A while back, several versions of this blog ago, I tried setting up a Pi-Hole (pihole from now on) internet ad eater. The pihole set up was easy, but I had a big problem with internet speed. For some reason I couldn’t quite pin down, the pihole slowed my internet to a crawl. After some research, I think it had something to do with IPv6 traffic and pihole not being able to do anything with it. I could never find a solution to the problem.
Thanks to all this virus stuff, I’ve been doing classes online and slowed down my business, so I have a lot more time at home. I decided to give the pihole another shot today after class. It went almost perfectly this time.
I decided to use a Raspberry Pi Zero W for this project, but I may move it over to something with a wired network connection at some point. It took a little while to get everything installed and configured, but it was worth it. There are no ads anywhere; not on my phone or Pandora or streaming apps like Hulu. It didn’t slow the network to a crawl this time. In fact, it feels a bit faster than before.
The only problem I encountered had a relatively easy solution. My initial setup, with my router working as the DHCP server and the pihole as DNS only, wouldn’t allow me to reach my own domain name, raucousatthecaucus.net. I had to disable DHCP on the router and let the pihole take care of it. I’d rather have the router do DHCP, but this gets the job done.
I’m really pleased with the results. My local news websites no longer vomit ads all over me. I’ll have to print a case for the Pi when my new 3D printer comes in (hopefully in 10 days or so).