Blocking Ads

CAUTION:  We do not recommend that the average user blocks ads via DNS.  Only use this feature if you are an advanced, tech-savvy user.

Premium & Patron members gain the ability to automatically block the vast majority of ads for every family member connected to Wi-Fi, assuming you've successfully set up your router to use our Standard DNS Servers. Adjusting your router's DNS is by far the quickest way to block ads for everyone when they're at home, connected to Wi-Fi.

However, we must provide a STRONG caveat against blocking ads from the router level.  Since many websites & streaming services rely on serving ads, they may not work properly if you're blocking ad-serving domains.  This can lead to a lot of headaches where websites don't work or shows won't stream.  Then, it requires a lot of diagnostic work on your part to analyze your Real Time DNS requests and figure out which blocked domain is causing the problem.  Then there's the issue of "caching" where your TV or device might have cached the old response to your DNS request and won't respond immediately to the fact that you've now whitelisted the domain that was blocked.

A far better way to block ads would be on individual devices or computers, by setting up "Secure DNS" (DNS over TLS/HTTPS) on each device or by downloading the iOS profile onto iOS devices.

Watch this video for an example of what it looks like when ads are blocked.