My Raspberry Pi SD card finally died after almost 10 years, and I was hosting Pi-Hole on it. After a year of Pi-Hole I didn't realize how many things had freaken ads. They pop up everywhere! I really need to get a new SD card :(
Then install log2ram to avoid constant writes to SD card. Or install DietPi instead of the stock OS, its installed automatically. Honestly DietPi just rocks for SBCs in general, good text UI and utilities.
Probably not, think of it as a different distro. It is Debian based, and supports many different SBCs and not just the RPi. https://dietpi.com/
Yes! I kept going through SD cards and DietPi was suggested... It's been rocking for years now.
10 years is a pretty good run for an SD card.. was it an endurance SD? That’s what I’m running. Fried a non-endurance one in under a year, replaced it with an endurance and reduced log writing frequency with some config change and have been cruising for 3-4 years so far.
Endurance cards are so worth it. They’re what I use in my Pi units and our dash cams. I just whish I hadn’t fried so many normal cards before coming around.
Well I should clarify. I had retroPi on it for a number of years, but hardly used it. I finally repurposed it over the last year for Pi-Hole and Pi.Alert, so yeah I think this last year completely destroyed my SD card
Wow! 10 years is a long time for an SD!
Backups are so easy on Raspbian that every couple of years I swap out the SD cards from the old set to a new one, and just keep the old ones around in case one of the new ones decide to croak out.
Not if it is my ad, Golden Globe nominated movie, Barbie, is now available on Blu-ray and select streaming services.
Nowhere is safe. No where.
That only stops browser activity? What about windows, discord, nvidia, ... ? :p
Those are all blocked on my pihole ( i run both pihole and ublock btw )
I guess I just don't trust Windows discord and Nvidia. I don't think DNS filtering will protect you if they control the computer
Or android, ios, consoles, ... :p
These are all devices pihole can help with that ublock cant. A combination of the 2 is key
Well on android you can install browser extensions so that's not a problem.
Anyway my point is that Ublock origin can be more than enough for many people who don't use such devices.
Right, but again, thats only browser stuff. If i say android i mean the actual operating system and all applications/services that are running on your phone.
My point was that ublock is limited to a browser, and there is so much stuff that can be blocked, more than just ads.
Im not saying ublock is useless, or that average joe shouldnt use it btw. I run it on my phone and pc in firefox, but i also have a pihole for so much more.
I'm genuinely curious, to what are you referring when mentioning Windows, Discord, Nvidia, etc.? I know Windows is an entirely separate conversation but do Discord and Nvidia serve ads now and I'm just not seeing it because of my Pihole?
I use a piHole to block all my IoT devices from sending telemetry data. Roku devices especially, but it’s amazing how many IoT devices try to ping out.
You don't need uBlock if you have a pihole properly configured, but you still need a pihole even if you have uBlock properly configured. uBlock is a half measure. An incomplete solution, but better than nothing.
uBlock can do much more refined and targeted blocking than a pihole because it has access to the entire page that is being served and can selectively filter elements. The pihole only has access to the DNS name, and DNS blocking is a rather crude tool to block ads that can be defeated by serving the ads from the same domain.
For example: a pihole doesn't work for blocking YouTube ads, because they come from the same domain.
pihole doesn't work for blocking YouTube ads
It does if I block the entire youtube domain. Checkmate, corps
I migrated to Pi-hole in 2016 so believe me when I say that uBlock Origin is perfectly complimentary because it removes the blank space that is made for ads.
Assuming everyone will have pihole "configured correctly", not mentioning how to do that, saying you don't need ublock if you have a pi hole (it does more than black ads). All in all a terrible comment.
Ublock will work if you don't go and install a bunch of proprietary apps. Also it has the ability to block elements on the DOM so its more effective for web pages.
Pihole alone does not block YouTube ads for me.
Edit: And uBlock alone does not block ads within mobile apps.
Most mobile browsers can’t. Every Chromium browser is soon getting the gimped Lite version too.
So it’s just Firefox on not iOS.
I don't know about ios but on android you can switch your dns to something like quad9 for your dns server
I don't bother with PiHole because DNS-based ad blocking quite frankly sucks and is only getting worse.
I'm still waiting for someone like AdGuard to release a MITM proxy that does something similar to uBlock Origin and strips ads directly from the network traffic
But until then, browser extensions are good enough for most usecases (Firefox user so the adblocking ones work on mobile as well)
I wish I could pi-hole.
I use NextDNS and it's good for my devices, but Google sponsored links won't work with it. Sometimes I have to turn it off temporarily to get something done.
Also, my wife works from home in social media. I can't really block ads network-wide because she needs to see them.
