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Mmm, Pi-hole

troyhunt.com

61–70 of 421 posts

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#61
Should be noted this is useful not just for ads, but also for devices phoning home and collecting metrics. Things like Win10, Netflix, smart TVs, etc. You don't have to use every blocklist on the planet if you don't want it to screw up normal web browsing.

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#63
There's an interesting discussion happening in the comments where the fact that Troy's (very low key, topically relevant, non tracking, entirely text based) sponsorship banner is being blocked by some AdBlockers. I've found the same thing with Reddit ads (which also seem quite reasonable).

I'm conflicted, I'd like for there to be some mechanism where reasonably implemented ad systems can flourish.

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#64

I'm surprised this is the top slot right now. Troy, generally, puts out interesting info on security related news however this feels a bit minimal. Since the project has been around a number of years now, and it's not relegated to only a RPi I would have expected him to delve into things a bit more. Pi-hole will also break things. I think the common one I always heard from users on my network at home were that Google…

Of course I have deployed it on a Raspberry. I don't have another always-on computer, and while it's not the only supported target, it is the one most Pi-Hole users have, so I get maximum community support.

I'm doubting whether electricity cost might be too high (it's getting mighty warm), but I haven't measured it, yet.

So far, I love my Pi-Hole. Absolutely no problems with it.

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#65
Been using the pi-hole for a couple of years now. Can only say good things about it, as it also disallow porn and the such (which is good with kids in the family).

Sometime, it's convenient to be able to switch it off quickly (as someone mentioned, certain sites will mulfunction): so I created a simple Alexa task to turn Pi-hole on and off using voice, leveraging the pi-hole api.

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#66
post #49

So I have tried using pi-hole in past and I think one of the problems is - some websites refusing to function if ads are blocked. IIRC - British Airways website uses some javascript that requires ad to be disabled for finishing checking in. It may have changed now but there are other websites too which may or may not work as expected. With browser extensions it is typically easy to disable the ad blocker one time and…

> some websites refusing to function if ads are blocked

Don't visit those sites!

They want your eyes and/or your money (if a subscription is an option) and you don't want to give it to them. Just stop going there!

Edit: I don’t understand the downvotes. Sites aren’t obligated to give you something for nothing. Why does it feel like that’s the default view here?

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#67
post #7

> Do you use a popular browser extension? How confident are you that the creator wouldn’t accept a $10k offer to hand it over only to have it then go rogue on you? What makes the Pi-Hole organization any more trustworthy? (and the software stack it all depends on) Personally, I'm inclined to trust them both and hope that the long arm of the GDPR will be effective. Optimistic, I know.

https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole

Pi Hole is open source, so if someone did try to sneak in some malicious code, it would be seen.

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#68
post #2

This is excessive. Amazingly so. I don't mind an ad or two. I don't want you siphoning my network and computational resources without compensation.

You are being compensated. You can visit their website and read their content. Feel you're not being compensated enough? Stop visiting that site.

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#69
Since he was pointing out scammers buying popular extensions: I would like to mention that this is a chrome specific problem. Something like this isn't common with firefox addons.

Re: Mmm, Pi-hole

#70
It's easier for me to replicate this functionality myself. I run unbound with a domain name blacklist. Same functionality, no need for additional hardware.
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