This article is a quick comparison of advert blocking for web browsing between pfBlockerNG DNS filtering, and the web browser plugin Ad Blocker. This is hardly scientific, but it does give an idea of how effective each are with basic settings. I’m sure with more effort, the impact could be more comparable.
The key points:
- The workstation used in the test is configured to use the firewall that runs pfBlockerNG for DNS resolution.
- pfBlockerNG on pfSense (Netgate 2100) version 3.2.0_8.
- Ad Blocker (browser plugin) version 3.8.21.
- Adverts blocked: 98% using the Ad Blocker plugin vs 48% using pfBlockerNG.
The following are the pfBlockerNG settings. As you can see, DNS filtering is enabled and blacklists have been selected.
The following is the Shallalist advert category selection:
The following is the UT1 advert category selection:
The following shows the efficacy of Ad Blocker enabled when testing at “https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock”.
The following shows the efficacy of Ad Blocker disabled when testing at “https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock”.
The following shows that pfBlockerNG is working with the advert categories.
The results from this very basic test show that the browser-based ad blocker is more effective than the firewall-based ad blocker. But as I stated at the start, this is not a comprehensive test, and it is focused on a very narrow scope/use case.
