Good ad blocking solution

Started by JavaMan07, August 20, 2022, 02:02:54 AM

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I have a fairly new install, been playing with OPNsense in live mode for several weeks, and had some issues with getting it installed and working. I finally got it fully updated and stable on August 14th. It's been great the past week, in the evenings I've been tinkering with setting up something new each day. Today I setup dynamic DNS, with DuckDNS.

Next I'm wanting to make a second attempt to tackle ad blocking. First attempt, I configured UnboundDNS, setup a few blocklists. Just adding a small blocklist like "AdGuard List" it seems to work ok, but when I try to add the larger ones like "Blocklist.site Malware", and "Blocklist.site Scam", then restarting UnboundDNS takes a long time. Also, it seems to just restart at random times throughout the day, which disables my internet (DNS is kinda critical for the internet to work). Takes like 10 minutes for UnbountDNS to finish restarting and restore my internet access.

If I disable the DNS blocklist then it works fine.

OPNsense is running directly on the hardware, a ThinkCentre M600 with Pentium J3710 and 8GB ram, 32GB SATA drive.

My questions:
Am I enabling a broken list that is causing the very long restarts?
Is Unbound just not really good for ad blocking?
Should Unbound be able to use multiple blocklists concurrently? 
Should I look for another solution, like running a PiHole type VM on my desktop?
I see there's guides on installing AdGuard on OPNsense, but it requires adding an alternate repository. Anyone had luck with that?
OPNsense 22.7.2 running on:
Lenovo ThinkCentre M600
Intel J3710 @ 1.6Ghz (4 Cores)
Intel I350-T4 Nic
8G DDR3L
256Gb M.2 SATA

I Bought M.2 e key to gigabit ethernet to replace the USB. Original and replacement either DOA or no compatible drivers

Lots of people use the community repository. No need for apprehension there. I use it for adguard and would have no issue suggesting others go that route for adblocking.


If the repository you're referring to is mimugmail's, he's a well-known contributor to this community.  Feel free to give his name a search :)

I use his repository as well.  FYI you could always doublecheck the end points for the packages yourself, if you really wanted to be extra careful.
OPNsense 24.7.7 running on:
Dell Optiplex 3050
Intel I5-7600 @ 3.5Ghz (4 Cores)
Intel I350-T4 Nic
8G DDR4
256G SSD

NextDNS - no installation, fast, highly effective if you block outgoing DNS and inexpensive - for me the best solution...

AdGuard Home works perfectly and comes with a nice UI and mobile management apps if needed.
Deciso DEC750
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. (Isaac Asimov)

Quote from: pmhausen on August 20, 2022, 04:11:07 PM
AdGuard Home works perfectly and comes with a nice UI and mobile management apps if needed.
And you can run it on the same hardware like OPNsense, thanks to @mimugmail and his community repo. AdGuard in combination with unbound and DNSSEC / DoT enabled will give a quit well security standard in the WWW.
Further more one benefit running AdGuard and OPNsense on one machine is the reverse DNS-resolver for local addresses also over VLAN's.
XSK NUC Intel Celeron J3160 aka Protectli FW4B, 8GB RAM
OPNsense 22.1

Thank you. I have installed AdGuard using mimugmail's repository, it's working well. Thank you @mimugmail

I must say the internet is noticeably faster compared to before (using the AdBlock Chrome plugin). I also like not getting the popups telling me to turn off the adblocker.
OPNsense 22.7.2 running on:
Lenovo ThinkCentre M600
Intel J3710 @ 1.6Ghz (4 Cores)
Intel I350-T4 Nic
8G DDR3L
256Gb M.2 SATA

I Bought M.2 e key to gigabit ethernet to replace the USB. Original and replacement either DOA or no compatible drivers