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"After years with Pi-hole, which now blocks over a million domains, I’ve become incredibly accustomed to a mostly ad-free web. Without realizing it, I’d forgott

"After years with Pi-hole, which now blocks over a million domains, I’ve become incredibly accustomed to a mostly ad-free web. Without realizing it, I’d forgotten what the typical internet experience feels like." It is estimated that between 30% and 50% of Internet users run ad blockers. I haven't see a single ad in years. Besides, Pi-holes are kind of overrated. First, ad blockers running in the browser are simply more effective. Second, Pi-hole is kind of heavy for what it does; you can accomplish the same by loading a blacklist directly to the config file of Unbound/Bind/Dnsmasq.

jayd16 1y ago
Is that right? Mobile is like 60% of the web traffic and they don't really have popular and effective ad blocking.
- 1dom 1y ago
  There are native, easily accessible ublock variations for Firefox for Windows, Linux and Android. A lot of nerds also have some form of private overlay network with default DNS to adguard or pihole or similar, again, making for identical adblock experience on all platforms.
  - jayd16 1y ago
    Yes and it seems great but there's no denying its not widely used.
    - fluoridation 1y ago
      Okay, but what does it matter? The options exist for people who want them, nonetheless.
      - jayd16 1y ago
        Because were talking about the current usage of ad blockers, not what options exist.
  - avree 1y ago
    There are plenty of great adblockers on iPhone too.
- drnick1 1y ago
  iOS (Safari) also has uBlock now.
  - dvdgsng 1y ago
    I run ublock in all my browsers and devices, but other people on my network (family) don't, so pihole helps there. Its really not an either-or question, they are complementary.
mixedmath 1y ago
That seemed to me like a radically high estimate of people who use ad blockers. But I see that the first page of results on MyFavoriteWebSearchEngine support that claim.
sherr 1y ago
I don't use "pi-hole", just an in-browser blocker (ublock origin) and am happy. But I would assume a "pi-hole" would be a useful addition to a household using a variety of potentially ad-infested devices e.g. a smart TV, various tablets etc.
- drnick1 1y ago
  The issue is that (some) smart devices are known to bypass local DNS servers entirely. They either use a public DNS server or hardcoded IPs. The best thing would be not to connect any "smart" TV to the Internet. These are closed firmware devices with cameras and microphones and they just can't be trusted.
  - encom 1y ago
    >bypass local DNS servers There are easy ways to fix that at the router level, but DNS-over-HTTPS clowns ruined this.
    - account42 1y ago
      Smart devices always had the option of using their own resolver mechanism that you can't interfere with or just hard-code the IPs. I don't like DoH due to the central gatekeepers its current implementation in browsers encourages but I don't think it really changes anything here.
  - accrual 1y ago
    > The best thing would be not to connect any "smart" TV to the Internet. Agree! I regret letting my Vizio TV stay online for as long as I did. At first it was fine, and I did get a UI refresh a couple years back that was OK. But then some update caused it to start ripping control away from whatever my last HDMI input was so it could show me ads (which fails). Even though it's perma-offline now, it still messes with my inputs sometimes.
  - fluoridation 1y ago
    I thought Pi-holes were supposed to block connections to blacklisted domains, not merely serve as local DNSs. Is that not what they do?
accrual 1y ago
I personally feel differently about the Pihole. I run one and it blocks a lot of telemetry traffic from smart TVs, apps like Netflix, etc. that are not originating from a browser. I'm showing a 23.1% block rate today. But for my use case, I like having the Pihole UI to see the charts and it's nice for temporarily unblocking one domain, etc. Here is an excellent alternative to running Pihole that I've used before: https://www.geoghegan.ca/unbound-adblock.html https://www.geoghegan.ca/unbound-adblock.html
- AdmiralAsshat 1y ago
  > I personally feel differently about the Pihole. I run one and it blocks a lot of telemetry traffic from smart TVs, apps like Netflix, etc. that are not originating from a browser. I'm showing a 23.1% block rate today. Damn. I played around with PiHole years ago on an original Raspberry Pi Model B, and kinda forgot about it--it broke some stuff, and most of my connected devices could run their own adblocker. Only in the past year did I finally buy a "Smart" TV and leverage its existing GoogleTV apps, because I got tired of trying to maintain my aging Kodi Box. I should probably setup PiHole anew and point my Smart TV's DNS at it...
  - EasyMark 1y ago
    I bought an apple tv box so I could disconnect my samsung TV from the internet forever. I think no matter what you do they will find a way to spy on you through your TV. I'm sure there are android boxes that will do as well as apple TV too.
    - drnick1 1y ago
      One could argue however that the Apple TV box also spies on you. It is just more limited in its ability to be malicious because it does not have a microphone or a camera. But it is still a problem because Apple, like Google, has fingers in many pies (phones, email, file storage, watches, smart devices) and can build very detailed profiles of individuals.
grishka 1y ago
> First, ad blockers running in the browser are simply more effective. On my phone I do both: I use AdGuard DNS to block ads system-wide, and Vivaldi's built-in ad blocker to block those ads that still slip through.
mvdtnz 1y ago
> "After years with Pi-hole, which now blocks over a million domains, I’ve become incredibly accustomed to a mostly ad-free web. Without realizing it, I’d forgotten what the typical internet experience feels like." I'm curious when I see quotes like this - are people exposing their home network to the internet? Or running a pi-hole in the cloud? VPN'ing into the home network? Or what? I have run a pi-hole in the traditional sense (a raspberry pi with pi-hole software on my home network with my home router DNS pointing at it). But this doesn't prevent me from seeing ads when I'm out and about on 5G or public wifi or work wifi or whatever. As an aside I stopped running pi-holes at home for reliability reasons. Lots of failed SD cards, locked up raspberry pis etc became more aggravation than it was worth. It's a neat system - when it's working.

jayd16 1y ago

Is that right? Mobile is like 60% of the web traffic and they don't really have popular and effective ad blocking.

