We are going to look at how to implement advert blocking on an Edgerouter at a network level using DNS. This can also be applied to other software routing devices. There are many ways to block adverts these days – various browser plugins, browsers with built in blocking, proxy servers (normal or transparent) and also with DNS. Whatever your thoughts are regarding websites using adverts for revenue generation, the fact is many sites have obscene amounts of ads.
Quite often adverts are designed to dupe you by purposely making them look like the link you are actually after. A typical example of this is where you have a ‘download’ button which is actually an advert to download something else entirely. This is not only deceitful but is down right unacceptable. Until all adverts become unobtrusive, targeted and honest I will keep blocking them; even if this means I can’t access websites which block you for blocking ads.