Nah, that’s all normal. It’s then up to you to allow whatever is being blocked and keeping an app from connecting properly. Tracker Control is doing its job. Get familiar with how it works. For instance, for NewPipe you’ll see i.ytimage.com is blocked. That handles the images. Just flip the switch in the NewPipe section where that is being blocked (Uncategorized I think). Images and videos should then work.
In its Settings -> Options you can turn off Strict Blocking. It should then allow (not block) so-called Essential trackers.
Okay I did that but NewPipe still can’t load anything. So what about the main switch at the top left of the app? Is that a kills switch for all apps? Do I turn it off and rely on the per-app controls instead?
Alright, that’s clear now, but it wasn’t intuitive. I thought disabling the top switch would throw gates wide open.
About TC being a VPN, it is a local VPN I understand. But it’s not a VPN in the sense of Proton VPN right? I heard it’s not possible to use both TC and a VPN at the same time. Is that correct?
Yes, that’s correct, sadly.
I messed around with using TC with other items but they were still local VPNs. So yeah, if using a “normal” VPN you can’t use TC.
Nice, but what is wrong with sponsor ads? I guess it is okay to watch a sponsor add to support the video content creator. If a content creator places to many ads for my liking, i simply don’t watch the video. But maybe i miss something here.
Nothing really wrong with the ads. There’s this one my friend sends regularly and sometimes the sponsor ads are smack in the middle of the video, sometimes quite long. That’s when it comes in handy.
There’s a color indicator in the progress bar giving an indication where and how long the “interruption” is.
The sponsorblock options can be turned on/off as desired. At least having it as a choice is cool.
For a Linux, Windows Raspberry Pi solution, you could have a look at Adguard Home which is similar I think to PiHole or for an off site alternative Adguard DNS
Thank you, but it seems to be like Pi-hole, i’m looking for a client-side software. I could filter with a firewall, but i would like to filter DNS requests like Pi-hole but on the client-side. Pi-hole and such solutions are great for networks you can contol, but i would like to have the filter running on my individual system, because i use my laptops on different networks which not have DNS request filters.
I could use a VPN service or DNS servers which offer filtering, but i would like to configure the filter myself and not relay on a provider.
I could also setup VPN on my devices to browse the web over my private connection, but i have bad upload rates on my private internet connection. It would be possible to setup VPN profiles for my devices to only use the VPN for DNS queries, but this needs some fiddling which i was hoping to prevent.
A bit late on the topic i guess, but it’s such a interesting one, that i almost read the 151 posts. Mind if i ask one thing? I just downloaded TrackerControl, and i like how simple and intuitive it is, it gave me the info i want, and also blocked the trackers. My doubt is, before, i was using ProtonVPN, which on my browser hides my IP, which on Tracker, doesn’t seem to happen. Why is that? When browsing, should i keep using ProtonVPN instead? Also, i got interested on what you said:
Any tutorial on how can i do that? I use a TP-Link router. Cheers.
Im curious about that as well, since my IP stays the same when i browse with TC. I might be wrong, but right now, my plan is to use ProtonVPN when browsing, and TC when using Apps.
It is a local VPN to be able to catch the data and block it. All non root “blockers” use this technique. It does not hide your IP like an “external” VPN service like proton VPN. There is also Blokada plus, that app.does both, block and hide tour IP. It s not free. https://blokada.org/#vpns
I had a look on Blokada, it’s very interesting, and even have a community, but 4 Euros, in my countries money, i won’t say it’s expensive, but, if you get a year package, in the end you would have bought something that you might need more nowadays. Maybe another time, i will try it for 6 months, but for now, im sticking with Proton + TC. They work well together, or so it seems.
Wow, what an amazing app TC is. I love what it does, and how it gives you the tracking information but ALSO such granular control of each tracker within each app. Very nice!
The REAL problem I see is that it makes me choose BETWEEN using TC and blocking all the tracking OR my VPN service to stop my ISP (mobile provider) from seeing EVERY connection my phone makes. I SO wish you could have both…
But maybe i miss something here.