A few gripes about 5.5 (and some older, too)

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So, the phone is a Samsung Galaxy S9+ (SM-GS9650), Android 10/One UI 2.5, stock, and Blokada came from the site.

I’ve been using Blokada for a (long) while now, and these are some of the issues I think are most significant for me:

  1. As previously pointed on github, OpenNIC servers come and go overnight, and since its implementation on Blokada is neither dynamic, nor can be edited manually, shit can and will happen. And as of today, Blokada’s OpenNIC Europe DNS is down.

  2. Independently of the above, there isn’t much indication of who owns the servers, other than from their name, nor about their policies (black list, white list (and what servers), no list? Logs, no logs, “anonymous” logs (and for how long)? Plain DNS, DoH, DoT, DNScrypt? OpenNIC states all that, but then again, you don’t know which of their servers you’re using, so…

  3. You can no longer add a DNS by hand, or, if you still do, I couldn’t find how.

  4. Though the new UI is pleasantly looking, it’s not as easy to navigate as before, and seems to (still?) lack some functionality previously available:
    a. besides manual DNS issue stated above, there seems to be no way to manually add/edit blocked/allowed sites anymore, either. Why?
    b. Filter sublists are not easy to find, and I only discovered them by accident and thought they were gone… should exist some indication there’s more options available for those lists.
    c. There seems to be no way to manually update/refresh DNS, blocklists.

  5. Blocked addresses give no indication of who/what is trying to access them, nor of which list(s)/actual filters are blocking them. At least the last(/few) would be very helpful. These are some of the most well known/used addresses I had to unblock:
    • *.googlevideo.com (YouTube content delivery)
    • s.ytimg.com (same)
    • www.youtube-nocookie.com (same, needed for DDG)
    • client6.google.com (some more Google content)
    • gstatic.com (same)
    • az690879.vo.msecdn.net (Microsoft content)
    • static1.dmcdn.net (Dailymotion video hosting content)
    • s16.tiktokcdn.com (Tiktok content)
    • theync.com (video hosting site)
    • thumbs.theync.com (thumbnails for above)
    • ibb.co (file hosting)
    • stepnation.com (web hosting)
    • mailchi.mp (more hosting)
    • static.parastorage.com (Wix site hosting content)
    • assets.squarespace.com (more site hosting content)
    • static1.squarespace.com (same)
    • imager.imageshack.com (Imageshack image hosting content)
    • assets.tumblr.com (Tumblr content)
    • quantcast.mgr.consensu.org (GDPR consent form for Flickr, Tumblr, etc.)
    • rover.ebay.com (eBay content)
    • sale.aliexpress.com (AliExpress e-commerce)
    • err.taobao.com (same)
    • http2.mlstatic.com (mercadolivre.com.br e-commerce content)
    • static.foxnews.com (Foxnews content)
    • global.fncstatic.com (same)
    • rumble.com (news aggregator)
    • static2.stuff.co.nz (Stuff news site content)
    • apk-dym.v-mate.mobi (Vidmate app update dl)
    • cdn2.downdetector.com (website status check)
    • ridefox.com (shock absorbers mfr)
    • sheldonbrown.com (cycling site)
    • static.timberland.eu (Timberland shoes’ content)
    • forum.xda-cdn.com (need to say anything?)

Plenty more less known, but equally legitimate sites, too, mostly their cdn/static content servers, whose blocking isn’t at all justified by any of the lists below.

My active blocklists:
• Energized Blu, Regional
• Steven Black Unified, Gambling
• Goodbye Ads Standard, YouTube, Samsung, Spotify
• Adaway
• Phishing Army Standard, Extended
• DDG
• Blacklist Adservers
• Exodus Privacy

Other than this, it’s been working pretty much flawlessly ever since.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

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