PiHole is an Ad-Blocker you can install in your home to skip advertisements. Doing so you will have an overall better browsing experience on the web. The PiHole was originally created for the mini-computer Raspberry Pi. But you can also install this program in a docker container in your network to use it. Like me!
So how does it work? After you installed PiHole you have to point your router to the machine for any DNS (Domain Name System) requests. Usually, most internet service providers (ISPs) will provide you with a DNS service or your router will choose Cloudflare or Google to do so. But with the PiHole you just let the things in your network you really want to have.
If you ask for the site of the NewYork Times for example, your PiHole will just give you the actual site. That means you dont get the advertisement that the site is trying to send with it. This will also increases the performance of your devices as they don’t have to deal with all of the unnecessary data.
My PiHole Ad-Blocker at home
The PiHole works with blocklists poeple like WaLLy3K are collecting and sharing. But there are special lists you want for cetrain countries. I added, the swedish advertisement videos on Youtube, as I currently live there. After you configurated your PiHole and your Router, all the devices in your network will conect through this service.
I often caught myself to VPN home just for the pleasure of not seeing all this advertisement. As you get used to it, you don’t want to have them back. As you can see in the picture it blocks around 72% of all incoming traffic. Sometimes though it can happen that you want to access a site that is blocked by the PiHole.
Than you just have to go to its web interface and whitelist the URL you want to use or just shut down the PiHole for a second. I can just recommend the PiHole especially if you have a raspberry pi or a Server at home. If you are interested in other Homelab projects, check them out here!