😕
You can setup separate vlans, or even separate networks for allowing the ads if you need.
You can - my wife works with ads as well.
What I ended up doing - I set her laptop with a static IP and added TCP and UDP routes for port 53 (the one used for DNS queries) to 8.8.8.8 - no complaints since ;) I use a cheap Mikrotik router between my ISP one and the actual network (well, a NAS and a Unifi AP, the rest is wireless) so doing it was easy ;)
Both of your wives are plants by the marketing firm to make sure your attempts to remove all ads are stymied. You'll have to kill her. I'm sorry.
Working should really happen on a separate network though, business has no business being conducted on a private one.
NextDNS keeps working when you leave your wifi network (without having to set up VPNs or DDNS). That’s what I like about it.
For my pihole, I have a group set up that the blocklists don’t apply to, so devices I add to that group aren’t subject to filtering.
Batch script to set your wife's DNS to 8.8.8.8, and another one to set it back to your pihole? Seems like an easy fix to me...
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Simple, just get a pi-hole and set your wife's computer to use a different DNS.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh14127/mac https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-set-different-dns-settings-on-devices-running-windows-11
We're on holidays and the kids had me install WireGuard on their devices to get rid of the ads, you know, like it is at home.
Just have them install ublock origin when they're away from home. It is going to be way more efficient.
YouTube ads come from the same server as the content so you can’t isolate them with pihole
uBlock Origin on Firefox still works great if you keep the filters up to date every once in a while c:
Bruh you don't need root for this man. Just set up NextDNS with the Private DNS feature in Android, or use AdAway if you have a free Vpn slot.
Sure, but rooting your phone fundamentally destroys the security model https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/android.html#rooting
Your project sounds great, but it only addresses one part of the issue. But verified boot is far from the only security concept broken by root. Android uses the principal of least privilege (which makes a lot of sense, it's actually used by a lot software). With root, a user-installed app runs with higher privileges than most parts of the entire operating system.
Well you can't just say
My block ads Magisk module:
without providing the name/link
IDK I just found it in a Telegram group, but a simple search can find you what you want.
Well i don't exactly trust a website that i have never seen before with root access to my phone (well their application anyways)
Personally I use Stevenblack's default one, in combination with a personal one that i've curated since 2019. Previously I used to use MVPS, however that list's included in the SB default.
Stuff that tends to slip through the cracks with a lot of the common lists includes things like admiral 🤬, user session recorders, and app monitoring platforms like sentryio (useful for development, but I didn't consent my activity being recorded). There's also Bauer Media Group garbage that I've resorted to creating firewall packet inspection rules for, because they're using a subdomain technique that's even worse than Admiral's autogenerated domains - at least with those you can use DNS analysis tools like dnsdumpster to uncover the rest of autogenerated domains in that batch
I've used Pihole for so long.. I bought the original pi as a curiosity but Pihole was best use of it.
Here is the problem though, which i assume applies to all adblockers: everything is now "sponsored links". Google, Amazon, etc. They are of course blocked which is getting really frustrating.
So what do we do now? Is there a way to just send fake telemetry? Saw VLANs mentioned. Is that the way? I'm getting older and life gets busier and it's harder for me to keep up on this.
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Privacy Badger, if you want to try to reduce your tracking data.
Privacy Possum, if you want to send bullshit tracking data to cost companies money.
I don't quite understand the use-case for the pi-hole. Why use it, when one could simply use something like µBlock Origin?
µBlock Origin is great for browsers that support extensions. But that won't get most Android TV ads or Apple TV users. And I suspect many of the people with pi hole also use µBlock Origin for redundancy.
Correct, I use both myself. Pihole is also my DHCP server and I created different blocklists for different devices on my network. For example, I have "general", "media", "gaming" and "kids".
There shouldn’t be any ads on AppleTV. And for AndroidTV, just install a custom launcher.
Yeah but why do one simple task that covers your entire network when you can do more work on each individual device?
cant use adblocking on xbox/roku/etc.
Sure you can. I've been doing it for years - works great.
pihole blocks ads on those.
It does. You have to use the right adlist to make sure you block ads and tracking but don't block content.
One example. Can't really AD block ios that easily. But with a pi hole you don't need to worry about anything.
Just setup the pi hole static IP as the dns in your routers settings and all devices are behind the one interface.
Got an issue? Just login to the pi hole website to manage it. White list some critical AD site for some stupid mobile game your kids play for example.
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I just set the DNS ip on my router to the Mullvad adblocking DNS. Also on my private DNS on my phone!
