#pihole

[raspbian-official]

help i updated arch and now it won't properly connect to my pi-hole

[hillbillyoracle]

Any advice for setting up a PiHole to block ads? Got Ublock on phone/computer, but can't do that for the console that we run media / big screen YouTube through.

Oh man I wish, I know nothing about setting up Pihole.

The server and everything on it is my qpp's domain.

From conversing with her, it was not a difficult project. She installed the program and followed the documentation for it to a tee and it does indeed work pretty well. Won't catch absolutely everything but majorly cuts down on it.

I'm hoping to put together a resource at some point about the basics of making and running small servers at home - I'm in the process of putting my own together to learn. I'm hoping then I'll have more I can offer on the subject.

[accidentallyanarchist]

Pi-hole Setup & Usage Guide

Howdy howdy! Finally getting around to making this guide for folks who want to see less ads on their internet browsing. To put it simply, a Pi-hole is a customizable network-level ad and tracker blocker. This is gonna be a long post, but I hope you find it helpful!

(Current as of posting date Nov. 4th, 2024)

Main site: Pi-hole.net

(Instructions below the readmore)

Jargon Overview

This section is a quick review of the computer jargon I'll be using to talk about this project. I don't want to assume any particular level of background knowledge, so if this is over explaining or you know what I'm talking about, feel free to skip this section.

Hardware- The physical computer parts. If you can touch it, it's hardware.

Software- The programs that the computer runs on its hardware.

OS- Operating system; the software that acts as the stage for all other programs the computer runs.

Flashing/Imaging software- Flashing or imaging describes writing a program to a storage medium (like an SD card or USB drive) so that it runs the program when it's plugged in.

IP Address- A string of numbers that acts as your computer's name on a network.

VNC- A desktop sharing system that allows remote control of a computer.

DNS- A protocol that allows computers to translate website names to IP addresses. (more information at https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-dns/)

Materials Needed

A computer with an ethernet port to act as the server for the Pi-hole; traditionally a Raspberry Pi, but it doesn't have to be. You can use an old laptop if you've got one lying around. I would recommend using this computer only for a Pi-hole, at least at first.

Another computer to flash software & remote access the Pi-hole

A way to flash the Raspberry Pi OS onto the computer. For a typical Pi this is a micro SD card, for another computer, maybe a bootable USB drive.

Software to flash the OS onto the card AKA Imaging software- I personally use the Raspberry Pi Imager

An ethernet cable

Admin access to your wifi network

This guide will be using a Raspberry Pi 4 for the hardware, a micro SD card & USB SD card drive to flash the OS, and Raspberry Pi Imager as the flashing software.

Part One: Setup

Steps in this section:

Make a bootable storage medium (SD card or USB drive)

Connect your Pi-hole computer to the router via ethernet cable

Boot the OS

Enable VNC in settings (optional, but recommended)

Install VNC software on other computer (optional)

Set a static IP address for the Pi-hole computer

Reboot, and check if VNC is working

Step 1: Make a bootable storage medium

Download a flashing software to your non Pi-hole computer (recommended: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/) and open it

Plug your SD card or USB drive into your non Pi-hole computer

Select the appropriate options, most importantly, select Raspberry Pi OS (64 or 32 bit) for the second option. (If you're not using a Raspberry Pi computer, select No Filtering for the first option), and click Next

Click No for the customization settings (it doesn't affect the functionality of the Pi-hole), and Yes to erase the data on the drive & begin flashing it with the software.

Step 2: Connect your Pi-hole computer to the router via an ethernet cable

DON'T connect the power, just plug it into the router.

Step 3: Boot the OS

Once the SD card/USB drive is done writing & verifying (the software will tell you when it's done), unplug it from the non Pi-hole computer, and plug it into the Pi-hole computer. Turn on the Pi-hole computer, and allow the OS to boot up. This may take several minutes.

(If you're booting from a flash drive, some helpful tips on how to do it properly can be found here https://www.digitalcitizen.life/boot-your-windows-10-pc-usb-flash-drive/)

Step 4: Enable VNC in Settings (Optional)

VNC will allow you to remotely access and control the Pi-hole when you're on the same wifi network. I highly recommend VNC, as it removes the need to have a screen, mouse, and keyboard for the Pi-hole.

