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Setting up a pi-hole DNS server for my wifi network was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Horrifying to see what percentage of traffic is on the ad serv

Setting up a pi-hole DNS server for my wifi network was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Horrifying to see what percentage of traffic is on the ad server blacklist though...

christian_fei 6y ago
Definitely!
h4l0 6y ago
I wasn't aware that my Samsung Smart TV had been logging almost my every action on the TV until I set up a PiHole server. Also, my respect for Apple grew by the fact that only device that wasn't doing loads of telemetry turned out to be my Macbook in the whole household.
- _lacroix 6y ago
  Yes!! I was so grossed out by all the logs from my Smart TV. I'm embarrassed to say that I worked in ad tech (as an engineer) for years but I still didn't fully comprehend how pervasive that kind of tracking is in literally every environment.
- outworlder 6y ago
  > Also, my respect for Apple grew by the fact that only device that wasn't doing loads of telemetry turned out to be my Macbook in the whole household Turns out that modern electronic devices are expensive. If you are not charged up-front, there's a good chance that you are being charged in some other way.
  - t-writescode 6y ago
    Let’s be fair, even if you did pay more up front, they’d still get ads from you. The whole thing is pervasive and we need legislation for it.
  - Symbiote 6y ago
    We need legislation against this as the "discount" isn't at all obvious.
- sneak 6y ago
  Apple devices still contact the mothership nonstop even with telemetry disabled, for a bunch of different reasons, even if you don’t use any iCloud or Apple services. Don’t be fooled by the DNS logs.
Waterfall 6y ago
I was going to do this, but you can usually just change the DNS and add a hosts file to your router assuming it can run firmware that allows it (like tomato or ddwrt). It seemed pointless to try since the charts work for http and everything is https now. I didn't setup specs for traffic but the setup I use is much lighter. Just wanted to suggest this for anyone who might want to block on their home network. I also use it as a NAS with USB3.0 to SATA with An SSD.
- _lacroix 6y ago
  You can set up DNS over https with pi-hole btw, I did that for mine. It's definitely not the only way to achieve this kind of ad blocking but if you're like me and have several old raspberry pi's laying around from abandoned projects then it's a nice way to put one to good use.
encom 6y ago
I wanted to do that, but I had a look at Pi Hole and ran away screaming. Instead of proper packaging, they have a 3000 line install script they want you to pipe into Bash. I went a saner route, and used dnsmasq and a blocklist[1] updated nightly via cron. Dnsmasq in turn queries Stubby that talks to uncensoreddns.org via DNS-over-TLS. Boom, DoT on my entire LAN. [1]https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists
- t-writescode 6y ago
  Run it in a docker container
  - encom 6y ago
    That solves nothing.
    - t-writescode 6y ago
      My assumption here was that you didn’t like some rando script running on your machine with escalated permissions. I figured running it in a sandbox in a rocker container would be safer to you. Also, it’s easier to get up and running, though more difficult to update.
- tga 6y ago
  Would you feel better with a 3000 line install script inside a package? Or maybe you would prefer the same 3000 lines of code nicely compiled in a single binary?
  - encom 6y ago
    I'd feel better if the install process didn't rely on manipulating the system package manager using janky scripts. That's a very poor way of handling dependencies, not to mention it's difficult to port.
- _lacroix 6y ago
t-writescode 6y ago
My favorite one continues to see the 1000+ dns requests that my Philips Hue lights send after disabling diagnostics on them. It was the same beforehand :)
- _lacroix 6y ago
  Hah, what a strange dystopia we live in where it's impossible to stop your LIGHTBULBS from tracking you via the internet!! I'm a total curmudgeon about smart home stuff, I don't want any of it beyond a TV in my house if I can help it. It freaks me out seeing people with no technical knowledge outfit their entire home with Nest/Ring/Google Home/Echo/Phillips Hue and even smart refrigerators, while they know virtually nothing about how much privacy they've just relinquished to these companies and they don't have the technical skills to even attempt to mitigate it. I feel like a paranoid doctor who's starting to notice the damage done by cigarettes while the general public is still blissfully puffing away...
  - flyinghamster 6y ago
    You are not alone. It's pretty heartbreaking to see how so many promising products are really surveillance nightmares. I've noped right out of using some nice-but-not-necessary features on some things, because their app wants location access, contact lists, or other things they have no business accessing. WTF?!

