I tried installing Surfshark on my router and there’s no option for me to select a protocol except OpenVPN. So when I access a website via an in-app web browser on my phone, all ads started to appear.
But however, if I connect directly from my phone using Surfshark app and access the same website via the in-app browser, those ads don’t appear.
Why is that so?
Hey, thanks for reaching out. The reason you’re seeing ads when using Surfshark on your router but not on your phone app is due to the CleanWeb feature. CleanWeb is a built-in ad and tracker blocker that’s integrated directly into the Surfshark app but isn’t enabled by default when using Surfshark on your router.
To enable CleanWeb on your router, you can change the DNS addresses in your router’s admin panel to Surfshark’s ad-blocking DNS. Set your router’s DNS addresses to 151.236.14.64 and 194.156.228.111. This should help in blocking the ads you’re seeing.
If you need more specific instructions based on your router model, our support team can provide detailed guidance. Feel free to reach out to them at [email protected] or via live chat on our website.
I don’t think router level vpn is supporting to cleanweb feature
Basically, when you connect using the Surfshark app directly on your phone, it handles the additional features, such as CleanWeb, which blocks ads, etc. This also applies to different VPN protocols. The router is simply forwarding traffic via the VPN tunnel, unless you have an advanced configuration where you can add filtering options.
Anyways my tests for the router failed, so I just gotta revert back to installing it on individual devices.
Use pi hole on rasberry
Clear web does not block ads & it breaks things that are not ads. If you guys allowed a block list url in your apps, this would actually improve one’s privacy’s especially on mobile. Work on that, because “clearweb” is honestly a joke.
u/MagnusBaldur1 I have tried that option using the CleanWeb DNS servers provided to me by someone else from SurfShark (151.236.14.64 & 62.216.95.100). Unfortunately, whether it was my WifI 7 router, iPhone, iMac, Macbook Air, SmartTV, security camera DVR, a few smart monitors, or several other devices, none of them were able to use the provided DNS servers after being input manually. The connections were dead for all intents and purposes, as none of the devices could establish a connection with the DNS servers using the addresses provided to me. I had obtained the server addresses to use on devices not capable of running the SurfShark software, and when all of them failed to work using the specified CleanWeb DNS servers that I was given, I experimented with using them on my Apple devices with the VPN turned off (killswitch was also turned off) and none of my devices were able to use the provided DNS servers I listed above.
u/MagnusBaldur1 I just tried it again using the DNS servers that you provided. I tried it using manual DNS entry on my WiFi connection, using a DNS override profile, and at the router level (I tried each separately), and none of the apps on my devices could connect to the Internet. The same was true for non-surfshark app devices. Inputting those manually on my router cut off all internet connections. Any device with those VPN addresses entered manually resulted in the same thing… a dead internet connection.
Do I have to manually enter the clean web DNS addresses after setting up Surfshark as my VPN client? Currently I can confirm that it does indeed use Surfshark’s DNS after setting my DNS to automatic on my router.
Not for me - it’s functioning exactly as they say. The “other things” you say it breaks in my case appear to be images w/embedded links, like to a webpage version of an article, which I don’t miss because you can just click on the title. Clean web is one of surfshark’s biggest sellers for me, especially against obnoxious .APK streaming platforms’ ads.
It blocks Disney+ ads on my Android TV’s.
It would be great if you could reach out directly to our customer support team via email at [email protected], or by joining live-chat on our website regarding this. They will investigate further and provide a more in-depth troubleshooting process.
Same for me, internet stopped working the moment I changed to the DNS provided.
That’s correct - to set up CleanWeb DNS on your router, you would need to choose to enter it manual, instead of keeping it on automatic.