Ad Blockers - YouTube especially

[the1lemming 4]

Is there any way that airVPN can help block ads while I surf the internet and visit YouTube please?

I’ve read a few reviews that state that some VPNs provide a successful service to block ads for a nominal fee on top of their VPN fees.

I am more than happy to pay for such a service if it existed.

cheers

[Staff 9973]

Hello!

The features you ask for are included in any plan.

The system is very flexible and offers some exclusive features never seen before in other VPN services:

• You can activate or de-activate, anytime, any combination of lists.
• You can add customized exceptions and/or additional blocks.
• Any specified domain which must be blocked includes all of its subdomains too.
• Lists which can return custom A,AAAA,CNAME,TXT records are supported.
• You can define any combination of block lists and/or exceptions and/or additions for your whole account or only for specific certificate/key pairs of your account (Client Area ⇨ Devices ⇨ Details ⇨ DNS)
• Different matching methods are available for your additions and exceptions: Exact (exact FQDN), Domain (domain and its subdomains), Wildcard (with * and ? as wildcards), Contain, Start with, End with.
• An API to fetch every and each list in different formats (see Client Area ⇨ API ⇨ dns_lists service) is active
• Any change in your selected list(s), any added exception and any added block is enforced very quickly, within few tens of seconds. You don't need to disconnect and re-connect your account.
• You can define your own lists and discuss lists and anything related in the community forum here

Essential requisite to enjoy the service is, of course, querying AirVPN DNS while your system is connected to some VPN server, which is by the way a default setup if you run any of our software. Please see also:
https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/49876-new-feature-dns-block-lists/

Please note that YouTube may include ads in the main video stream, therefore no DNS based ad blocker is totally effective against YouTube ads.

Kind regards
 

[the1lemming 4]

 

5 hours ago, Staff said:

Please note that YouTube may include ads in the main video stream, therefore no DNS based ad blocker is totally effective against YouTube ads.


 

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly.

May I ask what and how I would know if ads are in the main Video Stream please?

At the moment I am still getting ads at the start and end, with a five second delay before I can click out and back to what I'm watching. I'm getting less ads, I think however this may just be wishful thinking.

Is this the sort of thing that I just have to accept as the normal or can these be blocked some how?

I have followed your instructions as best I can with my limited experience. I have gone into the Client Area,Devices, Details, DNS and selected a variety of options including:
Ads & Trackers Blocklist
Malware, phishing, botnet
GoodbyeAds
GoodbyeAds YouTube


I have also gone into API. I don't really know what to do so I just hit an API key and made it active. I've no idea what its doing.

SO far I have DNS Active and API Active.

 

[Staff 9973]

1 hour ago, the1lemming said:

May I ask what and how I would know if ads are in the main Video Stream please?

At the moment I am still getting ads at the start and end, with a five second delay before I can click out and back to what I'm watching. I'm getting less ads, I think however this may just be wishful thinking.

Is this the sort of thing that I just have to accept as the normal or can these be blocked some how?

Hello!

How to mitigate or block YouTube ads is a matter of hot debates on various forums. It's outside the scope of AirVPN, though, we're sorry. You might like to research on your own.
 

1 hour ago, the1lemming said:

have also gone into API. I don't really know what to do so I just hit an API key and made it active. I've no idea what its doing.

Please see here, just in case you'll need API features in the future:
https://airvpn.org/faq/api/

Kind regards
 

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

I recommend using Invidious or Piped instances instead of YouTube directly. They don't serve ads by default.
redirect.invidious.io provides a list of the healthiest Invidious instances. I personally use invidious.nerdvpn.de with an account there which tracks subscriptions and exposes them via RSS feed.
Migrations from YouTube can be done by exporting watch history, playlists and subscriptions from YouTube and importing them in your preferred instance.

For skipping sponsors, aka ads inside the video itself, there's SponsorBlock.

[iwih2gk 93]

Late here as usual.  I don't know where you are watching YouTube but some great options outside of AirVpn are easily available.  I watch tons of YouTube on my Firesticks and use AirVpn to whitelist apps that I don't want to capture my IP's.  You can sideload a "super beta you tube" apk that is absolutely ad free and works perfectly for me.  All the sites you visit will not be getting your IP  because Eddie Android 3.0 can whitelist your apps keeping you a bit more private.  Just trying to help here realizing this post is outside of Air  ------ > but may be helpful to you.

[Fly AirVPN 12]

It would be helpful to include your OS. If on Windows, the browser add-on uBlock Origin does a good job of blocking YouTube ads that display before a video and interrupt during a video. Keep in mind uBlock Origin is an overall ad blocker and is not just for YouTube.

If on Android TV (includes Nvidia Shield), Amazon fireTV or Android TV box there is SmartTube (formerly SmartTubeNext) and SmartTubeBeta (recommended, see Installation). It has to be side loaded. Installation instructions are available on the Github site. Sponsored ads within a video are also skipped during playback.