Pihole is a great project, but it is objectively less capable than uBlock Origin.
That is not a criticism of the software. It is just a fundamental fact that DNS based adblockers are less powerful, and less granular/precise than Browser based adblockers.
They do work well in combination though (the DNS level adblockers gives you moderately effective network wide blocking, and uBlock Origin gives you exceptional blocking but is limited to the browser.
I’m using both uBlock and Pi-Hole and I have to say that Pi-Hole is great. The monitoring features are pretty good and the ad blocking that it offers is, although way less than uBlock, still way better than none at all. It blocks most ads from the random apps I have installed on my phone and a surprising amount of trackers that are sent through my network. It also acts as a pretty good fallback if whatever I’m using physically cannot use a browser like an app or an embedded system.
For me personally I also like to use Pi-Hole for network wide site filtering. If I find a website that’s really sketchy or obviously a scam or trying to make you download malware, I just add it to my blacklist.
Of course each serves its own purposes and it won’t always be useful for everyone. I personally find the tools that it offers has a lot of benefit for what I do.
TLDR; The ad blocking, although way less than uBlock, is more than enough to act as a basic ad blocker. Not to mention the monitoring tools are an added bonus. It also acts as a great fallback if something I’m using physically can’t make use of uBlock.
UBlock is awesome. Pihole only really breaks if you add too many or too aggressive blocklists. The main benefit of pihole is you can block ads and trackers from any device on your network. I find the biggest offenders to be smart devices.
I’m not technical enough, but why can’t pihole do as much as ublock? It’s at the router level before anything gets to the browser, it has all the same info the browser will eventually get.
Shouldn’t it be theoretically possible to do the same?
It’s a DNS server and does not have the same capabilities as the router
It has all the same info the browser will eventually get.
It does not. Not just because of the previous reason but also because most traffic is encrypted nowadays (https) which means that even the router can’t read/modify the traffic to the device.
Another issue is that some things blocked by uBlock are hard to detect with static analysis in comparison to reading the rendered HTML.
uBlock has direct access to the DOM and so can modify what the browser renders. For example, YouTube ads are hosted on the same domains as their videos and so PiHole cannot block them, but uBlock can.
pihole does not deceypt https traffic, so it cant change dom. even if it could, it can’t modify stuff added by js.
also it can only block whole domains, not individual urls
If the router provided by my isp won’t allow me to change the dns server, is there a workaround for having to set the local dns server on each device that doesn’t involve getting a new router?
Most cable modem router combos have the ability to turn off the router part and just act as a modem in Bridge mode. If that’s an option, you can get your own router to handle local traffic, including dhcp (and thus dns) for all your local devices.
Obviously, this goes against your request not to get your own router, but I thought I’d mention it in case you thought you would have to buy your own modem as well (which you are also free to do, assuming your isp supports customer-owned modems). The modem part can stay the same while having a separate router not controlled by the isp.
If your particular unit doesn’t allow that, you can usually still locally override dns settings, though this is more for computers and phones than it is some smart home devices. iPhone and Android phones will let you specify dns ip addresses when you set up a wifi connection. Just edit the wifi config and change to a static ip. You can usually safely use the ip address given to you from dhcp, so make a note of your device ip address before changing it to static, and just use the same values. Then you can manually set the dns ip address.
You can use a second router and pass through the WAN. It’s a bit complicated to explain in a comment, but it’s also not too difficult. Is your ISP ATT?
Use the pi or whatever little computer that’s presumably hosting the pi-hole software to also be a DHCP server (and turn off the DHCP server on ISP’s router). It can then advertise itself as the DNS server.
Adding to the existing comments, there is also invidious which doesn’t bombard you with adds and if you have a homeserver you can easily host an instance (acts like a frontend to youtube)
Pihole and uBlock Origin have different purposes. Pihole blocks ad domains network-wide. uBlock Origin can remove specific elements from specific webpages with surgical precision regardless of the domain the content is served from, so it is a much more precise wide-spectrum content blocker.
In other words, uBlock Origin can block basically everything, but only works in your browser. Pihole blocks fewer things and less precisely but works for all your devices.
Honestly don’t bother. Ublock is better at blocking ads. Pihole is for devices on your network that can’t use conventional ad blockers and is less effective.
If you are not so fit in this questions is better to install Portmaster, its downloading and run it, not much more to do (blocking or give permissions to connecting to the network to your apps. Maybe sellecting an DNS which fits your needs in the settings. It’s way easier to handle than Pi Hole. It even has an SPN (its like a VPN on steroids), but its an paid option.
Is this a line from Letterkenny? Because it sounds like a line from Letterkenny. They’d all end up doing really bad Australian accents.
Dan - I understands shes actins like shes fightin’ fer her lives, but I still thinks Meryls ates more scenery than any dingos could.
Katy - Meryl is beloved BECAUSE she’s like a dingo. You don’t get to be that beloved as a woman of age in Hollywood without eating the occasional metaphorical baby.
Dary - I just think she could have gone about it a little better. It’s like “did a dingo eat your manners?”.
Wayne - Come on now, a lady lost her kid. You’re about to cross some fuckin’ lines.
This sounds like something I should look into. I already run pfsense and wanted to look into a pihole, but if I can do it all in pfsense that’ll work out even better. Thanks!
Funny enough dingos are descendants of domestic dogs, which is itself a touch weird, but also the heelers (aka Australian cattle dogs) are descendants of them. My boy is a heeler/lab mix which I think is maximum silly.
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