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So, how much effort is it to setup and maintain PiHole? Conceptually it sounds great, but if I set it up properly it's going to impact not just me, but everythi

So, how much effort is it to setup and maintain PiHole? Conceptually it sounds great, but if I set it up properly it's going to impact not just me, but everything in the house, which mean my wife. And Fiddly and "F-with it" stuff just is not attractive. There's enough internet rage when everything is (supposedly) working as it should much less with something like PiHole potentially mucking things up. So, just curious how it is to live with PiHole.

csivilo 3y ago
Setting up a PiHole is very easy- see https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-install https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-insta... for options. The hardest part will likely be pointing your router to the new local DNS IP (or at least is was for me, thanks to clunky netgear UI). On maintenance: there is an included admin console from which you can whitelist or blacklist domains. The external adlists are updated automatically. The only time I've been frustrated with my PiHole is when I forget it exists and try to use analytics tools (Logrocket, FB analytics) for work. Otherwise haven't noticed any adverse effects on my web experience.
Liquix 3y ago
pihole is very stable - deploy it on a cheap pi/nuc/etc that lives near the router and forget about it forever. as a failsafe you can set your router's main DNS server to the pihole and set the secondary DNS to something like google or cloudflare. this way if pihole ever goes down you just see ads instead of the whole network being knocked offline.
blackbear_ 3y ago
I have been running a pihole on a raspberry for several years and I cannot recall a single time it gave us problems. Depending on how comfortable you are with Linux and networking, setup could take from an hour to perhaps a day? Also do note that you can start testing it yourself, and only switch the entire household to it when you are confident it works. I strongly recommend you give it a shot :)

csivilo 3y ago

Setting up a PiHole is very easy- see https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-install https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-insta... for options. The hardest part will likely be pointing your router to the new local DNS IP (or at least is was for me, thanks to clunky netgear UI). On maintenance: there is an included admin console from which you can whitelist or blacklist domains. The external adlists are updated automatically. The only time I've been frustrated with my PiHole is when I forget it exists and try to use analytics tools (Logrocket, FB analytics) for work. Otherwise haven't noticed any adverse effects on my web experience.

Liquix 3y ago

pihole is very stable - deploy it on a cheap pi/nuc/etc that lives near the router and forget about it forever. as a failsafe you can set your router's main DNS server to the pihole and set the secondary DNS to something like google or cloudflare. this way if pihole ever goes down you just see ads instead of the whole network being knocked offline.

blackbear_ 3y ago

I have been running a pihole on a raspberry for several years and I cannot recall a single time it gave us problems. Depending on how comfortable you are with Linux and networking, setup could take from an hour to perhaps a day? Also do note that you can start testing it yourself, and only switch the entire household to it when you are confident it works. I strongly recommend you give it a shot :)