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My experience with Pi-Hole is that there are too many sites that detect that their adverts and tracking scripts don't load and refuse to let you in. It's really

My experience with Pi-Hole is that there are too many sites that detect that their adverts and tracking scripts don't load and refuse to let you in. It's really hard to white-list for a site in Pi-Hole, as it's blocking for the whole network, so finding what domains you need to unblock is quite laborious. Additionally, if you are not around, and a family member or co-worker can't get to a site then they have no way to bypass it unless they also know how Pi-Hole works. Personally, I find a browser based advert/tracking blocker add-on to work better. If Pi-Hole had a webpage where you could put in a domain, i.e. cnbc.com, and it went off and loaded the html of that page, worked out all the other domains that html connects to, and then gives you a 'unblock' button to click, that would improve usability significantly, as even a non-techie user could use it.

xg15 8y ago
Generally, I agree - though I imagine the advantage of pi-hole is that it can also block ads in non-browser contexts, e.g. mobile apps. At least it can until those apps start to use their own hardwired DNS/DoH server...
Sol- 8y ago
I would have the same concern, I imagine the Pi-Hole is best for households only inhabited by tech-affine people. I installed the uBlock Origin addon for some family members and even there they can be easily confused when a website breaks due to it (occurs rarely, but it happens). At least there I can easily tell them to temporarily disable ad-blocking by pressing that big uBlock button. I don't think it would be feasible for me to explain to them how to temporarily whitelist things on the Pi-Hole.
- starquake 8y ago
  You can add a button to your Raspberry Pi to temporarily disable all the blocking. Not the best solution but still useful to know I think.
  - arnjerobben 8y ago
    Do you have a link to a tutorial?
  - nmca 8y ago
    I really like this idea. Make it big and red. Easily done it seems: https://www.hackster.io/marko8904/web-connected-aws-iot-big-red-button-on-raspberry-pi-1b6496 https://www.hackster.io/marko8904/web-connected-aws-iot-big-...
- zaarn 8y ago
  I don't think that's a problem at all. I did give the family members the password to unlock the block temporarily but after a while they simply stopped using those sites altogether. It's also a big plus for devices that can't adblock themselves (phones, embedded devices, etc.)
- spacedgrey 8y ago
  For the non-tech-savvy members of the household you can provide a link to the disable API. e.g. Temporarily disable blocking for 60 seconds, http://pihole.lan/admin/api.php?disable=60&auth= http://pihole.lan/admin/api.php?disable=60&auth= . You can also infuriate the teenagers in the household by blocking and unblocking domains at certain times via crontab. e.g. 0 08 * * * /usr/local/bin/pihole -wild --delmode instagram.com youtube.com 0 22 * * * /usr/local/bin/pihole -wild instagram.com youtube.com
dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
In my experience, most adblock blockers take a lazy approach - it's just a piece of JS loaded together with the main document. So it's ridiculously easy to protect against: just switch off JS with a click and you can read the page in question. Of course it works for documents only - if you need to use an app, things are much trickier and you need to dig up a bit to understand which script you have to block.
- swiley 8y ago
  Usually you don’t even need that, they just cover the page with a div that you can delete in inspector.
  - andai 8y ago
    This is a very useful skill. I run into a surprising number of pages where invisible elements prevent you from continuing (unintentionally, eg payment forms). Also that crap on the bottom of every Medium article.
    - boomlinde 8y ago
      ... and the top... and the sides...
  - namibj 8y ago
    Or zap with uBlock origin
  - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
    That's at least two clicks. Disabling JS with a plugin like disable-HTML is one click.
  - nmca 8y ago
    "kill sticky" is amazing for this. One click gets most annoying stuff. https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/ https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/
  - 8y ago
Boxbot 8y ago
I run a Pi-hole (mostly for my phone and paired with OpenVPN and iOS/MacOS content blockers) and run into the same "problem". My advice is to stop patronizing those sites at all. Just like paywalled articles linked on HN, just stop visiting. Seriously, just stop. It's the only way we're going to move to something less damaging and invasive than the current ad/data economy. I should note that I do pay quite a lot for journalism and art via subscriptions, Patreon, Kickstater, etc, but I'm not going to tolerate sites clogging up search results with paywalled articles or piles of tracking scripts and media downloads.
- icelancer 8y ago
  This is completely untenable advice to give family that shares your Internet connection, which the OP clearly pointed out.
  - w0utert 8y ago
