Pi-hole

[peterperkins]

As some may know Google is planning to break ad blocking for Chrome in due course.
So things like ad blocker, ublock origin etc etc will fall over and we will be deluged with ste..

I've been reading about the cleverly named 'Pi-hole' project and would welcome PH IT Gurus inputs on it for us mere Windows mortals.

https://docs.pi-hole.net/

What's the best cheapest hardware to run it on?
Any setup tips?
Is it any good?

Thanks for any input..

[hutchst]

I run it on raspberry Pi. Cheap as chips and 100% reliable.

[EmmaJ]

Pi-hole is great. It was awesome when it blocked ads in YouTube but unfortunately it doesn’t anymore at least not on the version I’m on. Saying that I’ve not run an update for a few months.

Give it a try, network wide ad blocking on your home network is very cool and super simple to do with Pi-hole.

[outnumbered]

A dedicated RPi is the easiest way to run it. I use it, and it's great. However, like all ad-blockers it can occasionally stop websites working properly (e.g. e-commerce sites), so you sometimes need to remember to turn it off when you're getting mystifying results...

[peterperkins]

Could anyone recommend exact hardware (part numbers etc) and software to run on it.
I'm a Linux virgin

[Paper Lawyer]

I have an original raspberry pi doing the task as of a fortnight ago - dead easy to set up following this link:

https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/pi-hole-tutorial...

Works a treat in my network

[TheAngryDog]

I run it on a VM. As said, doesn't seem to block YouTube ads and doesn't block FB ads either.

I use Brave Browser as well which has built in ad block. Hopefully it doesn't get broken as well

[EmmaJ]

peterperkins said:

Could anyone recommend exact hardware (part numbers etc) and software to run on it.
I'm a Linux virgin

A Pi starter kit like https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-3b-plus...

Or something similar from Amazon will do the job. Cheaper options are available if you are on a budget. All you’ll need in addition to the Pi starter kit is a USB keyboard and mouse and you only need them plugged in whilst you do the setup. That’s assuming you can plug the Pi into your TV via HDMI to do the setup.

Good luck. You won’t believe how clean pages look without all the ads!

[ARHarh]

I run it on a pi3 along side openhab which controls my home automation. been running without any issues since September when i set it up. Just get a pi starter kit and set it up following a youtube guide. Easy

[thebraketester]

You can buy a rpi with pi hole already setup on it so you just plug it in and change he dns settings and you are sorted.

[hutchst]

I run it on a Pi 2. It's cheaper and I'm more comfortable having it next to the router with a short Ethernet cable rather than wireless. I think you can even run it on a Pi Zero which costs about a fiver. The instructions for a Pi are really simple, there are plenty of YouTube videos out there.

It's been mentioned already that it does sometimes obstruct webpages from loading, but it has timed disable options on the gui as long as you know the IP address you can temporarily disable it for a few minutes from any device on the network. If you've got too much time on your hands you can even blacklist and whitelist sites to improve its performance.

I have that, and a network-wide VPN set up on the router, and I'm bloody sure that GCHQ is still reading this even before I've typed it.

Edited by hutchst on Friday 31st May 07:57

[robbieduncan]

What hardware do you already have? I am running it in Docker on a Synology NAS. If you have a NAS (or other permanently on device) that supports Docker this is a pretty easy way to go

[BigTZ4M]

I run mine in a docker container but a Raspberry Pi is the easiest and simplest.

They key to how well it runs is how well you've tuned it with blocklists and whitelists, not the actual software itself. If it gives you a head start the following blacklists I use give well over a million domains blocked:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host...
https://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/justdomai...
http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts
https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/blocklist.php?downloa...
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simpl...
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simpl...
https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt
https://hosts-file.net/grm.txt
https://reddestdream.github.io/Projects/MinimalHos...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host...
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/static/w3kbl.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/BillStearns.txt
http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/BarbBl...
https://www.dshield.org/feeds/suspiciousdomains_Lo...
https://www.joewein.net/dl/bl/dom-bl-base.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matomo-org/refer...
https://hostsfile.org/Downloads/hosts.txt
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/zero/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Dawsey21/Lists/m...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vokins/yhosts/ma...
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Kowabit.txt
https://hostsfile.mine.nu/hosts0.txt
https://adblock.mahakala.is/
https://adaway.org/hosts.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/AdguardDNS.txt
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simpl...
https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Easylist.txt
https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?host...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/CKs-Fi...
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Easyprivacy.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Ads.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quidsup/notrack/...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crazy-max/Window...
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Airelle-trc.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/Canvas...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/WebRTC...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/Audio-...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CHEF-KOCH/Canvas...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleB...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleB...
https://zerodot1.gitlab.io/CoinBlockerLists/hosts
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simpl...
https://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/justdomai...
https://hosts-file.net/exp.txt
https://hosts-file.net/emd.txt
https://hosts-file.net/psh.txt
https://mirror.cedia.org.ec/malwaredomains/immorta...
https://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts....
https://bitbucket.org/ethanr/dns-blacklists/raw/85...
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Malware.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Phishing.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quidsup/notrack/...
https://ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch/downloads/RW_DO...
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Shalla-mal.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/host...
https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/blocklist.php?downloa...
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Airelle-hrsk.txt

