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I've just been dumping ad blocking hosts files into /etc/hosts.d/ on my router since long before pi-hole was a thing.

by bhaney 2y ago

MattSayar 2y ago
How do you keep them updated?
- bhaney 2y ago
  curl in a cronjob
vwadhwani 2y ago
Works great for PCs, but my pi-hole doubles as a VPN and lets me block ads on my iPhone too.
- doubled112 2y ago
  My router supports DNS blocklists and VPN too.
- bhaney 2y ago
  > my pi-hole doubles as a VPN So does any non-trash router.
ahepp 2y ago
I find pi-hole fascinating since it shows there is a sizeable market for open Linux routers in the home, but for some reason people seem fixated with running it on a raspberry pi. That’s fine, but it seems like the worst of all worlds? I wouldn’t say the Pi is particularly reliable, and it doesn’t have a switch chip inside it, or enough beef for heavier processing. It’s all just standard *nix software that will work on anything from my SFP module running openwrt, to a reflashed MIPS Ubiquiti router, to my x86 FreeBSD box.
- ahepp 2y ago
  In classic HN fashion I forgot to mention that the nice web UI must play a key role here, and make up for all the other UX issues that come with using a pi rather than just “apt-get dnsmasq”
- gh02t 2y ago
  The Pi is familiar and comfortable for a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise use Linux or run any kind of server. It's genuinely not the best option in a lot of respects, but it's also the only thing a lot of people know and going to a dedicated server or generic Linux/BSD router seems intimidating, even if they appreciate the possible advantages. Pi Hole was started specifically as a project targeting the Pi. It wasn't the first to do ad blocking DNS by a long shot, but it did marry a nice web UI to DNS and made it a lot more accessible. Nowadays I think there are much better options like AdGuard that do the same thing, but "running PiHole on a Pi" is a tangible thing to do with the RasPi you got as a gift and is an approachable project for a lot of Linux beginners with real benefits. You can find a million people on YouTube recommending exactly that, and walking you through how to do it step-by-step on a RasPi. Lot of people who are interested in tech but not so skilled probably don't have dedicated servers or know how to set one up, and I expect PiHole on a RasPi gets a lot of momentum from that as something cool and actually useful to do that isn't actually difficult/there are a million tutorials for. Tl;dr is I agree with you, there are clearly technically superior options. But for a lot of the people you're referring to the alternative is not to run something better on a dedicated server/router, it's to do nothing at all and go back to using the router from your ISP.
  - ddejohn 2y ago
    I'm one of those users -- I set up a pihole as my DHCP server to get ad blocking on all devices on my network a few years ago and haven't really thought about it since. Raspberry Pi was familiar enough. Networking in general is mostly Greek to me, so it wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it's pretty much been set-and-forget since the initial setup (aside from updating pihole itself and the web interface every few months). I've seen AdGuard recommended a lot recently but from what I can tell this doesn't do the same thing as a DHCP pihole. Something I'd love to do some day is replace my consumer router with something open source and run an all-in-one solution (ad blocking for all devices on network, DoH, as well as just a generally competent home router for a small apartment). Do you have any recommendations for where to start if I were to go down this road?
LinuxBender 2y ago
Similar here. I use Unbound DNS plus 1Hosts [1] and a few others here and there and I block all the DoH/DoT servers. I also blackhole route known malicious networks. [1] - https://github.com/badmojr/1Hosts https://github.com/badmojr/1Hosts

I've just been dumping ad blocking hosts files into /etc/hosts.d/ on my router since long before pi-hole was a thing.

by bhaney 2y ago

I've just been dumping ad blocking hosts files into /etc/hosts.d/ on my router since long before pi-hole was a thing.

MattSayar 2y ago

How do you keep them updated?

bhaney 2y ago
curl in a cronjob

vwadhwani 2y ago

Works great for PCs, but my pi-hole doubles as a VPN and lets me block ads on my iPhone too.

doubled112 2y ago
My router supports DNS blocklists and VPN too.
bhaney 2y ago
> my pi-hole doubles as a VPN So does any non-trash router.

ahepp 2y ago

I find pi-hole fascinating since it shows there is a sizeable market for open Linux routers in the home, but for some reason people seem fixated with running it on a raspberry pi. That’s fine, but it seems like the worst of all worlds? I wouldn’t say the Pi is particularly reliable, and it doesn’t have a switch chip inside it, or enough beef for heavier processing. It’s all just standard *nix software that will work on anything from my SFP module running openwrt, to a reflashed MIPS Ubiquiti router, to my x86 FreeBSD box.

ahepp 2y ago
In classic HN fashion I forgot to mention that the nice web UI must play a key role here, and make up for all the other UX issues that come with using a pi rather than just “apt-get dnsmasq”
gh02t 2y ago
The Pi is familiar and comfortable for a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise use Linux or run any kind of server. It's genuinely not the best option in a lot of respects, but it's also the only thing a lot of people know and going to a dedicated server or generic Linux/BSD router seems intimidating, even if they appreciate the possible advantages. Pi Hole was started specifically as a project targeting the Pi. It wasn't the first to do ad blocking DNS by a long shot, but it did marry a nice web UI to DNS and made it a lot more accessible. Nowadays I think there are much better options like AdGuard that do the same thing, but "running PiHole on a Pi" is a tangible thing to do with the RasPi you got as a gift and is an approachable project for a lot of Linux beginners with real benefits. You can find a million people on YouTube recommending exactly that, and walking you through how to do it step-by-step on a RasPi. Lot of people who are interested in tech but not so skilled probably don't have dedicated servers or know how to set one up, and I expect PiHole on a RasPi gets a lot of momentum from that as something cool and actually useful to do that isn't actually difficult/there are a million tutorials for. Tl;dr is I agree with you, there are clearly technically superior options. But for a lot of the people you're referring to the alternative is not to run something better on a dedicated server/router, it's to do nothing at all and go back to using the router from your ISP.
- ddejohn 2y ago
  I'm one of those users -- I set up a pihole as my DHCP server to get ad blocking on all devices on my network a few years ago and haven't really thought about it since. Raspberry Pi was familiar enough. Networking in general is mostly Greek to me, so it wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it's pretty much been set-and-forget since the initial setup (aside from updating pihole itself and the web interface every few months). I've seen AdGuard recommended a lot recently but from what I can tell this doesn't do the same thing as a DHCP pihole. Something I'd love to do some day is replace my consumer router with something open source and run an all-in-one solution (ad blocking for all devices on network, DoH, as well as just a generally competent home router for a small apartment). Do you have any recommendations for where to start if I were to go down this road?

LinuxBender 2y ago

Similar here. I use Unbound DNS plus 1Hosts [1] and a few others here and there and I block all the DoH/DoT servers. I also blackhole route known malicious networks. [1] - https://github.com/badmojr/1Hosts https://github.com/badmojr/1Hosts