I don’t bother with PiHole because DNS-based ad blocking quite frankly sucks and is only getting worse.
I’m still waiting for someone like AdGuard to release a MITM proxy that does something similar to uBlock Origin and strips ads directly from the network traffic
But until then, browser extensions are good enough for most usecases (Firefox user so the adblocking ones work on mobile as well)
I’ve used Pihole for so long… I bought the original pi as a curiosity but Pihole was best use of it.
Here is the problem though, which i assume applies to all adblockers: everything is now “sponsored links”. Google, Amazon, etc. They are of course blocked which is getting really frustrating.
So what do we do now? Is there a way to just send fake telemetry? Saw VLANs mentioned. Is that the way? I’m getting older and life gets busier and it’s harder for me to keep up on this.
I use Firefox with Ublock on both my PC and Phone and haven’t had to deal with ads in years, PiHole just seems like a lot of hassle without much more benefit.
I use NextDNS and it’s good for my devices, but Google sponsored links won’t work with it. Sometimes I have to turn it off temporarily to get something done.
Also, my wife works from home in social media. I can’t really block ads network-wide because she needs to see them.
What I ended up doing - I set her laptop with a static IP and added TCP and UDP routes for port 53 (the one used for DNS queries) to 8.8.8.8 - no complaints since ;) I use a cheap Mikrotik router between my ISP one and the actual network (well, a NAS and a Unifi AP, the rest is wireless) so doing it was easy ;)
Ads are not only present in the browser. For example, there are Smart (not really lol) TVs that have ads embedded right into the operating system (reddit.com/…/unremovable_ads_on_my_2500_samsung_s…). You can’t install an adblocker there, but a DNS based filter will know how to deal with this. There are other alternatives, some are cloud hosted like NextDNS or ControlD, there are other local alternatives like AdguardHome or PfBlockerNG if you run a PfSense Firewall. There are also simple solutions like AdGuard’s Public DNS or Mullvad’s Adblocking DNS servers. If you use an iPhone or iPad, you can easily download a configuration profile that includes the DNS settings for these services. I think NextDNS offers a similar service. On Android, you can just set up Dns over TLS, I think it’s called Private DNS in the settings. DNS adfiltering can’t get rid of all ads though, e.g. YouTube’s mechanism for displaying ads is resistant to DNS filtering. That’s what uBlock Origin if for though.
Pi-Hole will work on literally every device on your network. It can block ads on smart TVs, cell phones, etc. It can prevent certain forms of tracking on video doorbells, voice assistants, cameras, etc. You can also set up custom DNS to restore online service to old game consoles or to host web services at home.
You also get all the metrics. For example, I can see that my computer reaches out to my printer several times a minute and that the Oculus app for my Quest 2 was reaching out to its servers even when the app was “closed”.
You could also use it as a sort of parental control. It can provide one set of block lists to the parent’s devices and a different one to the kids devices. Or you could do the same with IoT devices so they are only allowed to reach out to the services they need to be able to run.
uBlock is still important though. It’s possible to get around a DNS filter like Pi-Hole by serving ads from the same domain that the core service is served through. uBlock Origin can do things like block YouTube ads for instance.
µBlock Origin is great for browsers that support extensions. But that won’t get most Android TV ads or Apple TV users. And I suspect many of the people with pi hole also use µBlock Origin for redundancy.
Correct, I use both myself. Pihole is also my DHCP server and I created different blocklists for different devices on my network. For example, I have “general”, “media”, “gaming” and “kids”.
Speed and efficiency. Why waste time downloading ad content just for it to be hidden by the browser when you can simply stop them from being downloaded in the first place?
With a pi hole, you’re basically setting up a DNS server that has built in abilities to stop ads.
What that means is, you can point your router (or any device really) at that DNS server (pi hole) to block ads.
Ublock is good.
Due to remote work constraints, a pi hole doesn’t play nicely with their stuff and I can’t be bothered to figure out a work around. Mostly because it’s my wife’s remote work, and their IT is hesitant to talk with me about it - I get it, I wouldn’t do that at work (I’m in IT).
So I use ublock on Firefox on both my desktop and phone, plus I run through a VPN that blocks ads and malware for everything else. The VPN is a separate use case, but that’s just an added benefit.
It’s happens sometimes but I must say, not very often. I could probably count on one hand how many times that have happened through my many years of using pihole.
If you have a significant other, they will discover said instances after about 5 minutes using the pihole and you’ll hear about it. I think it’s a kind of law of home networking.
Right, but again, thats only browser stuff. If i say android i mean the actual operating system and all applications/services that are running on your phone.
My point was that ublock is limited to a browser, and there is so much stuff that can be blocked, more than just ads.
Im not saying ublock is useless, or that average joe shouldnt use it btw. I run it on my phone and pc in firefox, but i also have a pihole for so much more.
I’m genuinely curious, to what are you referring when mentioning Windows, Discord, Nvidia, etc.? I know Windows is an entirely separate conversation but do Discord and Nvidia serve ads now and I’m just not seeing it because of my Pihole?
I use a piHole to block all my IoT devices from sending telemetry data. Roku devices especially, but it’s amazing how many IoT devices try to ping out.
You don’t need uBlock if you have a pihole properly configured, but you still need a pihole even if you have uBlock properly configured. uBlock is a half measure. An incomplete solution, but better than nothing.
Assuming everyone will have pihole “configured correctly”, not mentioning how to do that, saying you don’t need ublock if you have a pi hole (it does more than black ads). All in all a terrible comment.
Ublock will work if you don’t go and install a bunch of proprietary apps. Also it has the ability to block elements on the DOM so its more effective for web pages.
I migrated to Pi-hole in 2016 so believe me when I say that uBlock Origin is perfectly complimentary because it removes the blank space that is made for ads.
uBlock can do much more refined and targeted blocking than a pihole because it has access to the entire page that is being served and can selectively filter elements. The pihole only has access to the DNS name, and DNS blocking is a rather crude tool to block ads that can be defeated by serving the ads from the same domain.
For example: a pihole doesn’t work for blocking YouTube ads, because they come from the same domain.
My Raspberry Pi SD card finally died after almost 10 years, and I was hosting Pi-Hole on it. After a year of Pi-Hole I didn’t realize how many things had freaken ads. They pop up everywhere! I really need to get a new SD card :(
10 years is a pretty good run for an SD card… was it an endurance SD? That’s what I’m running. Fried a non-endurance one in under a year, replaced it with an endurance and reduced log writing frequency with some config change and have been cruising for 3-4 years so far.
Endurance cards are so worth it. They’re what I use in my Pi units and our dash cams. I just whish I hadn’t fried so many normal cards before coming around.
Well I should clarify. I had retroPi on it for a number of years, but hardly used it. I finally repurposed it over the last year for Pi-Hole and Pi.Alert, so yeah I think this last year completely destroyed my SD card
Then install log2ram to avoid constant writes to SD card. Or install DietPi instead of the stock OS, its installed automatically. Honestly DietPi just rocks for SBCs in general, good text UI and utilities.
Backups are so easy on Raspbian that every couple of years I swap out the SD cards from the old set to a new one, and just keep the old ones around in case one of the new ones decide to croak out.
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