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A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

psyonik.tech

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Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#21

Post by pSYoniK »

leetrout wrote: post #19
pSYoniK wrote: post #8

I want to make a few points to help clarify some of the choices and why I made them. This is very helpful and I appreciate all the comments as it highlights how some things are clear in our head but we don't end up sharing that with anyone reading. So: 1. I looked at AdGuardHome but I preferred PiHole because I found its documentation a bit more helpful for my purpose (the Unbound sample, the Wireguard setup, etc) 2.…

> I saw the docker compose package, but I wanted something that runs at the OS level For my curiosity: because you wanted to use systemd or didn't want to run another piece of software (docker) or something else?

I had wireguard on docker before for some containers, but it felt clunky and it over complicated the network stack in my head (I'm unfortunately not very skilled in networking in general). So I said that I'd go back to the root and run it at OS level because then I can expose Proxmox to the world or any of the other VMs I run by having them join the wireguard network. Which in turn means that I can connect to any machine I want/need directly. I am also playing around with writing my own dynamic DNS worker in C# and I was curious on how I could have that run as a systemd process but bypass the wireguard tunnel to keep updating IP addresses. A lot of these were tied to me just being a bit more curious about the whole stack.

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#22

Post by mtlynch »

syntaxing wrote: post #14

I self host a lot of things, pihole and adguard is one thing I no longer self host for about five years now. $20/year for NextDNS for the whole family is worth every penny and most importantly spouse approved. My spouse doesn’t mind what we self host as long as the friction to use it is not too high.

Does using NextDNS mean that you both can see a list of all the websites anyone in your family visits?

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#24

Post by crossroadsguy »

syntaxing wrote: post #14

I self host a lot of things, pihole and adguard is one thing I no longer self host for about five years now. $20/year for NextDNS for the whole family is worth every penny and most importantly spouse approved. My spouse doesn’t mind what we self host as long as the friction to use it is not too high.

NextDNS support now doesn't even bother to respond when you face a problem. If you are lucky a fellow user will comment which most probably won't solve the problem and it would rather be a "same here" comment. I had to stop using before even my first year's subscription finished.

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#25

Post by muppetman »

beala wrote: post #20
muppetman wrote: post #4

You don't need a VPN! I host an AdguardHome instance and just expose TCP/853. I put my domain name in the Private DNS settings of my Android and I get 24/7 adblocking without the hassle and battery drain of my Wireguard VPN (which I still use to access private stuff)

I tried setting your domain as my resolver but no luck sadly. alex@thinkpad ~> kdig @muppetz.com +tls news.ycombinator.com ;; WARNING: connection timeout for 116.251.193.218@853(TLS) ;; ERROR: failed to query server muppetz.com@853(TCP)

Right, my post wasn't to suggest my Adguard is open for everyone :)

1, it's bound to a particular subdomain (I'm sure you can figure that out) - And it's still the same IP so you'd have only gotten certificate mismatch warnings 2, it's behind a Firewall that only allows connections from the country I'm in - this is almost certainly what's stopped you being able to access the port.

If you meet those two criteria you'll be able to query it.

My point was it's quite easy to do this yourself though and then you don't need to bother with a VPN all the time, saving battery and the hassle of having to either a) Have it on all the time even when you're at home or b) Remembering to turn it on every time to leave home.

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#26

Post by leetrout »

pSYoniK wrote: post #21
leetrout wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I saw the docker compose package, but I wanted something that runs at the OS level For my curiosity: because you wanted to use systemd or didn't want to run another piece of software (docker) or something else?

I had wireguard on docker before for some containers, but it felt clunky and it over complicated the network stack in my head (I'm unfortunately not very skilled in networking in general). So I said that I'd go back to the root and run it at OS level because then I can expose Proxmox to the world or any of the other VMs I run by having them join the wireguard network. Which in turn means that I can connect to any mac…

Understood. Thank you!

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#27

Post by syntaxing »

mtlynch wrote: post #22
syntaxing wrote: post #14

I self host a lot of things, pihole and adguard is one thing I no longer self host for about five years now. $20/year for NextDNS for the whole family is worth every penny and most importantly spouse approved. My spouse doesn’t mind what we self host as long as the friction to use it is not too high.

Does using NextDNS mean that you both can see a list of all the websites anyone in your family visits?

Yes but that’s the case for any DNS (which is why your ISP loves it when you use their DNS, for “marketing” data they sell to others). However, similar to pihole and adguard, you can turn off logging if you want.

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#28

Post by syntaxing »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #24
syntaxing wrote: post #14

I self host a lot of things, pihole and adguard is one thing I no longer self host for about five years now. $20/year for NextDNS for the whole family is worth every penny and most importantly spouse approved. My spouse doesn’t mind what we self host as long as the friction to use it is not too high.

NextDNS support now doesn't even bother to respond when you face a problem. If you are lucky a fellow user will comment which most probably won't solve the problem and it would rather be a "same here" comment. I had to stop using before even my first year's subscription finished.

That’s a shame, I haven’t had the need to use their support before though.

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#29

Post by syntaxing »

floundy wrote: post #18
syntaxing wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why nextDNS is nice, there’s a “allow affiliated link” setting. So it blocks the ads but allows your wife to click on sponsored ad links. How’s do you manage Adblock when you’re not on your network? That’s the main draw of NextDNS for me. Works more or less anywhere

Huh interesting feature, I'll have to check it out today to see if there's enough improvements over pihole to warrant a switch. I'm effectively always on my network because I use Wireguard to VPN back in to home, so I can easily access my server and RPi dashboards. Though at this point I've whitelisted a few dozen domains that were giving my wife or I issues, and excluded most of her devices because she doesn't want…

Do you notice a battery drain with the VPN always on? I used to use tailscale for this and there was a nontrivial battery penalty

Re: A Guide for WireGuard VPN Setup with Pi-Hole Adblock and Unbound DNS

#30

Post by lemming »

mtlynch wrote: post #22
syntaxing wrote: post #14

I self host a lot of things, pihole and adguard is one thing I no longer self host for about five years now. $20/year for NextDNS for the whole family is worth every penny and most importantly spouse approved. My spouse doesn’t mind what we self host as long as the friction to use it is not too high.

Does using NextDNS mean that you both can see a list of all the websites anyone in your family visits?

Only to the domain level, not individual websites.
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