What gets blocked
Bancuh DNS is a strict family filter. It blocks far more than ads, and the same rules apply to everyone: there are no accounts or per-user settings. If you need something different, you can run your own with a blocklist you choose.
The list is rebuilt every day from the sources in the configuration file, so it follows those lists as they’re updated.
Categories
Section titled “Categories”| Category | Examples of what’s blocked |
|---|---|
| Ads & tracking | Ad networks, analytics and tracking services, disguised (CNAME-cloaked) trackers, ads and telemetry on smart TVs and phones |
| Security | Malware, phishing, scams, hacked sites, stalkerware and spyware, cryptojacking, typo-squatting and domains registered in the last 30 days |
| Adult content | Pornography, shock and gore sites |
| Gambling | Betting, casino and lottery sites |
| Dating | Dating sites and apps |
| Drugs & vaping | Sites selling drugs or vaping products |
| Piracy | Torrent sites, torrent trackers and torrent client downloads |
| Crypto | Cryptocurrency exchanges and related services |
| Filter bypasses | VPN and proxy providers, Tor, and other public DNS services such as Google, Cloudflare and Quad9 DNS |
There are also regional ad lists for Iran, Turkey, Korea, Sweden and Hungary.
SafeSearch
Section titled “SafeSearch”Search engines are forced into their safe mode at the DNS level, so it can’t be turned off in the search engine’s own settings:
| Search engine | Redirected to |
|---|---|
| Google (all country domains) | forcesafesearch.google.com |
| Bing | strict.bing.com |
| DuckDuckGo | safe.duckduckgo.com |
| Brave Search | safesearch.brave.com |
Search engines that can’t enforce SafeSearch are blocked.
YouTube is not restricted, but many of its ad domains are blocked. Ads served from the same servers as the videos can’t be blocked by DNS, so some YouTube ads will still play.
What isn’t blocked
Section titled “What isn’t blocked”Common services that blocklists tend to break by accident are explicitly allowed, including Google, Microsoft and Windows Update, Facebook and Instagram, Blogspot, Brave and status pages. General social media, streaming and messaging, such as YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Discord and Netflix, work normally.
What a blocked lookup looks like
Section titled “What a blocked lookup looks like”A blocked domain answers with the address 0.0.0.0 (or :: for IPv6), or
“domain not found”. Browsers show a connection error rather than a block page,
because there’s no server at that address to show one.
The easiest way to see what was blocked is your own
query logs: any answer of 0.0.0.0 is a block.
Something is blocked that shouldn’t be
Section titled “Something is blocked that shouldn’t be”Open an issue on GitHub with the domain name, which you can copy from your query logs, and what stopped working. Allowlist fixes apply to everyone once the next daily update runs.
Until then, see using a site that’s blocked for a per-device workaround.
Who chooses the lists
Section titled “Who chooses the lists”The source list started small, and has been tuned over the years with the help of community contributors, most of all Tomatoide, who put together much of the current selection. Suggestions for new sources are welcome as GitHub issues.