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Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

pi-hole.net

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Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#201

Post by workethics »

isbjorn16 wrote: post #165
ashman5 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that you may have a setup issue with your router. My resolution times decreased when the pi-hole is providing DNS responses. I have 30+ devices on a 3b+. I'm using a UniFi setup and both WAN and LAN point to the pi-hole local ip address.

I'm running a pfsense setup with cloudflare as my DNS (DNS-over-TLS, in specific). As soon as I had the rpi in the middle, it jacked up resolution times like crazy (rpi was set to use my SG as its DNS, so ->rpi->pfsense->1.1.1.1 It's good to know you guys haven't been having problems; I thought everyone was just fucking nuts or something, but no; local problem. Sigh.

If you're using pfsense, why not just use pfBlockerNG-dev?

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#203

Post by Jake_Z »

HugoDaniel wrote: post #63

The pages you use the most serve some ads from their own domain. E.g. Youtube et. al. Also beware as most ads in your phone apps come from ad intermediaries that are either dynamic or constantly change. Pi-Hole is a cool project but please take in consideration those two when using it. We are far from the 90's in ad-tech.

for those constantly changing ones, like youtube, we could grep all the youtube's ads-serving DNS.. see details here https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-block-ads-on-youtub...

it worked pretty well

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#204

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

creeble wrote: post #147
ronjouch wrote: post #42

Also, owners or routers able to run OpenWRT (which is actively maintained and in great shape since the merge with LEDE), you have access to several packages providing the same technical solution (DNS-based blocking). As far as I know, the most common and maintained is https://github.com/openwrt/packages/tree/master/net/adblock/... . Super easy to install, full-featured, lots of lists to pick from, auto-updates lists,…

Curious about anyone's experience with adblock for OpenWRT. I use Pi-hole now, and it works great. The one feature that I use quite a lot is the ability to disable it for a short period of time -- when I'm shopping for something, Google ads are sometimes actually useful! I'd say I use that feature about once a month. That's the sum value of advertising for me.

That's interesting, Where do you see relevant Google Ads while shopping; is it on some product review blogs?

Did you check the 'Shopping' tab of Google search?

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#205

Post by ris »

BrentOzar wrote: post #85

File this away for the holidays, too: Pi-holes and NAS backup devices make good gifts. I know it doesn’t sound very sentimental, but the first time I showed my relatives what the Internet looks like without ads, I think those were the strongest hugs I ever got from family members.

Are these devices maintained by someone or are they sitting there running years-old crumbling stacks?

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#206

Post by quaffapint »

josefresco wrote: post #185
loudtieblahblah wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it as an advantage for all the devices on your network. I mean, to block trackers from Windows computers, or Roku devices or android apps. But as an adblocker - I feel like I'm missing something. It acts as a DNS server for your local network and blocks what's essentially a host file. So how does it handle ads served through websockets? How does it handle ads that come from the same domain as legitimate content…

> Your wife downloads a game on her phone, and you get that look like "ok, why isn't this working.. what did you do now?" THISSSSSS. The only thing stopping me from using Pi-hole at home are my family members and the inevitable "this isn't working!?!?" rant and then I need to figure out how and what to whitelist. No thanks. I have ad blockers on the kids' PC and when something doesn't work, it's one click to temporar…

I've been running it for months now and so far none of my family has come back with any 'major' issues. The only ones, which I could whitelist are when they use something like google shopping that has affiliate links and they're blocked.

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#207

Post by quaffapint »

programbreeding wrote: post #108
ChikkaChiChi wrote: post #17

Pi-hole is my most prized addition to my connected home. It was simple to set up, easy to manage, and easy to access for whitelisting. Now, all of my devices throughout my network benefit from the service, as opposed to relying on locally installed solutions. If you aren't using it, you should!

Over 50% of my DNS queries get blocked by the pihole [0]; and I've seen it much higher. Like you said, it's one of the most prized devices on my network. [0] https://i.imgur.com/dPZzYjL.png

60+% blocked here - mostly do to my Roku tv and all its logging.

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#208

Post by zouhair »

ChikkaChiChi wrote: post #17

Pi-hole is my most prized addition to my connected home. It was simple to set up, easy to manage, and easy to access for whitelisting. Now, all of my devices throughout my network benefit from the service, as opposed to relying on locally installed solutions. If you aren't using it, you should!

The problem I have with Pi-Hole is that it is sometimes a pain for the end user. It's impossible to fine tune it on the user side, like one can do with ublock origin.

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#209

Post by dta5003 »

jm4 wrote: post #158
loudtieblahblah wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it as an advantage for all the devices on your network. I mean, to block trackers from Windows computers, or Roku devices or android apps. But as an adblocker - I feel like I'm missing something. It acts as a DNS server for your local network and blocks what's essentially a host file. So how does it handle ads served through websockets? How does it handle ads that come from the same domain as legitimate content…

It's not much effort. You basically write an image to an SD card, put it into a pi and you're up and running. Although it doesn't block everything that ubo does, it does a darn good job and it's also effective for devices where ubo isn't an option. It updates the list on its own. I occasionally update it when I happen to log in to check something and I notice the software is out of date. I don't think it's a situatio…

What is "ubo"?

Re: Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements

#210

Post by Lxr »

mikepasek wrote: post #190

Ad blocking via DNS is relatively easy right now because a content provider like CNN.com will use a domain like “ads.evil-surveillance-media.com” to load their ads into your browser. But what happens if all these companies switch to just using their own domain to load ads? If the ads as well as the content BOTH come from CNN.com then there will be no easy way to filter the ads out. This will be the next stage in this…

This. Router-level blocking will become impossible without intercepting https, and endpoint blocking also gets harder.
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