Go into Preferences (top left corner menu) and then Raspberry Pi Configuration

Go to the interfaces tab, and turn on VNC, and click OK

Step 5: Install VNC Software onto non Pi-hole computer (Optional)

VNC software on the non Pi-hole computer is a necessity to remotely connect.

I recommend RealVNC https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/

Step 6: Set a static IP for the Pi-hole

Setting a static IP does two things:

It allows much easier connection via VNC, since the IP of the computer stays the same

It allows you to input the Pi-hole's IP into your wifi settings to ensure that your devices are all using the Pi-hole

Click on the wifi information on the top bar, and select Advanced Options, and then Edit Connections at the bottom of the drop down

Select the ethernet (wired) connection, and then the settings icon at the bottom

Go the IPv4 tab, and change the connection method to Manual

Input your chosen IP address (will usually look something like 192.168.X.XX), the netmask (usually 24), and the gateway address (your router's IP address, can be found on your router's login page), and click Add. Then click Save.

More on selecting an IP address can be found here:

Set static IP for Raspberry Pi: https://raspberrytips.com/set-static-ip-address-raspberry-pi/

How to find your router's IP address: https://www.howtogeek.com/233952/how-to-find-your-routers-ip-address-on-any-computer-smartphone-or-tablet/

Reboot the Pi-hole for the changes to take effect.

Step 7: Check if VNC is working (Optional)

Open RealVNC on your non Pi-hole computer

In the bar at the top, input the static IP from step 6, and click Connect. This should open up a remote desktop of your Pi-hole.

Part Two: Installation

Steps in this section:

Install the Pi-hole software

Access the web interface

Step 1: Install the Pi-hole software

Open the terminal (the icon with the carat and line in the upper left corner of the screen), and type

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

PLEASE read the github page (https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-install) for more information

Follow the installation steps in the installer

Select eth0 (ethernet/wired) connection

Select any DNS provider you'd like; I personally use OpenDNS (cause fuck google), but any option should work

Select Yes to install the basic block list

Select Yes to install the web interface

Select Yes to install additional packages for the web interface

Select Yes to enable logging, and select any option you'd like for privacy.

When everything is done installing, take a picture of the final screen. This screen has your web interface address and initial web interface login password. We'll change it in the next step.

Step 2: Access the web interface

On your non Pi-hole computer, open a web browser, and type in the IP address from the last screen on the Pi-hole set up

Enter the password from the last screen, it should open the web interface

Let's change the login password to something that we want. Open RealVNC and open the Pi-hole desktop. Open another terminal window, and in the command line, type:

pihole -a -p [newpassword]

Replace [newpassword] with whatever you want your web login password to be

Congrats! You now have a Pi-hole on your network. Let's make sure that your other computers will use it.

Part Three: Customization

Steps in this section:

Changing router DNS settings to make sure it's using the Pi-hole

Adding blocklists

Step 1: Changing router DNS settings

Go to your router's login page (type the IP address of your router into the search bar in your web browser) and log in.

NOTE: I'm using a Netgear router, different interfaces might function slightly different. I'd recommend a web search on how to do this for your particular brand of router.

Go to the Internet tab, and scroll down till you find the Domain Name Server settings. Select Use These DNS Settings, and input your Pi-hole's IP address into the selection box. Select Apply, and wait for changes to take effect.

Step 2: Adding blocklists

Blocklists are how the Pi-hole determines what to block on your network. The basic list that's added in the install is pretty good, and you don't have to add any other lists. I personally use the list set below:

https://v.firebog.net/hosts/AdguardDNS.txt

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_ad.txt

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_tracking.txt

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/SmartTV.txt

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

To add these to the Pi-hole, copy the links above, and go to the web interface. Click on Adlists in the left column, and paste the above links into the Address box.

Update the Pi-hole gravity list by opening RealVNC, opening the Pi-hole desktop and terminal window, and typing:

pihole -g

Click enter, and wait for the lists to update

And that's basically it! Congratulations on your new Pi-hole! Please feel free to DM me / send an ask if you have any questions about any of the steps above.

