSense for everything. I ran an experiment where I disabled pfBlockerNG on initial sign in with Netflix and then reenabled it after I was signed in. Fixed the issue. Once I was logged in to Netflix it doesn't seem to need to touch 8.8.8.8 again. So, when installing Netflix app, give it access to 8.8.8.8 that one time and then you can block it after that.

                                        I have spent a ton of time working through all this and now my life is 100% better. I watched some Youtube in a hotel room on their smart TV and I don't know how anyone manages to watch anything with all the ads I saw. I got frustrated and turned it off. TV commercials are less annoying.

                                        XentrkX 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • B Offline
                                          Ben Utzer Banned
                                          last edited by

                                          This post is deleted!
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                                          • XentrkX Offline
                                            Xentrk @thezfunk
                                            last edited by

                                            Grublets has written a script for pi-hole that is working to block YT ads on the router. It was forked forked on the Diversion ad blocker on Asuswrt-Merlin firwmare yesterday and early testing is very positive so far.

                                            https://gitlab.com/grublets/youtube-updater-for-pi-hole/-/tree/master
                                            https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/youtube-script-seems-to-be-working-very-well/31316

                                            pfSense 2.4.4_2 | Intel i5-3450 @ 3.10GHz  | AES-NI enabled |  pfBlockerNG | Snort
                                            Blog Site: https://x3mtek.com || GitHub: https://github.com/Xentrk

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