    Why? I've been running pi-hole on the home network for over 2 years already, and indeed sometimes I get complaints about shopping sites not working, but there is always an alternative site that does work so we order there instead. Just last week it even saved us money because it turned out a different site had the same product at a significantly lower price. Apart from a few non-important edge cases literally every major site works without problems with a pi-hole. I think 'simply stop using sites that refuse to work unless they can track you' is a very valid and workable solution.
- throwawayboi 8y ago
  > Just stop. As long as there is an economic incentive to serve ads, and as long as 99% of people don’t care (and trust me, normal people absolutely do not care like HN cares), nothing will happen, just like nothing has BEEN happening. We need a GDPR-like bill in the US, and we need it yesterday. Stop relying on the “market”. Stop relying on regular people. This problem is bigger than just “stop visiting those sites”, just like climate change is bigger than just “stop using gasoline”.
setr 8y ago
>Personally, I find a browser based advert/tracking blocker add-on to work better. >If Pi-Hole had a webpage where you could put in a domain, i.e. cnbc.com, and it went off and loaded the html of that page, worked out all the other domains that html connects to, and then gives you a 'unblock' button to click, that would improve usability significantly, as even a non-techie user could use it. Aren't you just describing uMatrix?
- close04 8y ago
  I think he's describing a local network ad-blocker that you can control and configure from any browser with a simple extension. This means that you can update rules from any device in your home/office and it would still apply for all devices in your network.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    exactly! You wouldn't even need an extension. Just tell your users, if a site isn't loading properly, to go to http://my-pi-hole.local.lan/whitelist http://my-pi-hole.local.lan/whitelist and unblock it.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - fcarraldo 8y ago
      You can do this already. The URL is http://pi.hole http://pi.hole Whether you want them to have access depends on your “users”.
      - close04 8y ago
        A 1-click option (or maybe 2) is a much better solution for tech-averse users :). And extensions already exist to enable/disable Pi-Hole, the functionality could be expanded to include quick whitelisting.
    - blacksmith_tb 8y ago
c12 8y ago
I typically browse the internet with JavaScript disabled by default and rarely come across issues - when I do unless the website is appealing enough to white-list for js I go elsewhere. I have also found the reader view functionality on iOS to be a godsend when visiting websites, no more cookie notices, GDPR popups or banners taking up 1/3 of the display - bliss!
- reustle 8y ago
  I see "just going elsewhere" as a possible solution 10 years ago but not today, depending on how much you're using the internet.
  - close04 8y ago
    To me it feels like the number of sources of information has grown exponentially in the past 10 years. So unless you're talking about a service that more or less locks you in (like a mail provider that you can't easily switch) you can find the same information on dozens of sites. Just pick one that either has reasonable ad practices or one that accepts adblockers.
    - basch 8y ago
      That depends if you are reading original journalism or aggregated journalism. Something from Reuters or AP (or a tweet .. ) might be on hundreds of websites, but look at a list like this, https://www.aldaily.com/media/ https://www.aldaily.com/media/ , how many of these stories dont really get published elsewhere.
      - close04 8y ago
        Sure but how was this better 10 years ago? "Original anything" (read unique) by definition doesn't go well with the "just go elsewhere" concept. If you can go elsewhere then it's not that original or unique. Time has no bearing on this. For "mass content" (aggregation or simply independently reporting on the same topic) you have vastly more choice today. And for unique pieces of information, only available in one place, you would have been just as stuck then as you are now. The uniqueness, not the time is what takes the choice out of the equation.
jlebrech 8y ago
you could have pi-hole redirect to a site with the same story maybe? or even pi-hole could cache it.
joshschreuder 8y ago
Weird, my experience doesn't match yours, and I run both Pi Hole and uBlock. I guess the blocklists factor in a lot and also the sites you visit.
dspillett 8y ago
> many sites that detect that their adverts and tracking scripts don't load and refuse to let you in I think I've only seen that once since running pi-hole (which I've done for about six months now), so I assume the rate of occurrence varies widely with what people are browsing. Do you see it a lot on sites with a particular pattern (i.e. pertaining to a certain industry or hobby/interest)? > and refuse to let you in I'm fine with that. I doubt the information isn't available elsewhere if I really care about it, and the most insidious stuff I'm blocking tends to be on less important content that I can live without anyway (imgur.com was the final straw that made me install network-level blocking - too many pop-unders, the occasional drive-by install attempt, adverts trying to access my microphone and/or camera, and less worrying but still annoying things like auto-playing audio - if such frivolous sites block me for blocking their ads because they can't police them properly I'm sure I'll live!). > a family member or co-worker can't get to a site then they have no way to bypass it unless they also know how Pi-Hole works > Personally, I find a browser based advert/tracking blocker add-on to work better. Other people is why I run blocking at the network level ATM (as well as on my individual mobile devices). I'd rather deal with the occasional "I can't get into X, oh, it is because of the malware/ad blocker, try somewhere else" conversations than have the tech support load of undoing drive-by installs! Also, I wouldn't want other people to easily add stuff to my network's whitelist. Anyone who really objects can always use their own mobile data plan instead of using my network that runs just fine the way I want it to...