[dragonflyvt]

DNS Raspberry Pi hole

The amount of traffic on a network has always fascinated me. I know when you set up a new Windows PC on of the first things it dose is send out a message looking for anything out their. Looking to connect and discover what kind of network its on and where it can go.

This is neat and all, but it leads to a few other things. Watching my network, using Wireshark I cant but help and see all the things trying to get into my network. This is normal, but what got me was the amount trying to get out of my network.

Now I am not talking about the normal request, like when you use Youtube, or any website. I am taking about my smart TV sending messages out. My kids tablet, sending packets out when its in sleep mode. Worst of all my ISP keeps sending packets back and forth, that have nothing to do with my internet.

Inside all of these packets is nothing but information on me and my family. Our watching habits, things we like. All being sent to advertisers. Well I needed to put a stop to this.

So I did some looking around and found out about Pihole. Its a DNS server set up by a group of people who had the same problem I had. So they set up this DNS server that runs on a Raspberry Pi.

Well after some research, I had to have this and I found a very good guide to set things up.

After following along. Soon everything was set up and I was already seeing results. All those pesky packets stopped, in the GUI I can see everything that was being blocked and everything that was getting through. The only thing I wish it would do is block the adds on Youtube, but that would mean blocking all of Youtube as they send the adds through there domain.

So yes I would recommend this, if you have a raspberry pi laying around.

[sunbentshadows]

Just remember kids, 30~50% of the internet traffic into your household is advertising:

[unbenchthekench]

Got any good resources on setting up pihole? (competence level: generally high, but unfamiliar with raspberry pi)

So this won’t be a comprehensive guide because I am dumb as fuck. But if a smoothbrain like me can figure it out and have a pihole ready to go, then any one can.

My main resource I used were these guides from Tom’s Hardware and Privacy international. The offical Pi-Hole site also has a damn good guide to help you get set up from what you need to what to do.

What you need first is a Raspberry Pi with at least 512 MB of RAM, which all of them have. You can buy one from here or you can check out Raspberrypi.com for where to buy the different Pi’s.

Then you need an SD Card that is at least 2GB large to hold the OS, make sure you have all the cords and cables as well. And personally I like having my Pi in a case just so it looks nice. Whatever Pi you get make sure you check what cables it needs to work. Like the Raspberry Pi 4 I linked needs Microsoft HDMI to output video.

Once you have those basics set up and you have your pihole up and running, you can set up your blacklists. You can use the default one, but personally I like the one provided by the guys at Firebog. They have a LOT of amazing blacklists. From blocking purely ads. To ads and trackers. To even going as far as blocking Adult sites and such. There is a lot of customization you can do with your blacklists it’s amazing. Just, don’t expect it to block ads on youtube as those are hosted on the site itself.

Piholes are very set it and forget it, but make sure you are very thorough when setting one up. Because missing one step is such a headache to deal with. I also highly recommend, when it asks if you want to set up the web server, that you do. It allows you to see the traffic of what was blocked what was allowed, and update your lists and such from your web browser on your computer or phone.

Oh also, when you are setting up your pi-hole. Make sure you select to EITHER have it use Ethernet OR Wifi, NOT BOTH. That was a mistake I made. It used both, and got stuck and confused and wasn’t able to work at all. Once I deactivated the wifi and let it use only Ethernet, then it was good to go. And when you are selecting which PiHole OS you want to run, I HIGHLY recommend going with the Lite version. It’s purely Commandline OS, so it is super light and can run on anything. The GUI OS also works well but if you’re running it off of a weaker Raspberry Pi, it will be very laggy and an absolute bitch to do anything on.

So yeah, pi holes are a bit of a pain to set up, but once you are good, you are GOOD.

Good luck, and report back if you had success or need any help. My dms are open and I will do the best I can to help however I can.

[fern-lover]

Successfully set up pi-hole!! Yippee!!!!

[ifartconfetti]

Somehow im using the right combination of tools to not get bothered by YouTubes anti adblock detector