That is quite aggressive though so you'll find some stuff you want doesn't work. When that happens you need to look at the logs as soon as you notice something not working and whitelist whatever it is that is being blocked. Ifound after a month of usage and tuning the whitelist it then works well and doesn't need to be touched, just the lists updated once in a while.

As well as the niceties of ITV Hub skipping over adverts with no intervention and newspaper websites becoming readable, the biggest benefit we've found is just how much snappier our internet experience is. Over 55% of internet requests being made out of our home are now blocked and it just makes everything quicker.

[Somebody]

I have 2 instances running on 2 Pi's for redundancy, just in case one falls over when I'm not at home and the rest of the household is screaming for lack of internet.

[budgie smuggler]

Is anyone using Pi-Hole in DHCP server mode?

My router is a HH5, so I can't change the DNS directly and will need to move DHCP duties to the Pi instead.

[nmd87]

peterperkins said:

As some may know Google is planning to break ad blocking for Chrome in due course.
So things like ad blocker, ublock origin etc etc will fall over and we will be deluged with ste..

I've been reading about the cleverly named 'Pi-hole' project and would welcome PH IT Gurus inputs on it for us mere Windows mortals.

https://docs.pi-hole.net/

What's the best cheapest hardware to run it on?
Any setup tips?
Is it any good?

Thanks for any input..

You can get Ublock Origin on Microsoft Edge browser now. I've been using and it's pretty good. Certainly as good as Chrome.

[budgie smuggler]

nmd87 said:

You can get Ublock Origin on Microsoft Edge browser now. I've been using and it's pretty good. Certainly as good as Chrome.

Edge is (or will shortly) be based on Chromium's browser engine. I would think therefore that Ublock and similar will break in the same way they will on Chrome.

Hopefully Firefox will not be affected, although it's a completely unrelated engine they do IIRC follow the same plugin API.

[Paper Lawyer]

BigTZ4M said:

I run mine in a docker container but a Raspberry Pi is the easiest and simplest.

They key to how well it runs is how well you've tuned it with blocklists and whitelists, not the actual software itself. If it gives you a head start the following blacklists I use give well over a million domains blocked:

.....

That is quite aggressive though so you'll find some stuff you want doesn't work. When that happens you need to look at the logs as soon as you notice something not working and whitelist whatever it is that is being blocked. Ifound after a month of usage and tuning the whitelist it then works well and doesn't need to be touched, just the lists updated once in a while.

As well as the niceties of ITV Hub skipping over adverts with no intervention and newspaper websites becoming readable, the biggest benefit we've found is just how much snappier our internet experience is. Over 55% of internet requests being made out of our home are now blocked and it just makes everything quicker.

I am running open media vault on my own DIY nas for a few years and started using dockers last month for syncthing and plex (although I've since moved plex onto a my more powerful windows-based 24/7 i7 PC which runs Blue Iris for my CCTV).

I have considered using pi-hole as a docker but conscious that disconnecting the NAS for maintainence (e.g. recent upgrade of hard drive capacity) would knock out internet access unless I logged into my Unifi Security Gateway to change the DNS settings in advance. Plus I had two spare old Pis lying around so it gave me an excuse to use one of them

Keen to understanding which of those blacklists knock out the ITV ads as I'm currently simply relying on the default blacklists from the installation process I linked in my earlier post. Do you know which blacklist in particular stops ITV ads?

[paulrockliffe]

I'm running it in a Docker on an UnRaid server, it blocks adverts on YouTube no problem. Well, you still get the outline of the advert overlaid on the video, but you don't get the adverts.

Currently having some odd issues with Facebook where it won't load comments or anything you have to click through to and some times the feed goes funny, but the android app is useless, so it's as likely to be that.

[feef]

I've just been using this to modify my hosts file to block traffic from ad sites

https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

I've had to tweak it a little to whitelist some CDNs that are used for legitimate content which serve some ad stuff so end up in the list, but on the whole, it's a very effective method for a single device.