Hacker News Reader

Comment by LeoPanthera | Hacker News Reader

You can hack one of these together yourself. Buy a VPS. Install pi-hole on it. Set it up as a VPN server.[1]

Install OpenVPN Connect on your iPhone and connect to your new server and bam, you have an awesome VPN and ad-blocking combo.

[1]: https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/wiki/Pi-hole---OpenVPN-se...

View on HN

This is probably the way to go, you just have to worry about data limits and overages, plus the extra latency. Probably not the biggest deal for mobile, though.

This is a good workaround to a problem that shouldn't exist. I feel it's important to clarify this is certainly not more secure than using a client-side solution that doesn't involve duplicating bandwidth.

(Full disclosure I make an iOS app that is also likely going to be affected by these rules, so I am triggered)

I would pay for this.

How much?

I’ll bite: how about $10 per year, less than what I’d pay for a VPN service, but more than “free” which is what I pay to run a pi-hole like service for my local LAN only. If I were in charge of one of these existing VPN services I’d offer ad blocking as an upgrade.

The service is literally a VPN with an extra ad blocking service. Why would you pay less for that?

Depends on whether the VPN service also came with the same privacy assurances that the more costly competing VPN services offer.

How does a third party VPN that intercepts all of your data have any privacy assurance?

Well, an unlimited bandwidth vps should run less than $100/year, so a dozen users and you make a profit.

Who's in?

5 maybe 10 USD a month

Reply on news.ycombinator.com