- mnw21cam 8y ago
  >> and refuse to let you in > I'm fine with that. Agreed. Sounds like the Pi-hole is working exactly as intended. As I see it, you have a choice between viewing an ad/malware laden cesspit, or avoiding it. And by installing a Pi-hole, you have already made that choice.
  - amelius 8y ago
    You can also use a remote service like outline.com, paste the url there, and still read the content without the ads and without being blocked by an ad-blocker-blocker, and often even without being blocked by view-limiting paywalls.
everdrive 8y ago
This might be unpopular, but I hope Pihole remains untenable for non-technically savvy users. Advertisers and ad-blocking are always engaged in a game of cat and mouse. I'd prefer advertisers to see Pihole as a tiny niche of the market they don't need to seriously work to defeat.
- apexalpha 8y ago
  The only way to defeat them would be to self-host ads. Which would actually be a good thing since publishers would now have an incentive to make them as light as possible since it's their bandwidth being used.
  - gruez 8y ago
    because of how pi-hole works (works on the DNS level), all they have to do is use some CDN domain, which can't possibly be blocked without serious collateral damage.
    - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
      Doesn't using a CDN break impressions statistics, making it impossible to administer?
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
    - apexalpha 8y ago
      Yes, but as long as they don't pihole works beautifully because the ads are killed before they are downloaded, in stead of stripped after the download (like with uBlock). Especially on data capped devices like mobile phones it works wonders.
      - gruez 8y ago
        >the ads are killed before they are downloaded, in stead of stripped after the download (like with uBlock). That’s false. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Does-uBlock-block-ads-or-just-hide-them%3F https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Does-uBlock-block-ads...
cup-of-tea 8y ago
Not a problem. I can't remember that ever happening, but if it did I would just close the tab. Pi-hole works as intended.
jackson1way 8y ago
I couldn't agree more. Pi-Hole is essentially useless for real world scenarios. I can't hear this short-sighted comments "it doesn't load with pi-hole? then I just close the tab!" oh really? that's how easy it is in your world? and then you just don't buy that flight ticket? because that shitty online ticket agent uses third-third-party payment providers etc. whos domain is unfortunately blocked in pi-hole? even one single incident might force you to entirely disable pi-hole. most people can't afford to play around with that until it works. you can't seriously maintain these block lists yourself. you have to rely on a 3rd party, usually some volunteers - great people btw - but even a huge crowd like them can't make sure, that from time to time, in some part of the internet, in some specific country and language, something will be blocked by mistake and you are stuck. with a browser plugin, at least you can disable it for that specific case. with pi-hole there is no such feature. i have to disable my browser adblocker at least once a month, because something doesn't load. and its always off for sites like paypal, because I really want that payment to work and not suddenly screw up the whole transaction.
- JustSomeNobody 8y ago
  We're running pi-hole network wide and we just planned a trip with no glitches. The only annoyance (if it's really an annoyance) is clicking on a link in a google search and it's blocked. Go back to Google, realize is was an ad, scroll down a little further and click the real link. No big deal. Nobody in the house is complaining about not reaching sites. So, yes, it is possible to do this in real world scenarios.
  - creeble 8y ago
    This is my experience as well. I very rarely find sites that don't work because of pi-hole, other than their advertising links. I can't actually think of a case where I've had to disable pi-hole because a site seemed to have broken functionality. I book flights on Expedia et al all the time. Every once in a while I want to do competitive shopping, and disable pi-hole for an hour. It's a revelation now much crud shows up (and pops up) when I do.
    - 8y ago
samfriedman 8y ago
I've found that most sites which attempt to block access due to ad-blockers typically do so with a full-page pop-up element which hides the (fully loaded) content underneath. With uBlock Origin it's easy enough to use the element-picker to remove the blocking elements of the webpage.
jasonkostempski 8y ago
