Pihole

[PcTek9]

Pihole is a free opensource software. If you install it on a network, it can block all ads on that network. It's easy to find with google. Anyway, it blocks ads at the dns level like other software, which can speed up your network since it doesnt have to download all those photos, flash ads, sound bytes and etc. This means if you install it at home, it can block ads on your servers, desktops, laptops, cell phones, netbooks, and tablets. Regardless of os pihole can work.
So I checked out the pihole website and liked it. I started my project by purchasing a tiny pc called a nano-neo from friendlyarm.com for like $12.95 usd. I put pihole on it. It works. Check out the numerous screenshots of pihole online. It's worth looking into for adblocking, also it means you dont need an ad blocker on every laptop, phone, etc at your house... which gives back individual devices processing power for what you wanted to use it for in the first place... Surfing the web.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I'm a fan. I have it running in our office on an Ubuntu VM on ESXi. Our DNS is forwarded to Pi-hole on our domain controller. Works quite well. I follow it up with uBlock Origin in Google Chrome on the workstations. I sure wish uBlock Origin was available on Android, but Pi-Hole knocks out 90% of the BS anyway so it's not a big deal. It just obviously only works in the office. I could setup a VPN, but it's not worth it.
By the way, the stats are for the last 24 hours.

 

[SAFCasper]

Been planning on setting this up at home. Got a spare RPi - just need to find the spare time.

 

[bdoggman]

No windoze support?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

No windoze support?

Only if you run Docker.

 

[trevm999]

Only if you run Docker.

Does LCOW still require Hyper-V for a virtualized Linux kernel?

 

[NJW]

I have Pi-hole and OpenVPN running on the same RPi at home. The VPN allows me to benefit from Pi-hole when I'm out, as well as safer Internet use and access to resources on the home LAN (I work from home, so that includes ERP and networked storage).

Really easy to set up and is most noticeable in its absence, when I'm using a client's computer on site – horrible experience!

 

[PcTek9]

Yep. A word of caution. If you burn sd card images on windows use etcher. Etcher can verify the sd card image is correct against the original, and I've never had a problem with etched images, on the contrary for the wide variety of windows programs that are fly by night and put images on sd cards.

 

[AcornSites]

I have used PiVPN to automatically setup pihole and a VPN. Saves a TON of data on your phone.

The one liner is below, but you should just go to their GitHub.

curl -L https://install.pivpn.io | bash

https://github.com/pivpn/pivpn

 

[PBComputer]

Really need to set this up as it looks great and a good upsell to customers

 

[AcornSites]

I currently use an Ubuntu 18.04 $5 DO droplet running Pi-Hole, OpenVPN, and WireGuard for friends/family. When I used a Raspberry Pi, it constantly got corrupted because we have power outages frequently.

I've wanted to make it into an additional service I could sell my customers, but I'd want a branded app. I'm sure there's an easy way to do it via the MSP route, but I'm still trying to figure all that out.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Gonna have to grab a RPi and check it out.

 

[PBComputer]

Installed it today and seemed to work but keeps crashing so got a spare server I plan on using which should of it a lot more resources to run. Might even give it a ssd for extra speed as well as 32gb ram.

 

[NJW]

Installed it today and seemed to work but keeps crashing so got a spare server I plan on using which should of it a lot more resources to run.

You've either done something wrong or used a cheap µSD card. Even if you work it hard, it shouldn't crash.

It really doesn't need more resources than a RPi has. My RPi B serves six more-or-less full-time devices (a general-purpose laptop, a general-purpose desktop, three Androids and the workshop server), two or three 'occasionals' (tablet, laptop, media player), plus two or three bench jobs. Memory use hovers around 12-15% and the highest load average I have ever seen is 0.3. I literally reboot mine a couple of times a year, following kernel updates and it never misses a beat.

If you've already got an always-on Linux machine, you might as well use it, but there really is no need to spin one up just for pi-hole.