Can you run both a private dns and a vpn-based ad blocker on non-rooted
Android at the same time?

I can't.

But I don't know how either of them works.
So I don't know if it's even possible.

Can you run both at the same time?

Nick Cine wrote:

>Can you run both a private dns and a vpn-based ad blocker on non-rooted
>Android at the same time?

This is not possible, the moment you switch on the vpn you use the dns
set up with the computer the vpn is running on, so you have no choice in
dns when using a vpn.

-jw-

--

And now for something completely different...

Joerg Walther <joerg.walther@magenta.de> writes:

> Nick Cine wrote:
>
>>Can you run both a private dns and a vpn-based ad blocker on non-rooted
>>Android at the same time?
>
> This is not possible, the moment you switch on the vpn you use the dns
> set up with the computer the vpn is running on, so you have no choice in
> dns when using a vpn.

I thought so too but I use a VPN (Freedome) and with private DNS set to
an ad blocking one, I still get ads removed from apps. And Freedome
doesn't filter ads, although they claim to filter trackers but it's a
little hard to verify that.

So a VPN based ad blocker and private DNS might well work together.

On Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:38:34 +0200, Anssi Saari wrote:

>>>Can you run both a private dns and a vpn-based ad blocker on non-rooted
>>>Android at the same time?
>>
>> This is not possible, the moment you switch on the vpn you use the dns
>> set up with the computer the vpn is running on, so you have no choice in
>> dns when using a vpn.
>
> I thought so too but I use a VPN (Freedome) and with private DNS set to
> an ad blocking one, I still get ads removed from apps. And Freedome
> doesn't filter ads, although they claim to filter trackers but it's a
> little hard to verify that.
>
> So a VPN based ad blocker and private DNS might well work together.

I had not heard of Freedome by F-Secure so I looked it up first.
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/f-secure-freedome-vpn
It's apparently a VPN first and foremost, but it will do ad blocking
and/or tracker blocking - but they don't say much about the ad blocking.

Here they don't say anything about the ad blocking. Just trackers blocked.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/402457/f-secure-freedome-vpn-review.html

They seem to restrict their VPN to using only their app, which is rare.
https://www.techradar.com/reviews/f-secure-freedome-vpn
"Although Freedome uses OpenVPN underneath, it doesn't support manually
setting up the service with routers or other devices. You must use the
official apps."

When you use the Freedome app, does it show up in the Android settings for
a VPN (Settings > Connections > More connections > VPN > Freedome)?

That techradar article didn't discuss ad blocking. Just tracker blocking.
"The only significant bonus feature is tracker blocking"

What's the difference between and ad blocker & a tracker blocker?

Harry S Robins wrote:

>They seem to restrict their VPN to using only their app, which is rare.

This is not really rare when it comes to certain VPN apps.
Starting with Android 9 you can also use your custom DNS, so using
dns.adguard.com could be an option, I use it on my mobile phone when I
am not connected to my home wifi and it works quite well.

-jw-

--

And now for something completely different...

Joerg Walther <joerg.walther@magenta.de> writes:

> Starting with Android 9 you can also use your custom DNS, so using
> dns.adguard.com could be an option, I use it on my mobile phone when I
> am not connected to my home wifi and it works quite well.

Why not use it at home as well? Isn't it a little tedious to toggle this
off and on all the time?

Anssi Saari wrote:

>> Starting with Android 9 you can also use your custom DNS, so using
>> dns.adguard.com could be an option, I use it on my mobile phone when I
>> am not connected to my home wifi and it works quite well.
>
>Why not use it at home as well? Isn't it a little tedious to toggle this
>off and on all the time?

There is nothing to toggle, you set the DNS for Wifi separately from the
DNS of the mobile network. And at home I use AdGuard on a Raspberry Pi
as my DNS because it is configurable and there are a couple of
additional things that I want to block, namely all products related with
Facebook, TikTok and a few others.

-jw-

--

And now for something completely different...

Joerg Walther <joerg.walther@magenta.de> writes:

> Anssi Saari wrote:
>
>>> Starting with Android 9 you can also use your custom DNS, so using
>>> dns.adguard.com could be an option, I use it on my mobile phone when I
>>> am not connected to my home wifi and it works quite well.
>>
>>Why not use it at home as well? Isn't it a little tedious to toggle this
>>off and on all the time?
>
> There is nothing to toggle, you set the DNS for Wifi separately from the
> DNS of the mobile network. And at home I use AdGuard on a Raspberry Pi
> as my DNS because it is configurable and there are a couple of
> additional things that I want to block, namely all products related with
> Facebook, TikTok and a few others.

OK, I understand now, I thought you meant the global Private DNS
setting. In fact, it looks like I'll need to do the same, I've found a
couple of open wifi networks I often use block DNS over TLS (DoT) so the
private DNS setting doesn't work on those networks and in fact, I have
no connectivity.