It's best to just not go to those sites. Never whitelist, it defeats the whole purpose if you care one bit about tracking. If I come across enough links to a site that does that, I add them to my url blacklist, so I never see them again. I wish uBlock Origin would add that feature so I did't have to maintain my own junky plugin to do it.
redleggedfrog 8y ago
Simple phrasing could change this. If the site was deemed "unacceptable", not just "blocked", with no particular detail people would find alternatives (even pick up the phone?). This could be done at both the browser and ISP level, as well as something like Pi-Hole.
dghughes 8y ago
I used to use a pi hole since YouTube on a Samsung smart TV is horrible both YoutTube and Samsung put ads in the same video (YouTube at the start and Samsung ...whenever). But Samsung inject ads frequently and aggressively. Even short ten minute videos are interrupted at least twice by ads sometimes a few seconds before a video ends, I mean really?!? It worked great for a long time but then but changed my setup. Then I wanted to try Pi-Hole again going through the setup again but the results were very different. For example my Samsung smart TV absolutely refused to connect. It is the same TV, same Pi device, same everything but no network.
- krisroadruck 8y ago
  Well that just sold me on never buying another Samsung TV ever. How in the hell does Samsung, a device manufacturer justify inserting ads over content thats not even theirs?
  - bradbatt 8y ago
    I think basically because (1) they can and (2) no one has stepped in to prevent them from doing it. But it's absurd.
  - mikec3010 8y ago
    > . How in the hell does Samsung, a device manufacturer justify inserting ads over content thats not even theirs? Earnings growth for shareholders. Something-something-"advertising revolution/innovation".
  - dghughes 8y ago
    It seems worse for some videos too which made me think it was YouTube but I can't see YouTube inserting ads mid-video or a few seconds before the end of a video. It's local ads too for my small town so it's targeted very precisely to me. Other crap is resetting the opt-out after a software update. And also putting the agree or disagree checkbox on a separate page than the actual terms you just read. You read it on one page then exit, look at a bunch of terms and scroll to find the matching document that has the agree or disagree checkbox for one of the TOS documents you read. It's a mess. Never buy a smart TV just buy a monitor without any smarts. The sound cuts out on it too you'll miss every few words almost as if it were censoring it. I'm afraid someday it will not work if it can't update its OS.
palebluedot 8y ago
> Additionally, if you are not around, and a family member or co-worker can't get to a site then they have no way to bypass it unless they also know how Pi-Hole works. I ran into that issue with some household members, that had problems with certain websites that didn't work. Since I run my own DHCP server (not through pi-hole), what I ended up doing is giving them a different (e.g. 1.1.1.1) DNS resolver for their machine (based on their MAC address), and then installing uBlock Origin for them. That way, they can easily turn ad blocking on/off themselves, while I can still have network-wide adblocking on by default (especially useful for mobile devices).
city41 8y ago
Here is how to disable pihole via a url: https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/81z8jp/temporarily_disable_pihole_using_a_bookmarked_url/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/81z8jp/temporarily_... With this anyone in your family can temporarily disable it to unblock themselves if needed.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Sending the pihole admin password in a non-https url query string seems like a bad idea. You might argue that your network is 'trusted', but then I'd remind you that this pihole device is designed to intercept all dns on your network, and would be used quite maliciously if compromised.
  - TremendousJudge 8y ago
    I don't think my neighbors are sniffing my wifi traffic, I wouldn't think the password to be at risk
  - city41 8y ago
    You can add a certificate and then access it over https: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/enabling-https-for-your-pi-hole-web-interface/5771 https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/enabling-https-for-your-pi-h...
downrightmike 8y ago
I purposely black list any sites that complain about not able to load their ads. Using both is a better answer.
vitaflo 8y ago
>If Pi-Hole had a webpage where you could put in a domain, i.e. cnbc.com, and it went off and loaded the html of that page, worked out all the other domains that html connects to, and then gives you a 'unblock' button to click, that would improve usability significantly, as even a non-techie user could use it. It kind of already has this. Just tail the log in the web admin, then hit the site in your browser. Unblock the sites that were blocked on that request. I've been using pihole for a year and have only had one site that refused to load. Was pretty easy to figure out which request it was and whitelist it.
saudioger 8y ago
I'd really really like a simple whitelisting interface too. Sometimes I just need to get shit done for a minute, and then I'd just start blocking again. All or nothing is incredibly frustrating sometimes.
- luxpir 8y ago
  It's got that... Disable for 10s, 30s, 5m, custom or permanent. GUI or CLI.
  - saudioger 8y ago
    ok, sold then

