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I have a rather peculiar #Android problem.
- I use personalDNSfilter (zenz-solutions.de/personaldnsf…) to block ads system-wide. It's basically like running a local pi-hole using a local VPN.
- I would also like to use Orbot (#Tor) and run some apps (specifically Nextcloud) that don't natively support proxying through Orbot's VPN.

The problem is, Android won't let me run two VPNs at the same time. And blocking ads without a VPN would require rooting my phone, which I don't want to do. However:
- personalDNSfilter can expose the DNS server on port 5300 without using the VPN (which is useless in itself).
- Orbot can expose its HTTP and SOCKS proxy without using the VPN (which is also useless in itself).

Is there some way to setup a custom VPN that would combine these two things, i.e., let me route some apps through Orbot's proxy and use the local DNS server (provided by personalDNSfilter) at port 5300? I was looking at OpenVPN for Android (github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn), but I'm honestly really confused. Help please? 😅 Boosts appreciated.

GitHub - schwabe/ics-openvpn: OpenVPN for Android

OpenVPN for Android. Contribute to schwabe/ics-openvpn development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
#android #tor
in reply to Radomír Žemlička

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Jiří Eischmann

I was figuring out a similar problem and in the end I settled on running my own DNS filtering outside the device (AdGuard Home on my server) and setting it as the private DNS in Android. The advantage of this solution is that you can cover all your devices in your household with it. And I still get to run whatever VPN I want on my phone.
Unknown parent

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Radomír Žemlička

@def Well, bypassing apps didn't do much. I also tried to update it and the DNS splitting probably works (it skips my filters in proxied apps) but it still fails on .onion domains. (Note that when i run Orbot in VPN mode and route apps through it, it works fine, so Orbot DNS server is not the problem.)

On the other hand, I managed to configure Firefox to use the Orbot proxy directly (for .onion domains only), so I can continue using personalDNSfilter in VPN mode. It doesn't really help with native apps that don't let you configure proxy (like Nextcloud), but at least I can use PWAs through Firefox. I would like to have automatic backup of photos (and this requires the native app), but I can probably figure out something else (maybe Syncthing).

@Tomáš Odehnal
in reply to Radomír Žemlička

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Radomír Žemlička

@def Okay, more progress. It seems that both DAVx5 (davx5.com) and Round-Sync (roundsync.com/) support connecting to a WebDAV server (including Nextcloud) through a user-configurable proxy (including Orbot). So problem solved, I guess. 😄

CalDAV, CardDAV and WebDAV for Android

DAVx⁵ is a CalDAV/CardDAV management and sync app for Android. It also provides access to your WebDAV Cloud files.
www.davx5.com
@Tomáš Odehnal
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Radomír Žemlička

@def Well, I'm (slowly 😄) setting up a home server with Nextcloud, but my network doesn't have a public IP. And even if it did, I wouldn't want to just expose the server directly to the internet. So I have two options:
1) Use some WireGuard provider like Tailscale or Netbird. (I don't really like the idea of giving some random company access to my server though. Also, it would be problematic to set up since I want to continue using Android's VPN slot for ad blocking.)
2) Use Tor and expose the server as a hidden service.
I don't know, is it that weird? Maybe there's a better solution and I just can't see it. 😅
@Tomáš Odehnal
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