Pi(hole) in the Sky

[Dave Rice]

For those of you that want to have network wide ad blocking but don’t have a raspberry pi, I’ve created a PiHole ad blocker out in the cloud.

It’s address is x.x.x.x. To cover everything on your network all you have to do is access your DHCP server (probably on your router) and change the primary DNS address  to that. Change the secondary DNS server to 8.8.8.8 (Google’s DNS server) or your ISP’s own so that in the unlikely event it’s down you still get a DNS service.

You may have to reboot the router, you will certainly have to reboot any devices so they pick up the new settings. You can check these via Settings, Network and Internet, View your Network Properties.

To test it’s blocking ads go to https://pi-hole.net/pages-to-test-ad-blocking-performance/

The amount of traffic DNS uses is trivial, you will not affect anything or incur any costs to me by using it. It’s in Digital Ocean’s data centre in London and has tons of bandwidth so it won’t slow you (or me) down.

I’ve mentioned before I have an OpenVPN server in the same data centre that also has ad blocking, if you want to use for times when you’re doing banking etc. it just PM me. There are clients for Android & iOS as well as Windows & Linux.

[The Duke]

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This looks cool Dave. I use 1 dot 1, for my DNS but I’ll defo swap the primary to this. Cheers.

I have a pi hole set up, but it went down around november. Can’t even remeber what hapend or why now, but kept meaning to set it back up.

I’ll leave 1 dot, as my secondary.

[Dave Rice]

Scratch this one! I’ve just found out that a public DNS server is a bad idea as it can be used in amplification attacks. So it’s off. However the VPN one is OK security wise.

[The Duke]

Oh well, the idea was good.

[Richard]

Hi Dave.

Thank you for your time effort and time, I am sorry it could not pan out as planned.

[D-Dan]

Or, just spend £35 on a Pi and setup your own PiHole/VPN – I’ve been running one for 12 months with no issues. (And I rarely see an ad – and when using, ahem, a famous jolly roger site, the dodgy side/popups no longer work, which is a bonus)

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Ed P]

If you are happy to drop Ethernet and use a fast wireless connection then the Pi3A+ costs £23.50+p&p from Pimoroni. Taking out the Ethernet seems to have made Bluetooth and WiFi more stable, but for some reason it uses a USB-A connection and is not completely interchangeable with Pi3B+ or Pi Zero accessories as a result.

I’d recommend using a small USB hub + stick or cheap SSD for storage as SD cards are prone to fall over if they get too many read/writes. You could use a Pi Zero W and do it on the cheap for £9.30 +p&p

In the case of the Pi3A you could ad three more USB ports together with an Ethernet hub for £10 but that would add up to the cost of a Pi3b+.

If true gigabit Ethernet and USB3 is important then you need to wait till next year when the Pi4 comes out.

[D-Dan]

I have one Pi set up as an NFS server – with a single drive plugged in. The sdcard simply hands over to that server, and all four PIs will find rootfs there in it’s own directory. Keeps read/write operations on the sdcard to an absolute minimum, and using a real drive tends to be a tad faster, even over the network (wired, of course).

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Author]

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