xg15 8y ago

Generally, I agree - though I imagine the advantage of pi-hole is that it can also block ads in non-browser contexts, e.g. mobile apps. At least it can until those apps start to use their own hardwired DNS/DoH server...

Sol- 8y ago

I would have the same concern, I imagine the Pi-Hole is best for households only inhabited by tech-affine people. I installed the uBlock Origin addon for some family members and even there they can be easily confused when a website breaks due to it (occurs rarely, but it happens). At least there I can easily tell them to temporarily disable ad-blocking by pressing that big uBlock button. I don't think it would be feasible for me to explain to them how to temporarily whitelist things on the Pi-Hole.

starquake 8y ago
You can add a button to your Raspberry Pi to temporarily disable all the blocking. Not the best solution but still useful to know I think.
- arnjerobben 8y ago
  Do you have a link to a tutorial?
- nmca 8y ago
  I really like this idea. Make it big and red. Easily done it seems: https://www.hackster.io/marko8904/web-connected-aws-iot-big-red-button-on-raspberry-pi-1b6496 https://www.hackster.io/marko8904/web-connected-aws-iot-big-...
zaarn 8y ago
I don't think that's a problem at all. I did give the family members the password to unlock the block temporarily but after a while they simply stopped using those sites altogether. It's also a big plus for devices that can't adblock themselves (phones, embedded devices, etc.)
spacedgrey 8y ago
For the non-tech-savvy members of the household you can provide a link to the disable API. e.g. Temporarily disable blocking for 60 seconds, http://pihole.lan/admin/api.php?disable=60&auth= http://pihole.lan/admin/api.php?disable=60&auth= . You can also infuriate the teenagers in the household by blocking and unblocking domains at certain times via crontab. e.g. 0 08 * * * /usr/local/bin/pihole -wild --delmode instagram.com youtube.com 0 22 * * * /usr/local/bin/pihole -wild instagram.com youtube.com

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago

In my experience, most adblock blockers take a lazy approach - it's just a piece of JS loaded together with the main document. So it's ridiculously easy to protect against: just switch off JS with a click and you can read the page in question. Of course it works for documents only - if you need to use an app, things are much trickier and you need to dig up a bit to understand which script you have to block.

swiley 8y ago
Usually you don’t even need that, they just cover the page with a div that you can delete in inspector.
- andai 8y ago
  This is a very useful skill. I run into a surprising number of pages where invisible elements prevent you from continuing (unintentionally, eg payment forms). Also that crap on the bottom of every Medium article.
  - boomlinde 8y ago
    ... and the top... and the sides...
- namibj 8y ago
  Or zap with uBlock origin
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  That's at least two clicks. Disabling JS with a plugin like disable-HTML is one click.
- nmca 8y ago
  "kill sticky" is amazing for this. One click gets most annoying stuff. https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/ https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/
- 8y ago

Boxbot 8y ago

I run a Pi-hole (mostly for my phone and paired with OpenVPN and iOS/MacOS content blockers) and run into the same "problem". My advice is to stop patronizing those sites at all. Just like paywalled articles linked on HN, just stop visiting. Seriously, just stop. It's the only way we're going to move to something less damaging and invasive than the current ad/data economy. I should note that I do pay quite a lot for journalism and art via subscriptions, Patreon, Kickstater, etc, but I'm not going to tolerate sites clogging up search results with paywalled articles or piles of tracking scripts and media downloads.

icelancer 8y ago
This is completely untenable advice to give family that shares your Internet connection, which the OP clearly pointed out.
- w0utert 8y ago
  Why? I've been running pi-hole on the home network for over 2 years already, and indeed sometimes I get complaints about shopping sites not working, but there is always an alternative site that does work so we order there instead. Just last week it even saved us money because it turned out a different site had the same product at a significantly lower price. Apart from a few non-important edge cases literally every major site works without problems with a pi-hole. I think 'simply stop using sites that refuse to work unless they can track you' is a very valid and workable solution.
throwawayboi 8y ago
> Just stop. As long as there is an economic incentive to serve ads, and as long as 99% of people don’t care (and trust me, normal people absolutely do not care like HN cares), nothing will happen, just like nothing has BEEN happening. We need a GDPR-like bill in the US, and we need it yesterday. Stop relying on the “market”. Stop relying on regular people. This problem is bigger than just “stop visiting those sites”, just like climate change is bigger than just “stop using gasoline”.