1dom 1y ago
There are native, easily accessible ublock variations for Firefox for Windows, Linux and Android. A lot of nerds also have some form of private overlay network with default DNS to adguard or pihole or similar, again, making for identical adblock experience on all platforms.
- jayd16 1y ago
  Yes and it seems great but there's no denying its not widely used.
  - fluoridation 1y ago
    Okay, but what does it matter? The options exist for people who want them, nonetheless.
    - jayd16 1y ago
      Because were talking about the current usage of ad blockers, not what options exist.
- avree 1y ago
  There are plenty of great adblockers on iPhone too.
drnick1 1y ago
iOS (Safari) also has uBlock now.
- dvdgsng 1y ago
  I run ublock in all my browsers and devices, but other people on my network (family) don't, so pihole helps there. Its really not an either-or question, they are complementary.

mixedmath 1y ago

That seemed to me like a radically high estimate of people who use ad blockers. But I see that the first page of results on MyFavoriteWebSearchEngine support that claim.

sherr 1y ago

I don't use "pi-hole", just an in-browser blocker (ublock origin) and am happy. But I would assume a "pi-hole" would be a useful addition to a household using a variety of potentially ad-infested devices e.g. a smart TV, various tablets etc.

drnick1 1y ago
The issue is that (some) smart devices are known to bypass local DNS servers entirely. They either use a public DNS server or hardcoded IPs. The best thing would be not to connect any "smart" TV to the Internet. These are closed firmware devices with cameras and microphones and they just can't be trusted.
- encom 1y ago
  >bypass local DNS servers There are easy ways to fix that at the router level, but DNS-over-HTTPS clowns ruined this.
  - account42 1y ago
    Smart devices always had the option of using their own resolver mechanism that you can't interfere with or just hard-code the IPs. I don't like DoH due to the central gatekeepers its current implementation in browsers encourages but I don't think it really changes anything here.
- accrual 1y ago
  > The best thing would be not to connect any "smart" TV to the Internet. Agree! I regret letting my Vizio TV stay online for as long as I did. At first it was fine, and I did get a UI refresh a couple years back that was OK. But then some update caused it to start ripping control away from whatever my last HDMI input was so it could show me ads (which fails). Even though it's perma-offline now, it still messes with my inputs sometimes.
- fluoridation 1y ago
  I thought Pi-holes were supposed to block connections to blacklisted domains, not merely serve as local DNSs. Is that not what they do?

accrual 1y ago

I personally feel differently about the Pihole. I run one and it blocks a lot of telemetry traffic from smart TVs, apps like Netflix, etc. that are not originating from a browser. I'm showing a 23.1% block rate today. But for my use case, I like having the Pihole UI to see the charts and it's nice for temporarily unblocking one domain, etc. Here is an excellent alternative to running Pihole that I've used before: https://www.geoghegan.ca/unbound-adblock.html https://www.geoghegan.ca/unbound-adblock.html

AdmiralAsshat 1y ago
> I personally feel differently about the Pihole. I run one and it blocks a lot of telemetry traffic from smart TVs, apps like Netflix, etc. that are not originating from a browser. I'm showing a 23.1% block rate today. Damn. I played around with PiHole years ago on an original Raspberry Pi Model B, and kinda forgot about it--it broke some stuff, and most of my connected devices could run their own adblocker. Only in the past year did I finally buy a "Smart" TV and leverage its existing GoogleTV apps, because I got tired of trying to maintain my aging Kodi Box. I should probably setup PiHole anew and point my Smart TV's DNS at it...
- EasyMark 1y ago
  I bought an apple tv box so I could disconnect my samsung TV from the internet forever. I think no matter what you do they will find a way to spy on you through your TV. I'm sure there are android boxes that will do as well as apple TV too.
  - drnick1 1y ago
    One could argue however that the Apple TV box also spies on you. It is just more limited in its ability to be malicious because it does not have a microphone or a camera. But it is still a problem because Apple, like Google, has fingers in many pies (phones, email, file storage, watches, smart devices) and can build very detailed profiles of individuals.

grishka 1y ago

> First, ad blockers running in the browser are simply more effective. On my phone I do both: I use AdGuard DNS to block ads system-wide, and Vivaldi's built-in ad blocker to block those ads that still slip through.

mvdtnz 1y ago

> "After years with Pi-hole, which now blocks over a million domains, I’ve become incredibly accustomed to a mostly ad-free web. Without realizing it, I’d forgotten what the typical internet experience feels like." I'm curious when I see quotes like this - are people exposing their home network to the internet? Or running a pi-hole in the cloud? VPN'ing into the home network? Or what? I have run a pi-hole in the traditional sense (a raspberry pi with pi-hole software on my home network with my home router DNS pointing at it). But this doesn't prevent me from seeing ads when I'm out and about on 5G or public wifi or work wifi or whatever. As an aside I stopped running pi-holes at home for reliability reasons. Lots of failed SD cards, locked up raspberry pis etc became more aggravation than it was worth. It's a neat system - when it's working.