Setting up a pi-hole DNS server for my wifi network was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Horrifying to see what percentage of traffic is on the ad server blacklist though...

christian_fei 6y ago

Definitely!

h4l0 6y ago

I wasn't aware that my Samsung Smart TV had been logging almost my every action on the TV until I set up a PiHole server. Also, my respect for Apple grew by the fact that only device that wasn't doing loads of telemetry turned out to be my Macbook in the whole household.

_lacroix 6y ago
Yes!! I was so grossed out by all the logs from my Smart TV. I'm embarrassed to say that I worked in ad tech (as an engineer) for years but I still didn't fully comprehend how pervasive that kind of tracking is in literally every environment.
outworlder 6y ago
> Also, my respect for Apple grew by the fact that only device that wasn't doing loads of telemetry turned out to be my Macbook in the whole household Turns out that modern electronic devices are expensive. If you are not charged up-front, there's a good chance that you are being charged in some other way.
- t-writescode 6y ago
  Let’s be fair, even if you did pay more up front, they’d still get ads from you. The whole thing is pervasive and we need legislation for it.
- Symbiote 6y ago
  We need legislation against this as the "discount" isn't at all obvious.
sneak 6y ago
Apple devices still contact the mothership nonstop even with telemetry disabled, for a bunch of different reasons, even if you don’t use any iCloud or Apple services. Don’t be fooled by the DNS logs.

Waterfall 6y ago

I was going to do this, but you can usually just change the DNS and add a hosts file to your router assuming it can run firmware that allows it (like tomato or ddwrt). It seemed pointless to try since the charts work for http and everything is https now. I didn't setup specs for traffic but the setup I use is much lighter. Just wanted to suggest this for anyone who might want to block on their home network. I also use it as a NAS with USB3.0 to SATA with An SSD.

_lacroix 6y ago
You can set up DNS over https with pi-hole btw, I did that for mine. It's definitely not the only way to achieve this kind of ad blocking but if you're like me and have several old raspberry pi's laying around from abandoned projects then it's a nice way to put one to good use.

encom 6y ago

I wanted to do that, but I had a look at Pi Hole and ran away screaming. Instead of proper packaging, they have a 3000 line install script they want you to pipe into Bash. I went a saner route, and used dnsmasq and a blocklist[1] updated nightly via cron. Dnsmasq in turn queries Stubby that talks to uncensoreddns.org via DNS-over-TLS. Boom, DoT on my entire LAN. [1]https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists

t-writescode 6y ago
Run it in a docker container
- encom 6y ago
  That solves nothing.
  - t-writescode 6y ago
    My assumption here was that you didn’t like some rando script running on your machine with escalated permissions. I figured running it in a sandbox in a rocker container would be safer to you. Also, it’s easier to get up and running, though more difficult to update.
tga 6y ago
Would you feel better with a 3000 line install script inside a package? Or maybe you would prefer the same 3000 lines of code nicely compiled in a single binary?
- encom 6y ago
  I'd feel better if the install process didn't rely on manipulating the system package manager using janky scripts. That's a very poor way of handling dependencies, not to mention it's difficult to port.
_lacroix 6y ago

t-writescode 6y ago

My favorite one continues to see the 1000+ dns requests that my Philips Hue lights send after disabling diagnostics on them. It was the same beforehand :)

_lacroix 6y ago
Hah, what a strange dystopia we live in where it's impossible to stop your LIGHTBULBS from tracking you via the internet!! I'm a total curmudgeon about smart home stuff, I don't want any of it beyond a TV in my house if I can help it. It freaks me out seeing people with no technical knowledge outfit their entire home with Nest/Ring/Google Home/Echo/Phillips Hue and even smart refrigerators, while they know virtually nothing about how much privacy they've just relinquished to these companies and they don't have the technical skills to even attempt to mitigate it. I feel like a paranoid doctor who's starting to notice the damage done by cigarettes while the general public is still blissfully puffing away...
- flyinghamster 6y ago
  You are not alone. It's pretty heartbreaking to see how so many promising products are really surveillance nightmares. I've noped right out of using some nice-but-not-necessary features on some things, because their app wants location access, contact lists, or other things they have no business accessing. WTF?!