setr 8y ago

>Personally, I find a browser based advert/tracking blocker add-on to work better. >If Pi-Hole had a webpage where you could put in a domain, i.e. cnbc.com, and it went off and loaded the html of that page, worked out all the other domains that html connects to, and then gives you a 'unblock' button to click, that would improve usability significantly, as even a non-techie user could use it. Aren't you just describing uMatrix?

close04 8y ago
I think he's describing a local network ad-blocker that you can control and configure from any browser with a simple extension. This means that you can update rules from any device in your home/office and it would still apply for all devices in your network.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  exactly! You wouldn't even need an extension. Just tell your users, if a site isn't loading properly, to go to http://my-pi-hole.local.lan/whitelist http://my-pi-hole.local.lan/whitelist and unblock it.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - fcarraldo 8y ago
    You can do this already. The URL is http://pi.hole http://pi.hole Whether you want them to have access depends on your “users”.
    - close04 8y ago
      A 1-click option (or maybe 2) is a much better solution for tech-averse users :). And extensions already exist to enable/disable Pi-Hole, the functionality could be expanded to include quick whitelisting.
  - blacksmith_tb 8y ago

c12 8y ago

I typically browse the internet with JavaScript disabled by default and rarely come across issues - when I do unless the website is appealing enough to white-list for js I go elsewhere. I have also found the reader view functionality on iOS to be a godsend when visiting websites, no more cookie notices, GDPR popups or banners taking up 1/3 of the display - bliss!

reustle 8y ago
I see "just going elsewhere" as a possible solution 10 years ago but not today, depending on how much you're using the internet.
- close04 8y ago
  To me it feels like the number of sources of information has grown exponentially in the past 10 years. So unless you're talking about a service that more or less locks you in (like a mail provider that you can't easily switch) you can find the same information on dozens of sites. Just pick one that either has reasonable ad practices or one that accepts adblockers.
  - basch 8y ago
    That depends if you are reading original journalism or aggregated journalism. Something from Reuters or AP (or a tweet .. ) might be on hundreds of websites, but look at a list like this, https://www.aldaily.com/media/ https://www.aldaily.com/media/ , how many of these stories dont really get published elsewhere.
    - close04 8y ago
      Sure but how was this better 10 years ago? "Original anything" (read unique) by definition doesn't go well with the "just go elsewhere" concept. If you can go elsewhere then it's not that original or unique. Time has no bearing on this. For "mass content" (aggregation or simply independently reporting on the same topic) you have vastly more choice today. And for unique pieces of information, only available in one place, you would have been just as stuck then as you are now. The uniqueness, not the time is what takes the choice out of the equation.

jlebrech 8y ago

you could have pi-hole redirect to a site with the same story maybe? or even pi-hole could cache it.

joshschreuder 8y ago

Weird, my experience doesn't match yours, and I run both Pi Hole and uBlock. I guess the blocklists factor in a lot and also the sites you visit.

dspillett 8y ago

> many sites that detect that their adverts and tracking scripts don't load and refuse to let you in I think I've only seen that once since running pi-hole (which I've done for about six months now), so I assume the rate of occurrence varies widely with what people are browsing. Do you see it a lot on sites with a particular pattern (i.e. pertaining to a certain industry or hobby/interest)? > and refuse to let you in I'm fine with that. I doubt the information isn't available elsewhere if I really care about it, and the most insidious stuff I'm blocking tends to be on less important content that I can live without anyway (imgur.com was the final straw that made me install network-level blocking - too many pop-unders, the occasional drive-by install attempt, adverts trying to access my microphone and/or camera, and less worrying but still annoying things like auto-playing audio - if such frivolous sites block me for blocking their ads because they can't police them properly I'm sure I'll live!). > a family member or co-worker can't get to a site then they have no way to bypass it unless they also know how Pi-Hole works > Personally, I find a browser based advert/tracking blocker add-on to work better. Other people is why I run blocking at the network level ATM (as well as on my individual mobile devices). I'd rather deal with the occasional "I can't get into X, oh, it is because of the malware/ad blocker, try somewhere else" conversations than have the tech support load of undoing drive-by installs! Also, I wouldn't want other people to easily add stuff to my network's whitelist. Anyone who really objects can always use their own mobile data plan instead of using my network that runs just fine the way I want it to...

