Anyone setup a pi-hole? (blackhole for internet ads)

[purbeast0]

I've recently gotten into the whole Raspberry Pi thing this past week after my buddy brought over his RetroPie setup on one, and now I'm seeing more cool things with them. Yeah yeah I know I'm late to the game. I have just been out of the hardware scene and building stuff in like a decade, however just messing with this has been fun tinkering with setting up RetroPie.

Anyways, my other buddy showed me this:

https://pi-hole.net/

I'm curious if anyone has set one of these boxes up and if so, how is it working? I am tempted to just get another Pi3 since they are so cheap and setting one up, then I won't have to worry about running any kind of adblock plugins.

 

[SheHateMe]

Yes. It works great and keeps all the bullshit out. Especially those pesky Youtube ads.

 

[Darwin333]

Wow, thanks for posting that. Got my next project now.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Interesting. Wonder if you can also set this up in a VM, something that's crossed my mind to do, as it would cover the whole network. One extension less to have in the browser. On the other hand having something like this makes troubleshooting issues harder as it throws a variable into the mix. Like if a web page is not loading properly or something.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

You really have to wonder how ad companies are going to survive on the net as user-friendly things like chrome/firefox extensions continue to gain in popularity.

I wonder if at some point router manufacturers may include an ad-block feature for the general public that is too stupid to find these other methods.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Interesting. Wonder if you can also set this up in a VM, something that's crossed my mind to do, as it would cover the whole network.

Yes. I did. It works.

One extension less to have in the browser. On the other hand having something like this makes troubleshooting issues harder as it throws a variable into the mix. Like if a web page is not loading properly or something.

Yup. Depending who compiles the list and how paranoid they are, some legit websites stop working. (Hotmail and ancestry.com, for starters.)

 

[Ajay]

Hey, cool info - thanks for bring this up!

 

[Rifter]

Ive been running it since X-mas. I love it, dont need to bother setting up adblocking on all the different devices and br4owsers, has saved me so much time and bandwidth its great. Zero issues so far its been rock solid and works as advertised.

 

[Anubis]

i looked into it and im too lazy to config this all myself

if someone sold a box that all i had to do was plug in and it worked i would pay for it

 

[purbeast0]

Those of you who have done it, does it auto-update or do you have to go in and update it yourself when new ads are out to be blocked?

 

[RLGL]

Looks like a good project for when the snow flies.
I haven't looked but I assume there is a guide as to how to get the correct hardware and set it up.

 

[RossMAN]

tagged

Edit: Now I want to get this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKWjx1AQYgs

What's the best/most compatible RPi device to purchase?

 

[rh71]

Block spam callers on the cellphone and landlines and I'm in.

Internet-ads are non-existant with adblock.

 

[Carson Dyle]

How does this work? As a DNS proxy by blacklisting hosts and domains, or by some other means?

Edit: I watched the little YouTube video. Yes, it works through DNS.

Found this guide for doing the same through a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter, I have an EdgeRouter Lite (ERLite-3), so may try it out.

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/arti...d-blocking-content-filtering-using-EdgeRouter

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Is this similar to privoxy? https://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/quickstart.html

 

[TheVrolok]

Might be nice to have a "hardware solution" Hmmm. I actually don't use my RetroPie for much anymore, maybe I'll repurpose it.

 

[purbeast0]

Looks like a good project for when the snow flies.
I haven't looked but I assume there is a guide as to how to get the correct hardware and set it up.

This project looks like it will take a good 30 minutes, if that. It's not a day long project or anything.

Block spam callers on the cellphone and landlines and I'm in.

Internet-ads are non-existant with adblock.

Also blocks ads on all mobile devices and tables as well, many of which can't run any adblocking software. It also doesn't require having browser specific plugins.

 

[purbeast0]

tagged

Edit: Now I want to get this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKWjx1AQYgs

What's the best/most compatible RPi device to purchase?

I believe the Pi 3 is the most recent one. I got mine for $24 refurb from MicroCenter this past weekend. Brand new they are $30 there. I also OC'd mine but I won't bother doing that with the one I get that is going to be the Pi-Hole box.

 

[Joe C]

I wonder if at some point router manufacturers may include an ad-block feature for the general public that is too stupid to find these other methods.

This capability exists today, with an ASUS router. I have been blocking ads on the router for a year and a half now, works great. Smallnetbuilder has all the info needed to set it up.

 

[gorcorps]

Sounds pretty cool. I'm not utilizing my raspberry pi much at the moment, so it may be worth trying sometime soon.

 

[soulcougher73]

Darn it. Now i have a new mission in life. Must figure out what a raspberry pi is and get one.

 

[Red Storm]

Added to my to-do list.

 

[RossMAN]

Darn it. Now i have a new mission in life. Must figure out what a raspberry pi is and get one.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jA8wYqQLBU

 

[purbeast0]

I plan on actually giving this a go either Friday or this weekend, depending when I can make it to Micro Center. I may actually swing by there tonight as I may be around the area. I just ordered a case/power supply from Amazon for it and I already have a spare 8gb micro SD card with the OS on it so it should only take a few minutes to get this thing up and running. I'll let you all know how it goes after I get it done.

 

[Ajay]

This capability exists today, with an ASUS router. I have been blocking ads on the router for a year and a half now, works great. Smallnetbuilder has all the info needed to set it up.

Guess I better look at my router then. This (or pi-hole) are appealing for blocking ads on devices. Also, since I'm about to cut cable, inet adds on my TV and Blu Ray player (what I'm going to be using short term for streaming - later on I'll get Roku or AppleTV when gen5 comes out).