What is so good about Pi Hole ?

[Socket of Davis]

So what is so good about Pi Hole ?

It's hard to know where to start .
Apart from being a system wide DNS resolver , and superb ad-blocker , it has shown me so much
about my network traffic that I never noticed before , and it's not for want of looking either ,
I've got a whole arsenal of weapons to do that , but I still had my eyes opened by Pi Hole .

I currently have over a million toxic sites actively blocked , from curated lists that I will happily share
with anyone interested .
It's been running here 24/7 for two years , on a Pi ZeroW , which cost about 15 beer tokens ,
and runs on a cheapo usb charger , and it uses about 3 watts .....
.... what's not to like about that arrangement ?

" What have you done for me lately ? " .... here's a trivial example of the deliciousness :-
Are you tired of seeing youtube ads , forcibly served , even in mid-stream these days ?
Then just block these in your Pi Hole
r2---sn-cu-h5oz.googlevideo.comr
r5---sn-cu-h5oz.googlevideo.comr

Pretty much all the info needed to make a start is here :-
https://pi-hole.net/

BTW - I'm a bit of a security/privacy maniac , perhaps I should have mentioned that in my intro post !

 

[Deleted member 58530]

So what is so good about Pi Hole ?

I have no idea.

I use Ublock Origin and DuckDuckgo privacy essentials and I have absolutely no problems with ads coming through.

 

[Condobloke]

Much the same reaction as @poorguy .....I have absolutely no problem with ads....and I certainly dont use that sort of arrangement to stop them !

I am also mindfful that a great deal of the ads are inserted by youtube(google) in the middle of a stream etc are there by arrangement with the poeple/person who made the video and are relied on by those people for their income. They have put a great deal of work into making the videos in the first place and have had to satisfy extensive requirements from google to get to the stage of getting paid.......

If I am not in the mood to watch an add....I either click on "skip add"....or watch something else

 

[Nik-Ken-Bah]

Pi-hole nah dinna need it and as for ads they don't really bother me just skip them as I know what I want and need so what they are advertising don't interest me in the least.

 

[SnickleFritz]

Just installed it, loving it so far.

Update: The ad blocking at a higher network level, AML-S805X-AC is plugged directly into my router/access point, is nice. Especially when coupled with browser level uBlock Origin plugin/extension for firefox/chrome/chromium, however that is not the real advantage. The upstream DNS caching is dope and seems to be value add for speed of name resolution. I'm loving it. For reals. I'll never NOT have this running on my network.