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Ad-blockers (like uBlock Origin) and pi-hole operate on two different levels. The ad-blocker prevents your browser from ever requesting data (like the ads) fro

Ad-blockers (like uBlock Origin) and pi-hole operate on two different levels. The ad-blocker prevents your browser from ever requesting data (like the ads) from the place they come from in the first place. Pi-hole on the other end works with DNS, or the Domain Name System. You set it up so your router sends all DNS traffic to the pi-hole, which will then drop any traffic that has a domain name it has blacklisted. So it only kicks in if something on your network actually requested something from one of those blacklisted domains. It comes with many domains already included, but more can be added fairly easily and large user-made lists and regexs exist to expand it. Ad-blockers can be used on mobile versions of browsers (like Firefox for Android) but for people using mobile apps (like the Youtube app) having a pihole is a lifesaver.

chubot 7y ago
Yes that makes sense, mobile apps need it! Funny I wrote a node.js HTTP proxy like 5 years ago to run all my browsing sessions through. I downloaded a text file of ad domains, probably from adblock itself. So yeah the benefit is that you don't have to configure each browser. Well it was an HTTP proxy and not DNS, so it did require some extra configuration on the client. But you don't have to install an extension at least. But I stopped using it because it was a pain to administer and I didn't spend much time making the code solid. But I will look into pi-hole -- didn't know about it!