mnw21cam 8y ago
>> and refuse to let you in > I'm fine with that. Agreed. Sounds like the Pi-hole is working exactly as intended. As I see it, you have a choice between viewing an ad/malware laden cesspit, or avoiding it. And by installing a Pi-hole, you have already made that choice.
- amelius 8y ago
  You can also use a remote service like outline.com, paste the url there, and still read the content without the ads and without being blocked by an ad-blocker-blocker, and often even without being blocked by view-limiting paywalls.

everdrive 8y ago

This might be unpopular, but I hope Pihole remains untenable for non-technically savvy users. Advertisers and ad-blocking are always engaged in a game of cat and mouse. I'd prefer advertisers to see Pihole as a tiny niche of the market they don't need to seriously work to defeat.

apexalpha 8y ago
The only way to defeat them would be to self-host ads. Which would actually be a good thing since publishers would now have an incentive to make them as light as possible since it's their bandwidth being used.
- gruez 8y ago
  because of how pi-hole works (works on the DNS level), all they have to do is use some CDN domain, which can't possibly be blocked without serious collateral damage.
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    Doesn't using a CDN break impressions statistics, making it impossible to administer?
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - apexalpha 8y ago
    Yes, but as long as they don't pihole works beautifully because the ads are killed before they are downloaded, in stead of stripped after the download (like with uBlock). Especially on data capped devices like mobile phones it works wonders.
    - gruez 8y ago
      >the ads are killed before they are downloaded, in stead of stripped after the download (like with uBlock). That’s false. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Does-uBlock-block-ads-or-just-hide-them%3F https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Does-uBlock-block-ads...

cup-of-tea 8y ago

Not a problem. I can't remember that ever happening, but if it did I would just close the tab. Pi-hole works as intended.

jackson1way 8y ago

I couldn't agree more. Pi-Hole is essentially useless for real world scenarios. I can't hear this short-sighted comments "it doesn't load with pi-hole? then I just close the tab!" oh really? that's how easy it is in your world? and then you just don't buy that flight ticket? because that shitty online ticket agent uses third-third-party payment providers etc. whos domain is unfortunately blocked in pi-hole? even one single incident might force you to entirely disable pi-hole. most people can't afford to play around with that until it works. you can't seriously maintain these block lists yourself. you have to rely on a 3rd party, usually some volunteers - great people btw - but even a huge crowd like them can't make sure, that from time to time, in some part of the internet, in some specific country and language, something will be blocked by mistake and you are stuck. with a browser plugin, at least you can disable it for that specific case. with pi-hole there is no such feature. i have to disable my browser adblocker at least once a month, because something doesn't load. and its always off for sites like paypal, because I really want that payment to work and not suddenly screw up the whole transaction.

JustSomeNobody 8y ago
We're running pi-hole network wide and we just planned a trip with no glitches. The only annoyance (if it's really an annoyance) is clicking on a link in a google search and it's blocked. Go back to Google, realize is was an ad, scroll down a little further and click the real link. No big deal. Nobody in the house is complaining about not reaching sites. So, yes, it is possible to do this in real world scenarios.
- creeble 8y ago
  This is my experience as well. I very rarely find sites that don't work because of pi-hole, other than their advertising links. I can't actually think of a case where I've had to disable pi-hole because a site seemed to have broken functionality. I book flights on Expedia et al all the time. Every once in a while I want to do competitive shopping, and disable pi-hole for an hour. It's a revelation now much crud shows up (and pops up) when I do.
  - 8y ago

samfriedman 8y ago

I've found that most sites which attempt to block access due to ad-blockers typically do so with a full-page pop-up element which hides the (fully loaded) content underneath. With uBlock Origin it's easy enough to use the element-picker to remove the blocking elements of the webpage.

jasonkostempski 8y ago

It's best to just not go to those sites. Never whitelist, it defeats the whole purpose if you care one bit about tracking. If I come across enough links to a site that does that, I add them to my url blacklist, so I never see them again. I wish uBlock Origin would add that feature so I did't have to maintain my own junky plugin to do it.

