Masqed Crusader Boosts Your Android Phone’s Browsing Speed With One Tap

Android only: Just because you don’t have a fancy new phone doesn’t mean you can’t eke some more browsing speed out of your phone. Masqed Crusader speeds up your rooted phone by blocking ads, using Google DNS, and more with one tap.

If you’d like a bit more speed out of your mobile browsing, Masqed Crusader is a great way to get it. Just install it and hit “Start the Crusader”. It’ll block all ads as you browse, as well as use Google’s fast DNS servers for loading web sites quicker. It also uses a program called Dnsmasq, which caches your recent DNS lookups for quicker loading of already-visited pages. After installing, I noticed that some pages were loading noticeably faster. It’s a nice addition to the phone, and couldn’t be easier to set up (though it’d be killer if it had advanced options that, say, let you choose your own DNS servers).

Masqud Crusader requires you to be rooted (though it isn’t that hard to do). It also requires Busybox and Dnsmasq to be installed, which come with may rooting methods and custom ROMs. Generally, any ROM that is capable of wireless tethering will already have Dnsmasq installed. To check if you have Busybox, open up a Terminal emulator and type busybox and press Enter. If it comes up with a list of commands, you have it. If it says command not found, you don’t have it. The easiest way to install it is with previously mentioned Titanium Backup, which has an option to install it from the home screen.

Masqed Crusader is a $4.99 download for all rooted Android phones. Note that you’ll have to restart it every time you reboot your phone, and you’ll have to turn it off to use some wireless tethering apps. Still, it’s a one-tap situation, and can be pretty helpful if you browse regularly on your device.

Masqed Crusader