lets talk pi-hole

[mattkime]

A couple of forum members have recommended running pi-hole - https://pi-hole.net/

It sounds like a good idea but I need to know how practical it is long term. Its my experience that browser based ad blockers need to be disabled on a somewhat regular basis because various websites will break. The sites are usually doing weird things but I still need to use them anyway. When I run into this problem I just pop open an incognito window which doesn't have any ad blockers in it.

Do similar problems exist with pi-hole?

[MrNoBody]

Funny thing, I was just thinking of it & am curious.
Do you need a Raspberry Pi or can pi-hole be installed on a router?

[mattkime]

MrNoBody wrote:
Funny thing, I was just thinking of it & am curious.
Do you need a Raspberry Pi or can pi-hole be installed on a router?

It can be installed on a variety of devices. Its basically a dns block list. Looks like I can do something similar with my EdgeRouter X - set up the block list but i don't need the software.

[space-time]

do it. I have not see any websites complaining about it.

In private mode, many websites complain.

With Pi-hole, I just get some small empty spaces instead of ads.

Do it.

Do it.

Do it.

enough said.

[space-time]

I think as far as the web site is concerned, they told your browser to load that ad and they probably still get the revenue (I guess). Your browser runs into dead ends (IP is blocked), so no ad coming your way. The web sites do not seem to check if the ad has loaded or not.

[Carm]

Here is a install/review of pi-hole by Linus (YouTube guy)
https://youtu.be/KBXTnrD_Zs4

[mattkime]

space-time wrote:
do it. I have not see any websites complaining about it.

In private mode, many websites complain.

With Pi-hole, I just get some small empty spaces instead of ads.

Do it.

Do it.

Do it.

enough said.

Which blacklist do you use?

[space-time]

All the default that were installed.

[mattkime]

k, will try this tonight

[Will Collier]

I had to take it off our network because my wife couldn't stand being blocked from Google price comparison searches. I've asked around since and not found a good work-around yet. Google and Google Ads are so ubiquitous it's hard to filter out what you want to get through vs. what you want to block.

Other than that I loved it. Huge improvement to the whole surfing experience. The amount of data going to Amazon (for instance) that the pi-hole reveals (and blocks) is staggering.