redleggedfrog 8y ago

Simple phrasing could change this. If the site was deemed "unacceptable", not just "blocked", with no particular detail people would find alternatives (even pick up the phone?). This could be done at both the browser and ISP level, as well as something like Pi-Hole.

dghughes 8y ago

I used to use a pi hole since YouTube on a Samsung smart TV is horrible both YoutTube and Samsung put ads in the same video (YouTube at the start and Samsung ...whenever). But Samsung inject ads frequently and aggressively. Even short ten minute videos are interrupted at least twice by ads sometimes a few seconds before a video ends, I mean really?!? It worked great for a long time but then but changed my setup. Then I wanted to try Pi-Hole again going through the setup again but the results were very different. For example my Samsung smart TV absolutely refused to connect. It is the same TV, same Pi device, same everything but no network.

krisroadruck 8y ago
Well that just sold me on never buying another Samsung TV ever. How in the hell does Samsung, a device manufacturer justify inserting ads over content thats not even theirs?
- bradbatt 8y ago
  I think basically because (1) they can and (2) no one has stepped in to prevent them from doing it. But it's absurd.
- mikec3010 8y ago
  > . How in the hell does Samsung, a device manufacturer justify inserting ads over content thats not even theirs? Earnings growth for shareholders. Something-something-"advertising revolution/innovation".
- dghughes 8y ago
  It seems worse for some videos too which made me think it was YouTube but I can't see YouTube inserting ads mid-video or a few seconds before the end of a video. It's local ads too for my small town so it's targeted very precisely to me. Other crap is resetting the opt-out after a software update. And also putting the agree or disagree checkbox on a separate page than the actual terms you just read. You read it on one page then exit, look at a bunch of terms and scroll to find the matching document that has the agree or disagree checkbox for one of the TOS documents you read. It's a mess. Never buy a smart TV just buy a monitor without any smarts. The sound cuts out on it too you'll miss every few words almost as if it were censoring it. I'm afraid someday it will not work if it can't update its OS.

palebluedot 8y ago

> Additionally, if you are not around, and a family member or co-worker can't get to a site then they have no way to bypass it unless they also know how Pi-Hole works. I ran into that issue with some household members, that had problems with certain websites that didn't work. Since I run my own DHCP server (not through pi-hole), what I ended up doing is giving them a different (e.g. 1.1.1.1) DNS resolver for their machine (based on their MAC address), and then installing uBlock Origin for them. That way, they can easily turn ad blocking on/off themselves, while I can still have network-wide adblocking on by default (especially useful for mobile devices).

city41 8y ago

Here is how to disable pihole via a url: https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/81z8jp/temporarily_disable_pihole_using_a_bookmarked_url/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/81z8jp/temporarily_... With this anyone in your family can temporarily disable it to unblock themselves if needed.

craftyguy 8y ago
Sending the pihole admin password in a non-https url query string seems like a bad idea. You might argue that your network is 'trusted', but then I'd remind you that this pihole device is designed to intercept all dns on your network, and would be used quite maliciously if compromised.
- TremendousJudge 8y ago
  I don't think my neighbors are sniffing my wifi traffic, I wouldn't think the password to be at risk
- city41 8y ago
  You can add a certificate and then access it over https: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/enabling-https-for-your-pi-hole-web-interface/5771 https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/enabling-https-for-your-pi-h...

downrightmike 8y ago

I purposely black list any sites that complain about not able to load their ads. Using both is a better answer.

vitaflo 8y ago

>If Pi-Hole had a webpage where you could put in a domain, i.e. cnbc.com, and it went off and loaded the html of that page, worked out all the other domains that html connects to, and then gives you a 'unblock' button to click, that would improve usability significantly, as even a non-techie user could use it. It kind of already has this. Just tail the log in the web admin, then hit the site in your browser. Unblock the sites that were blocked on that request. I've been using pihole for a year and have only had one site that refused to load. Was pretty easy to figure out which request it was and whitelist it.

saudioger 8y ago

I'd really really like a simple whitelisting interface too. Sometimes I just need to get shit done for a minute, and then I'd just start blocking again. All or nothing is incredibly frustrating sometimes.

luxpir 8y ago
It's got that... Disable for 10s, 30s, 5m, custom or permanent. GUI or CLI.
- saudioger 8y ago
  ok, sold then