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?

lemming741,

I run pihole on proxomox, and also opnsense in the same box. Then you can forward all port 53 traffic to your pihole. Some devices have hard-coded DNS that will bypass the DHCP DNS.

AbidanYre,

Some chromecasts stop working when you do that.

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

Really? I run several Chromecasts, and I block their access to all DNS services except my internal Pi-holes. They work just fine.

4am,

It’s probably not blocking DNS-over-HTTPS

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

Lol - not my first rodeo. I’m blocking dns.google as well, and I’m 99.999% certain Google won’t have coded Chromecasts to use anyone else’s DNS servers.

AbidanYre,

Yeah, I don’t know if it’s all models, but the ultras do at least.

reddit.com/…/chromecast_ultra_just_updated_and_no…

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

Ah - I only have the Chromecast GTVs. Good to know I don’t need to pay for an upgrade then!

zzzz,

Chuck 'em in the garbage and get something that doesn’t break when you insist on privacy.

ApathyTree,
@ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Ha! This is my new way of looking at my smart devices. I’ll sell you off if you don’t do what I want, and buy something that does. Very much a threat.

I recently factory reset all my Roku TVs, and didn’t connect them to the internet… and they work much better now.

Roku broke big time when I insisted on privacy. blocked the entire Roku domain, it broke the apps on a 1-month schedule like clockwork to get the network release for reinstall which allowed for phone home. lol no. I trashed it. They are dumb TVs now.

zzzz,

I’ve done the same! It’s impossible to buy dumb TVs nowadays, but you can always prevent them from connecting to the network.

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

plz1,

NextDNS.

Also, be wary of relying on anything blocking ads on streaming services this way. They will likely serve them within the video stream, so not network-blockable.

Objects,

I’m also a fan of NextDNS. Have an unbound instance querying it.

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.

supernicepojo,

I felt the same way about youtube, streaming, shopping and general browsing: too many ads. Ruins the content. I set up a pi-hole as an experiment to see if it would do what it said and what others said about it. Manage your expectations here. Pi-hole works well for blocking a lot of static information and ads in your browser and a lot of apps on iOS and Android. It does not block video ads on Youtube or Hulu, it does not block ads for Roku or Firestick or Smart TV apps for example, it just does not work because of the technical limitations of how the PiHole software is designed. Using a regular PC with adblock browser extension installed as well gets rid of 99% of ads including video ads from adcdns. PiHole is incredibly easy to setup and install, the pay off in quality of life is enormous. I cannot recommend it more to someone that has a little networking knowledge base. If you can figure out how to port forward and run a handful of command lines you can complete a pihole setup in an hour.

Manifish_Destiny,

Why would you want to port forward your dns?

supernicepojo,

Sorry, you wouldnt and didnt mean to imply that. I was suggesting that port forwarding is a fairly easy task and if one is confident in their ability to do that, than they should be able to complete a PiHole install.

7u5k3n, (edited )

lemmy.world/post/10327372

This dude uses mini PCs for pi type tasks.

Might be easier to get a hold of.

Good luck OP

supernicepojo,

PiHole runs great on older Raspberry Pi’s(I am still using a pi3). Older models are still very easy to get and a readily available from the approved resellers list.

7u5k3n,

Agreed that’s what I’m doing as well.

epyon22,

Was running on my original pi b up till I replaced it recently with a pi 4. Was a little slow but worked fine.

indigomirage,

Pfblockerng on pfsense is very powerful.

glowie,
@glowie@h4x0r.host avatar

Safing.io Portmaster

aniki,

I have the LCARs theme for my PiHole.

All other details are irrelevant.

shnizmuffin,
@shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol avatar

I have the LCARS theme for my HomeAssistant, which takes telemetry from PiHole.

aniki,

OOh which theme are you using? I keep forgetting to set that up. I remember looking into it and it was more involved for the time I was looking at it.

shnizmuffin,
@shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol avatar

The complicated one, ha-lcars. It takes a while to get things looking good - looks like total trash out of the box, actually.

Deebster,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

Could you share a screenshot of your final result?

shnizmuffin,
@shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol avatar

I’ve only got one interface done at the moment:

https://lemmy.inbutts.lol/pictrs/image/faf7aa8e-7172-474a-9840-f44cd97f97c6.png

ApathyTree,
@ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I enjoy that it reminds me of a Star Trek console.

Probably by design but all the same.

cecilkorik,
@cecilkorik@lemmy.ca avatar

That’s what LCARS means, it’s the name of the computer console in Star Trek. In the show, it stands for “Library Computer Access and Retrieval System” although it’s often used for stuff other than the library computer too.

ApathyTree,
@ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I’ve watched all the series and had no idea.

Thanks for explaining!

Deebster,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

Oh yeah, that looks much better than any of the included themes. Nice work!

RobotToaster,

Now we just need a locally hosted voice assistant with “computer” as the wake word.

shnizmuffin,
@shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol avatar

That is completely possible right now.

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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