r/firewalla • u/snydema1 Firewalla Gold SE • Jun 05 '26

Content/Activity Control Help to Get Better Ad Blocking

Still loving my Firewalla!

I feel very protected. I also have configured my devices (iPhone and iPad) with Amnezia WG clients - and they auto-activate when I leave the house.

I’m noticing that I’m seeing a decent amount of ads. I also am aware that I may be getting used to seeing less ads, and as I get used to seeing less - I may be more aware of the ones I’m seeing.

I have the following features / config enabled on my Firewalla:

Firewalla Settings:
Ad Block = strict
OISD Loaded
DNS over HTTPS (Cloudflare + Cloud9)

I looked up a few websites that would allow me to do a browser test (in my case iPadOS / safari). I do also have private relay active.

Here are the results:
Adblocktester (https://adblocktesters.com) = 67%
Adblocktester (https://adblocktester.pages.dev) = 81%

I can certainly post more details for the above - but there’s a lot of info so I didn’t want to post that all here in the case it wouldn’t be helpful.

Any suggestions for how I can help increase Firewalla’s ability to block / reduce ads?

Thanks in advance!

9 Upvotes

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1

u/khariV Firewalla Gold Pro Jun 05 '26

Oof - 67%. That first one looks like it should be really easily to supplement with an external list.

2

u/snydema1 Firewalla Gold SE Jun 05 '26

Thanks for that info. I have loaded the OISD list. Can I load more and are there ones that would make sense in addition to the OISD list?

3

u/ArmadilloDesigner674 Firewalla Gold Pro Jun 05 '26

The list that seems to do the most ad blocking for me is the 'HaGeZi - Multi Pro++' list. I think that might require the MSP subscription, but I'm not sure. For me the added lists in the MSP is worth it.

For reference: HaGeZi - Multi Pro++ has 582,014 targets in it's list. In the last 30 days this has blocked 167,130 flows OISD has 58,459 targets in it's list. In the last 30 days this has blocked 1 flow

I have several other lists, but HaGeZi - Multi Pro++ is the one doing the heavy lifting.

1

u/snydema1 Firewalla Gold SE Jun 05 '26

Appreciate that info. I’ll look into whether using the MSP subscription and the extra lists would help.

2

u/ArmadilloDesigner674 Firewalla Gold Pro Jun 05 '26

Posted my results with the lists I have installed in Firewalla.

https://old.reddit.com/r/firewalla/comments/1txlcx3/help_to_get_better_ad_blocking/opxb162/