Ad blocker

Colitu's ad blocker works at the DNS level. The domain names of ad networks and trackers are never resolved, so they cannot load in your browser, apps or games. No extension or extra app is needed.

> Status: The ad-blocking DNS servers are running. The switch in the apps comes with the next Windows and Android releases.

#How to turn it on

1. Open Settings in the Colitu app.
2. Turn on Ad blocking.
3. The app reconnects for a moment. From then on, blocking works as long as you are connected.

To turn it off, switch it off again; the app reconnects once more.

#How it works

• With ad blocking on, all DNS lookups of your device go through the VPN tunnel, encrypted with DNS-over-HTTPS, to Colitu's ad-blocking DNS servers.
• If the name belongs to an ad network or a tracker, the server answers 0.0.0.0. The app can never reach that server.
• Other names resolve normally. Frequent names come from the cache, so pages often open faster.
• Block lists: AdGuard DNS filter and AdAway, about 184 thousand rules in total, updated regularly.
• The servers are in Sweden, the United Kingdom and Poland. If one does not answer, the app moves to the next.

#What it blocks

• Ad networks that serve display and pop-up ads (Google ads, Yandex Advertising, AdFox, Taboola and similar).
• Analytics and tracking services (Google Analytics, Yandex Metrica, Hotjar, TikTok and Mail.ru counters and similar).
• The servers of ad and tracking libraries built into apps.

#What it cannot block

• YouTube ads: they come from the same servers as the video and cannot be told apart at the DNS level.
• In-feed ads: on services such as Instagram, VK or Twitch, ads come from the same address as the content.
• The browser's own DNS: if Secure DNS (DNS-over-HTTPS) is on in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, the browser bypasses the system DNS. Turn it off or set it to automatic.

#Privacy

• Query logs and statistics are off on our ad-blocking DNS servers. Which sites you open is stored nowhere.
• EDNS Client Subnet is off, so no part of your network is passed on to other servers.
• Names not on the lists are asked to Cloudflare and Quad9 over an encrypted connection; they see our server's address, not yours.

#How do I know it works?

The Ad blocking test at colitu.com/tools/ad-block-test shows in a few seconds whether well-known ad and tracker domains are blocked. With ad blocking on, almost every domain should show Blocked.

#Troubleshooting