Pi-Hole?

[Newtun]

Does anyone else here use Pi-hole? I came across it at some point, and it seemed useful, so I set it up on a little VM.

But I'm not so sure how useful it really is.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Mercutio]

They're very useful for people with lame mobile devices or who are too lazy to set up ad blocking on their devices. I've set them up before and I appreciate having them on devices I can't control. It's easy enough to set up special rules to prevent users from visiting problematic sites if for example you want keep people from looking at Facebook or Instagram using company resources. It's also nice to see the reporting on what's generating the most ad requests.

 

[ddrueding]

I had one running when I was doing lots of system builds or repairs. Nice to have the benefits of ad blocking without having to modify systems that weren't mine. Also actually helped performance on struggling systems when I had to go online.

 

[Mercutio]

I install ad blocking on everything I touch. I don't care. Advertising is a malware vector and must be treated as hostile.

 

[sedrosken]

It's not as robust as having ad-blocking on the device itself, but it works wonders for devices where that's not doable.

 

[mubs]

I install ad blocking on everything I touch. I don't care. Advertising is a malware vector and must be treated as hostile.

Any suggestions for Android?

 

[Mercutio]

Any suggestions for Android?

I like DNS66 from the Fdroid repository. Your phone might have ad blocking DNS built in. Samsung has an option for it.

 

[mubs]

I like DNS66 from the Fdroid repository. Your phone might have ad blocking DNS built in. Samsung has an option for it.

Looks like dev on DNS666 has stopped effective March 2021; they recommend DNSNet.

I do have a Samsung phone. When you say Samsung has an option, is that if the Samsung browser is used? I use Chrome. Where would I find that option?

 

[Mercutio]

The option is called Private DNS on a Samsung device.

I promise DNS66 works fine.

 

[mubs]

Thanks Merc. Private DNS is already on in my phone.

 

[Mercutio]

I've observed that the Private DNS function can get wonky sometimes, especially when there's a switchover between Wifi and Cell networks. It'll tell you it can't contact the DNS server and then stop resolving names until you turn Private DNS off and back on. It's been years since I last tried it, so hopefully it's not that stupid any more, but side-by-side, DNS66 was the thing that didn't give me problems, so I continue to use it.