Pi-Hole or something else for network ad blocking?

I’ve been aware of pi-hole for a while now, but never bothered with it because I do most web browsing on a laptop where browser extensions like uBlock origin are good enough. However, with multiple streaming services starting to insert adds into my paid subscriptions, I’m looking to upgrade to a network blocker that will also cover the apps on my smart TV.

I run most of my self hosted services on a proxmox server, so I’d like something that’ll run as an LXC container or a VM. I’m also vaguely aware that various competing applications have come out since pi-hole first gained popularity. Is pi-hole still the best thing going, or are there better options?

Rookeh,

I use both. Pi-hole running in a docker container on one of my home servers which my gateway is configured to assign as the default DNS for all clients, and uBlock Origin on all my browsers to catch everything else.

Pihole is pretty good at catching ads on platforms that are not suited to browser based blockers (IoT devices, streaming boxes etc) but it isn’t perfect and is best used in conjunction with another solution.

Evotech,

I’ve used controld.com

eskuero,
@eskuero@lemmy.fromshado.ws avatar

I have no experience outside of blocky, but the configuration file is so damm simple and clean I have troubles even considering anything else.

akilou,

You should definitely set up pihole but I don’t think it’ll block ads on streaming apps unless I’m wrong and someone can point me to something that explains how I can set that up.

ajmxco,
@ajmxco@lemmy.world avatar

I use knot-resolver with the big block list from oisd.nl and it works great.

satanmat,

I love pihole, for my family it is better as it helps on all the devices. Being able to block malware and tracking is nice too

peter,
@peter@feddit.uk avatar

Pihole is great for blocking on things that you can’t install a local adblocker on. It does have downsides though, it can be annoying and block things you don’t want it to. It might not block ads well on your tv or might impair the functionality in weird ways. It can depend lot on which lists you add, but there are many available and they are usually quite well documented about their intentions.

AtariDump,

Yes, been running one for many years and it’s great.

Shoutout to the PiHole team!

Darkassassin07,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

DNS based ad blocking does not block video ads served by streaming services. You’ll need a modified client specific to the service you want to block ads for to achieve that.

indigomirage,

Pfblockerng on pfsense is very powerful.

glowie,
@glowie@h4x0r.host avatar

Safing.io Portmaster

m_randall, (edited )

There’s nothing really bad with PiHole but I moved from it to AdGuard, both on proxmox. The UI brought me in, makes management a bit easier. It also supports DoH right out of the box.

Try em both. See what you think.

PainInTheAES,

AdGuard Home and blocky are other popular options. I switched over to AdGuard Home a while back because it supported DNS over HTTPS although I’m not sure if that’s still a relevant reason. I run AGH as a docker container but it is easy to run in a LXC or VM. There’s also a tool to sync configs if you need multiple instances. Notice: AGH block lists are formatted like uBlock Origin lists so you will not be able to use PiHole style lists.

DNS based ad blockers won’t work when ads are served from the same place as the content. Which is why DNS based ad blockers don’t work against Twitch or YouTube. So YMMV.

If you’re looking to block interface ads and select streaming service ads there are block lists available like this one. The game with smart TVs is blocking the ads breaks the TV a little because sometimes it calls back to the same servers for updates and misc info like weather.

Styxia,

I use Blocky. I switched from PiHole because I didn’t have need for all the features (DHCP, Dashboard) and honestly it was a slow day and I had nothing better to do.

StreetKid,

I am very happy with Blocky github.com/0xERR0R/blocky

No UI, just a simply config file if that is your thing.

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