Ads are not only present in the browser. For example, there are Smart (not really lol) TVs that have ads embedded right into the operating system (https://reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/co5aw4/unremovable_ads_on_my_2500_samsung_smart_tv/). You can't install an adblocker there, but a DNS based filter will know how to deal with this. There are other alternatives, some are cloud hosted like NextDNS or ControlD, there are other local alternatives like AdguardHome or PfBlockerNG if you run a PfSense Firewall. There are also simple solutions like AdGuard's Public DNS or Mullvad's Adblocking DNS servers. If you use an iPhone or iPad, you can easily download a configuration profile that includes the DNS settings for these services. I think NextDNS offers a similar service. On Android, you can just set up Dns over TLS, I think it's called Private DNS in the settings. DNS adfiltering can't get rid of all ads though, e.g. YouTube's mechanism for displaying ads is resistant to DNS filtering. That's what uBlock Origin if for though.
They are kind of two separate things.
Pi-Hole will work on literally every device on your network. It can block ads on smart TVs, cell phones, etc. It can prevent certain forms of tracking on video doorbells, voice assistants, cameras, etc. You can also set up custom DNS to restore online service to old game consoles or to host web services at home.
You also get all the metrics. For example, I can see that my computer reaches out to my printer several times a minute and that the Oculus app for my Quest 2 was reaching out to its servers even when the app was “closed”.
You could also use it as a sort of parental control. It can provide one set of block lists to the parent’s devices and a different one to the kids devices. Or you could do the same with IoT devices so they are only allowed to reach out to the services they need to be able to run.
uBlock is still important though. It’s possible to get around a DNS filter like Pi-Hole by serving ads from the same domain that the core service is served through. uBlock Origin can do things like block YouTube ads for instance.
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With a pi hole, you're basically setting up a DNS server that has built in abilities to stop ads.
What that means is, you can point your router (or any device really) at that DNS server (pi hole) to block ads.
Ublock is good.
Due to remote work constraints, a pi hole doesn't play nicely with their stuff and I can't be bothered to figure out a work around. Mostly because it's my wife's remote work, and their IT is hesitant to talk with me about it - I get it, I wouldn't do that at work (I'm in IT).
So I use ublock on Firefox on both my desktop and phone, plus I run through a VPN that blocks ads and malware for everything else. The VPN is a separate use case, but that's just an added benefit.
Speed and efficiency. Why waste time downloading ad content just for it to be hidden by the browser when you can simply stop them from being downloaded in the first place?
I never could figure out how well it works. It is enabled along side openvpn, but van't figure out hif it works.
You run into issues where the website detects what you're doing and blocks your access? It happens if I use ad blocking through my vpn.
It's happens sometimes but I must say, not very often. I could probably count on one hand how many times that have happened through my many years of using pihole.
If you have a significant other, they will discover said instances after about 5 minutes using the pihole and you'll hear about it. I think it's a kind of law of home networking.
I've wanted to do this for some time, but everyone tells me there's no way to make it work without constantly updating the blacklist. Is it really such a hassle?
No lol It's so low maintenance that it took me about a month to figure out why it kept crashing. The answer was completely my fault as I forgot I gave the container running it only about 8gb of disk space and it filled up.
I only log into the console to check some metrics/verify no issues/run updates and I maybe do that once every 3 months. I don't have my pi-hole set up the same way as the basic tutorial but as far as lists go I just subscribed and forgot.
Worth noting my pihole is really only good for banner ads or ads that rely on DNS. YouTube ads require a clientside adblocker so far.
I forget about mine until I need to log into it to allow/block something, then I run my updates if I remember to think about it.
So like once every few months at best. Usually 2x/yr. Still works fine.
The blocklist automatically updates as long as you’re using maintained sources. It’s pretty easy tbh.
You can install community blacklists on it that it automatically downloads each day.
Here’s a popular set of lists that allows you to pick which lists you want. https://github.com/blocklistproject/Lists
Well, if you use big "aggressive" lists, you'll find that it blocks a lot including stuff you actually do want to see, then you have to comb through the recently blocked list and whitelist that which you actually need.
OR, you only use the oisd.nl list, which is supposed to keep everything you do wish to use in a working state. I have used it for years now I have yet to whitelist something. Once a year I update the pihole, but otherwise don't touch it.
You can start with a DNS blocker in the meantime. It’s just configuring your router to use an ad-blocking DNS server like Mullvad, Control D, or Aha for example. No additional hardware, tools, or setup required. Then when you’re ready, you can try setting up a pihole.
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At that point just set your Android's private DNS to "base.dns.mullvad.com" or "dns.adguard.com". It'll save you a VPN slot and save battery.