AdguardBrowserExtension VS Navidrome Music Server

Tip: I use Adblock Plus on desktop, and AdGuard on iPhone and iPad.

I've used the AdGuard browser extension for a long time, and like it a lot, but I was browsing the AdGuard website (adguard.com, the official one) and when scrolling through the welcome page, I found a button labeled "Download" instead of "Install" the the rest, now, I have Firefox set to always ask when a website tries to download something, and it's the official AdGuard website, so I figured it was safe to satisfy my curiosity

AdGuard DNS - I found the filtering ability of Covenant Eyes somewhat underwhelming, so instead I use AdGuard DNS. In case you don't know, DNS (Domain Name Server) filtering is incredibly useful for blocking porn. Furthermore, if you pay for AdGuard VPN, you get AdGuard DNS thrown in for free (so you get privacy AND web filtering). AdGuard has other products as well that can be used in conjunction with the VPN and DNS servers. (adguard.com)

I use Firefox with uBlock Origin on the Mac and it works great, but for Safari the best option I've found is AdGuard (https://adguard.com). However, it is nowhere near as effective as uBlock Origin since Safari did the Manifest V3 thing.

Adguard: https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardBrowserExtension/blob/master/README.md

There's nothing that offers all these features and is free. But if you'd like to try Orion browser by Kagi [1], you can install uBlock Origin and many other web extensions for it on Mac, iOS and iPadOS. A paid alternative that is similar (at least for blocking specific elements) is AdGuard [2].

[1]: https://browser.kagi.com/

[2]: https://adguard.com/

Please don't! But if you do decide to use other websites, ensure you have an adblocker/anti-malware protection installed like AdGuard, uBlock Origin, or MalwareBytes, or access the websites via a free VM like VirtualBox, Microsoft's Application Guard, or iOS Safari on iPhone.

I use this, works for apps as well. Never showed an ad on apps. Enjoy ad free streaming. https://adguard.com

If you would like to do the same, install TamperMonkey for Chrome, GreaseMonkey for Firefox, NinjaKit for Safari, Violent Monkey for Opera, or AdGuard for Internet Explorer (in Advanced Mode), then add this GreaseMonkey script.

My primary way to play music is from my self-hosted navidrome[1] server with my collection of albums I've mostly purchased from bandcamp. I can stream it to many different devices at home or on the go.

But sitting next to my bed is a Walkman (actually a $10 Jensen version) with a few of my favorite cassettes in the nightstand drawer. Granted, I listen to raw black metal, so the format fits the music well, but I really enjoy just popping in a cassette and hitting play. When I "metaltate", I listen to full albums and do not want to ever be interrupted or have skipping audio due to bluetooth or anything else. It is a really simple and great experience.

Would I ever take my walkman with me or want to carry around a bunch of tapes on a trip? Of course not! But it does have a time and place that is valuable.

When friends come over, we use either vinyl or my custom built RFID cards. There is more of a ceremony to digging through a physical stack of albums and being forced to listen to the album front to back.

[1] https://www.navidrome.org/

Basically, you run a server on your Mac that scans your music collection and "broadcasts" it to the network (LAN or WAN) via either the venerable UPnP/DLNA[1] family of technologies or the newish Subsonic API[2]. Of course, there are others, like DAAP or AURA, etc..

From there, you need to point a compatible player to said server to play your music on any supported device.

If you want to listen to your music on the go, pairing a Subsonic-compatible server on your Mac and a Subsonic-compatible app on your iPhone is probably the way to go. On the server side, I have only used the original Subsonic[3], which was good, but Navidrome[4] seems to be OK. But be aware that the whole "scene" is super messy and fragmented, with the usual abandoned forks of open source alternatives of everything.

Note that this means opening your local network, which comes with its own complexity.

This r/selfhosted thread[5] should give you an idea.

My use case is slightly different. I only care about streaming to my Denon CEOL mini system, which only supports UPnP/DLNA, so my current setup is:

- All my music is stored on a 2011 Mac Mini,

- I use Kazoo Server[6] (not perfect but reliable) to stream it to my audio system,

- which I control via the HEOS app provided by Denon.

Whatever stack you choose, make sure your files are tagged correctly and consistently.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLNA

[2] http://www.subsonic.org/pages/api.jsp

[3] http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

[4] https://www.navidrome.org/

[5] https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/pz9dpb/lets_mak...

[6] https://docs.linn.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Kazoo_Server_setup_Ma...

[Scanner] Fix Windows scanner (#2633). Thanks @caiocotts

EDIT: This version has a bug when running on Windows that breaks your database! I deleted the Windows binary from the download page and will publish a fix very soon. For details see: https://github.com/navidrome/navidrome/issues/2630

Jellyfin is great for movies & shows. As an anecdote, it's not so good for music if you're a collector. I personally use Navidrome for that[0].

Anyway, Sonarr[1] makes use of .NET, too. Very reliable software, in my experience.

[0]: https://github.com/navidrome/navidrome

I am running ND via the docker container (deluan/navidrome:latest which is 0.49.3 (8b93962f) at the time of this writing) and interact with ND using the web interface.