AdGuard is much better alternative!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
'Lockdown' Firewall App That Lets You Block Ads and Trackers in All Apps Expands to Mac
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The paid one is a VPN, the free version is just a tracker blocker system-wide.
[automerge]1581824171[/automerge]
The key difference is the blocking happens on device vs on a server (NextDNS), but then using Lockdown would still pass on the unblocked DNS requests to a DNS server. So in this case, using NextDNS makes more sense, unless you want to encrypt your traffic by turning on the paid VPN of Lockdown.
[automerge]1581824459[/automerge]
The key difference is the blocking happens on device vs on a server (NextDNS), but then using Lockdown would still pass on the unblocked DNS requests to a DNS server. So in this case, using NextDNS makes more sense, unless you want to encrypt your traffic by turning on the paid VPN of Lockdown.
You’re absolutely correct. But I’m moving from DNSCrypt to Lockdown as the former is no longer being updated. They’re working on DNS over HTTPS but that project has no GUI Mac client.
Lockdown can be used with NextDNS, but it would make more sense to add blacklists directly on NextDNS. The only downside is both Lockdown and NextDNS only let you add 1 domain in the blacklist at a time. For people with a customized blacklist, that would take eternity to import.
Last edited:
I’ve been using AdGuard Pro for iOS since 2017 after switching from Disconnect which doesn’t allow customized blocking. I have well over 1000 apps on my phone. When I get a new phone, it’s the first app I prioritize to download so it starts blocking right away.
ADGuard Pro only costs a few bucks, it’s a one time purchase. Lockdown is free unless you want to use their VPN. I’m unable to give Lockdown a try due to its inability to import multiple entries at a time to black / white list, though I expect they work the same.
I had issues with ADGuard “personal VPN” dropping when going from WIFI to cellular on my older iPhones, which happened occasionally with older builds of Disconnect in 2016 too, but haven’t experienced the issue since upgrading to iPhone 11 Pro. Weird as it’s running the same version of iOS. ADGuard’s customized DNS server feature also finally works with native IPv6 on T-Mobile. Before that, I had to switch to system default every time my phone disconnects from WIFI.
Yeezus. Only two days in downloading this and am at almost 3k blocked.
I'm using Pi-hole with a Raspberry Pi 3 and have been happy with it.
If you’re able to setup pihole then setting up OpenVPN shouldn’t be a problem.
Pihole is great once you work with white listing certain things. I did end up putting my wife’s iPhone and iPad in bypass because I got tired of the problems it would cause with Facebook and Hulu.
Does not work with PIA on my mac
Any solutions to not have to use their secure tunnel solution?
Unlike some people here, I actually leave the house occasionally.
Thanks! I was hoping it wasn't overly restrictive. I seriously may do it. The ads are driving me nuts.
It’s not so much the complexity of doing it that’s put me off but rather it’ll likely degrade my mobile speeds which are often on par and can exceed my homes connection. I’m based in Australia where most residential plans top out at 100mbit down and 40mbit up. I’m fortunate enough to have that, many don’t, but if I use a VPN to access my homes PiHole instance then my residential 40mbit upload will become the max my mobile will achieve if all traffic, not just DNS, is going via the VPN. At least that’s my understanding. Given my mobile plan can out perform my home I don’t really want everything going via a VPN for that reason.
Could possibly look at other options for accessing PiHole. Right now I’m playing with either using AdGuard Pro with a number of on device filter rules or NextDNS + DNSCloak which was suggested here with server managed rules. It’s not as good but it’s probably a good enough compromise for me.
I'm so curious about this. I didn't know that Little Snitch could do this, so I didn't look into any farther the first time I heard about it. But if it can block ads coming in at the network level, then it'd be well, well worth the price of entry for me.
I'll take a better look, but if you have any resources beyond what you've kindly provided I'd love to see them.
Dear experts,
A few questions from a newbie...
1. When I turn the Lockdown firewall ON, should I turn OFF the firewall which came with my Catalina macOS or still keep it ON?
2. When I turn the Lockdown firewall ON, should I turn OFF the Ad Guard for Safari or still keep it ON?
A few questions from a newbie...
1. When I turn the Lockdown firewall ON, should I turn OFF the firewall which came with my Catalina macOS or still keep it ON?
2. When I turn the Lockdown firewall ON, should I turn OFF the Ad Guard for Safari or still keep it ON?
I tried this out on iOS earlier. Seemed to want to access my VPN settings to be able to turn on the firewall which I said no to. I'm not trying to use the VPN, just the Firewall...is Firewall an accurate description in this case if it instead routes all your traffic through some other service via VPN?
The description says it does everything on-device so I'm not sure where connecting to someone's VPN comes into that equation....
The description says it does everything on-device so I'm not sure where connecting to someone's VPN comes into that equation....
Its not at all unless you use DNS over HTTPS or TLS. Cloudflare, Nextdns.io and adguard all have apps that offer encrypted DNS on IOS and MacOS.
[automerge]1582062171[/automerge]
nextDNS works on any network if you have the app it works over LTE etc or you can configure it with OpenVPN to work with nearly any VPN provider. With pihole you can setup pivpn to compliment it but I havent had the need to with the first option working well.
I tried lockdown for a minute and realized it requires use of their VPN. I already have a paid VPN so that was a deal breaker. Little Snitch gives far more control over connections IMO.
I prefer a trustworthy VPN, little snitch, and a good adblocker myself.
The trouble with pi-hole (or any other kind of traffic filtering device on your network) is it only works when you're *on your network*.
Especially for phones that looks kinda useless to me.
How does this Lockdown thing work on iOS? It forces all your traffic through a VPN, so it has to go through *their* servers?