Same. Happy customer since 2020. It's basically set-it-and-forget-it.
I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
51–60 of 73 posts
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#52+1 for NextDNS. Have been using them for years for blocking ads but also helped me troubleshoot some issues, as I could live track DNS queries by device.
Note the free plan is great for several devices as long as they’re not Apple. For some reason, 2+ Apple devices blow through the 300,000 query limit really easily. When I used a Pixel 2 I think it averaged 60,000 and fit in the quota with my other devices, and when I switched to iPhone it pushed the total over 300,000. But they’re cheap and definitely worth it.
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just learned about ControlD today and It seems their $2/mo per endpoint is pretty pricey. Do you just set it on your home router and that's it? I use my NextDNS with many different profiles and many unique devices. Are the ControlD features that much better? Edit: I totally missed they have a Personal tab at the top that has different pricing. It is still more expensive for their full control plan.
https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/control-d-5-year-subscript... ControlD over NextDNS - one is on zombie mode it seems, the other isnt...
NextDNS is very much alive, although progress is measured and calm¹ as compared to Control D. But it's also been rock-solid for me for years, where Control D seems to be less so².
¹ https://github.com/nextdns/nextdns/releases ² https://www.reddit.com/r/ControlD/comments/1irgehp/178ms_lat...
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find pi-hole fascinating since it shows there is a sizeable market for open Linux routers in the home, but for some reason people seem fixated with running it on a raspberry pi. That’s fine, but it seems like the worst of all worlds? I wouldn’t say the Pi is particularly reliable, and it doesn’t have a switch chip inside it, or enough beef for heavier processing. It’s all just standard *nix software that will work…
The Pi is familiar and comfortable for a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise use Linux or run any kind of server. It's genuinely not the best option in a lot of respects, but it's also the only thing a lot of people know and going to a dedicated server or generic Linux/BSD router seems intimidating, even if they appreciate the possible advantages. Pi Hole was started specifically as a project targeting the Pi. It wa…
I'm one of those users -- I set up a pihole as my DHCP server to get ad blocking on all devices on my network a few years ago and haven't really thought about it since. Raspberry Pi was familiar enough. Networking in general is mostly Greek to me, so it wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it's pretty much been set-and-forget since the initial setup (aside from updating pihole itself and the web interface every few months).
I've seen AdGuard recommended a lot recently but from what I can tell this doesn't do the same thing as a DHCP pihole.
Something I'd love to do some day is replace my consumer router with something open source and run an all-in-one solution (ad blocking for all devices on network, DoH, as well as just a generally competent home router for a small apartment). Do you have any recommendations for where to start if I were to go down this road?
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#55Don't run the pihole on a rpi, a basic computer with a real disk controller will handle the job much better. I ran pihole on an rpi but it kept corrupting the filesystem on any power blip.
It isn't the pihole software's fault here.
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#56Have to say I've never had a single issue with pihole unlike the OP. It's literally been "install and forget" - not a single outage in maybe 3 years of use. When I use the Internet elsewhere I see what a good job it does when I'm at home...
I have also had 0 issues with pihole, but switched to technitium for the extra features. Only issues I have had were related to the SD card. Turned off query logging and 0 issues since. SD cards are an awful place to run an OS from.
Log to tmpfs or ramdisk
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just learned about ControlD today and It seems their $2/mo per endpoint is pretty pricey. Do you just set it on your home router and that's it? I use my NextDNS with many different profiles and many unique devices. Are the ControlD features that much better? Edit: I totally missed they have a Personal tab at the top that has different pricing. It is still more expensive for their full control plan.
https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/control-d-5-year-subscript... ControlD over NextDNS - one is on zombie mode it seems, the other isnt...
Only 10 devices is a crazy limitation. I probably have close to 100 devices going through my DNS.
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Pi is familiar and comfortable for a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise use Linux or run any kind of server. It's genuinely not the best option in a lot of respects, but it's also the only thing a lot of people know and going to a dedicated server or generic Linux/BSD router seems intimidating, even if they appreciate the possible advantages. Pi Hole was started specifically as a project targeting the Pi. It wa…
I'm one of those users -- I set up a pihole as my DHCP server to get ad blocking on all devices on my network a few years ago and haven't really thought about it since. Raspberry Pi was familiar enough. Networking in general is mostly Greek to me, so it wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it's pretty much been set-and-forget since the initial setup (aside from updating pihole itself and the web interface every few mo…
Easiest first step is to see if your current router has support for OpenWRT. I find OpenWRT kinda hard to use, but a lot of people swear by it and it's very capable even.
More powerful options are projects like PfSense or Opnsense, but those require more expensive hardware and for most uses you probably also need a separate switch. I personally use PfSense and find it relatively easy to use while being extremely powerful, absolutely jam packed with features but an accessible WebUI and clear documentation.
Probably the best all round option are the semi open, prosumer-ish products from companies like Ubiquiti or gl.inet (the latter is even based on OpenWRT, but with a nicer UI... I have one of their routers as a travel router). Ubiquiti's Unifi routers are very easy to use and jam packed with features for a pretty great price, but their platform is not truly open source. Still, gl.inet or Unifi are what I would probably most recommend to someone like you looking to upgrade but feeling overwhelmed by lack of knowledge.
Beware it's fun to tinker and that's how I learnd pretty much everything I know about networking, but breaking the Internet will not endear your new toys to your family. It's good to have a spare in case you mess up so you can keep the bits flowing while you undo your mistake. Anything you choose is going to be an ongoing learning experience if you're starting from no knowledge, but there are lots of high quality tutorials on places like YouTube.
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#59No issues with NextDNS (I've deployed it for people who don't have the chops to wrangle a Pi-hole), but this reads very, very much like an ad.
That aside, I've had pretty much the same issues with NextDNS that I've had with Pi-hole -- issues that have nothing to do with the infrastructure per se. (The classic example is of an app that doesn't work because domain `X` is being blocked, thus kicking up the usual 15 - 30 minute-long log search and DNS cache-clearing to find and whitelist the domain.)
Re: I ditched my Pi-hole but still block ads with NextDNS
#60Let's not forget that if you run NextDNS, you can check the logs and be utterly surprised at what websites you dad views late at night after going to bed.