Pi-Hole: Ad blocking at the network level

[peterb]

ik9000 - got it working yet?

[Firejack]

Has anyone tried running this in a VM? Is there any good reason not to?

I used too but had some problems with Pihole breaking something in dnsmesq on my Ubuntu VM. Now use the Official Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/r/pihole/pihole/

Hardly uses any resources on my unRAID server and has been running for months without issue

[ik9000]

ik9000 - got it working yet?

nope! It rattles around in the box so I'm ordering some screws. And the lack of heatsink makes me feel.... wrong. But the main reason for the lag is I've barely been in.

It's been interesting to read more about how it works. If I've read it right (and it's quite possible I haven't) but it sounds like you're essentially routing your traffic through their site and via their selected DNS server (which is 3rd party) but they get all the usage stats information. So that's a lot of data they can mine. (NB you need a paid account to not have as much of the tracking - but then everything is linked to your account, which is arguably worse).

It also loses the filtering you get with, say, openDNS if you apply their content filtering. It seems to me like you'd be better manually updating the block list onto your own piece of kit which filters it before it goes off to openDNS or whoever. Or have I missed something?

[peterb]

nope! It rattles around in the box so I'm ordering some screws. And the lack of heatsink makes me feel.... wrong. But the main reason for the lag is I've barely been in.

It's been interesting to read more about how it works. If I've read it right (and it's quite possible I haven't) but it sounds like you're essentially routing your traffic through their site and via their selected DNS server (which is 3rd party) but they get all the usage stats information. So that's a lot of data they can mine. (NB you need a paid account to not have as much of the tracking - but then everything is linked to your account, which is arguably worse).

It also loses the filtering you get with, say, open DNS if you apply their content filtering. It seems to me like you'd be better manually updating the block list onto your own piece of kit which filters it before it goes off to openDNS or whoever. Or have I missed something?

You have missed something. It intercepts DNS calls to your normal DNS server - filters out the DNS calls to ad servers - then routes the calls to your normal DNS server.

So lets say your PC uses open DNS. You set your PC to use the Pi as the DNS server, and the PI to use open DNS. You click on a link to <some ad ridden sight> which generates a lot of DNS calls - some to the useful content - others to various adservers.

The Pi returns a bland pixel to your PC for each adserver call, but otherwise drops it. The call to the content gets forwarded to open DNS in the normal way.

If your router acts as a DNS relay, you set it to point to the Pi so that all devices on your network benefits from DNS filtering. You can also add filters to any website manually so if you want to stop anyone accessing (say) Facebook - just add facebook.com to the blacklist.

Surprised it is rattling in the box - but I used a box from RS. You only need a heatsink if you are generating a lot of heat. The Pi doesnt with a total power consumption of < 10 watts!

You don't need to put in the box to get it working though - just place it on a bit of card and connect it up!

[jimborae]

My Pi kit arrives tomorrow so hopefully will have some time over the weekend to get this up & running and see how well it works. Always wanted a Pi to play around with and now this is a good excuse!

[Gerrard]

My kit has just arrived, so I'll have a play with it over the weekend and get this set up.

[MLyons]

Make sure to white list HEXUS

[jimborae]

Make sure to white list HEXUS

Scouts honour promise that I will. i.e. it will teach me how to white list sites as I'm sure there will be others I need to whitelist.

[Gerrard]

The command to whitelist is: -

pihole -w forums.hexus.net

Although interestingly, the ad banner at the top still showed on the main forums regardless, but adding the whitelist enabled the one to my right of this reply box and an ad banner to the top in threads.

The web interface says my pi is currently as 48°C. I guess that's fine? It's in a case I got from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-P...dp/B01CI5879A/

[spacein_vader]

The command to whitelist is: -

pihole -w forums.hexus.net

Although interestingly, the ad banner at the top still showed on the main forums regardless, but adding the whitelist enabled the one to my right of this reply box and an ad banner to the top in threads.

The web interface says my pi is currently as 48°C. I guess that's fine? It's in a case I got from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-P...dp/B01CI5879A/

That's fine temp wise. Mine tends to sit somewhere around 45-50c.

You can add to the whitelist through the webUI as well.

If the banner showed before it was probably because it was hosted directly by hexus rather than an ad syndicate.

[jimborae]

The command to whitelist is: -

pihole -w forums.hexus.net

Although interestingly, the ad banner at the top still showed on the main forums regardless, but adding the whitelist enabled the one to my right of this reply box and an ad banner to the top in threads.

The web interface says my pi is currently as 48°C. I guess that's fine? It's in a case I got from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-P...dp/B01CI5879A/

Yeah the ad in the banner shows for me too as does the one to right of my reply box (corsair ad) and i've not done the white list yet, but will do it in a min now you've kindly given me the command.

[peterb]

Make sure to white list HEXUS

I found I didn't need to expicilty whitelist HEXUS - it worked as is out of the box (I did play with blacklisting the HEXUS ad server when I was in the 'lets fddlewith it" mode) and then removed it.

HEXUS ads are not intrusive anyway.

And to repeat an earlier post

Just one thought

Many web sites rely on adverts to keep running. That includes HEXUS. Long term, the widespread use of these may result in more paywall websites and a reduction in content.

With regard to HEXUS, the advertising is not particularly intrusive, so you might like to whitelist the HEXUS adservers.

(But as stated earlier, they don't seem to be blacklisted anyway)

[Gerrard]

Would it actually matter in this case, or even be a bit better than just using Adblock? The site still thinks it's showing adverts via pi-hole and therefore would count as a view but would detect it being blocked via Adblock. So if I disable Adblock as I no longer need it, more sites would think they are getting views, even though I have no intention on clicking on any even if I saw them.

[peterb]

Would it actually matter in this case, or even be a bit better than just using Adblock? The site still thinks it's showing adverts via pi-hole and therefore would count as a view but would detect it being blocked via Adblock. So if I disable Adblock as I no longer need it, more sites would think they are getting views, even though I have no intention on clicking on any even if I saw them.

The calls to the ad server are blocked by Pi-hole so the ads are never served - so it won't count as a view.

[Gerrard]

Of course, I was getting it backwards. I guess websites pick up Adblocker with a script that detects when the calls aren't made then.

[ik9000]

pi up and running - and that rattle... there are 4 clips on one side of the case. You need to swing the board in at an angle, then shuggle it a bit - and make sure the sd card isn't rolling around the case. That last bit is key.

any point installing ufw and/or fail2ban before reaching for pihole?
https://www.raspberrypi.org/document...on/security.md