Pi-hole can help to secure your internet access, protecting against malware and adverts
Pi-hole can help to secure your internet access, protecting against malware and adverts

What is Pi-hole and should you be running it on your home network?

Written by Daily Fix - Published 25-Jun-2023, last updated 21-Jun-2024

Pi-hole is a free and open-source software project that aims to block advertisements and trackers on a network-wide level. It is a lightweight DNS server that sits between your devices and the internet, and it works by blocking DNS requests for known ad and tracker domains.

Pi-hole is easy to set up and use, and it can be run on a Raspberry Pi or other low-cost hardware. It is also very effective at blocking ads, and it can significantly improve the performance and privacy of your home network.

Why you should run Pi-hole on your home network

There are many reasons why you might want to run Pi-hole on your home network. Here are a few of the most compelling reasons:

Use Pi-hole to block adverts

Pi-hole can block ads on all of your internet connected devices, including your computers, smartphones, tablets, and TVs. This can significantly improve the browsing experience, and it can also save you a lot of bandwidth.

Use Pi-hole to improve privacy

When you block ads, you are also blocking trackers. Trackers are small files that are placed on your device by websites and other online services. These trackers can be used to track your browsing activity, and they can also be used to target you with advertising. By blocking trackers, you can improve your privacy and protect your personal information.

Use Pi-hole to improve performance

Ads can slow down your internet connection. By blocking ads, you can free up bandwidth and improve the performance of your network.

You can install Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi computer
You can install Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi computer

How do you set up Pi-hole?

Setting up Pi-hole is relatively easy. There are various ways you can set it up, but one of the most common is to install the software on a Raspberry Pi computer which is connected to your network. All internet traffic is then routed through this Pi so that the Pi-hole software can work its magic.

You can follow the instructions on the Pi-hole website: https://pi-hole.net/. Here are the basic steps involved:

  • Download the Raspberry Pi operating system from the Raspberry Pi website, write is to an SD card and install it on your Raspberry Pi computer.
  • Once the operating system is installed, install Pi-hole by running the following command in a terminal window:
    curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash
  • Configure Pi-hole with a static IP address so that this can be used to route your internet traffic through.
  • Set your router to use Pi-hole as the DNS server and this will send these settings to computers, mobile devices and smart home tech connecting to your network.
  • During the setup process, Pi-hole will have installed a default list of ad sites to block. To add more blocklists you can visit firebog.net which has a lots of blocklists you can download. Look for the link that says "If you wish to automate the update of your blocklist sources, URL-only and CSV versions are found here" and you can download the lists for importing into Pi-hole.

Here is a great tutorial on setting up Pi-hole

Are there any problems with using Pi-hole?

In the main, running Pi-hole is a "set and forget" procedure - but there are a few problems you may run into when running Pi-hole. We will be building a list of such problems here over the coming weeks and months:

Problems loading websites on Safari for Mac when using Pi-hole

Not long after installing Pi-hole we encountered an intermittent problem accessing websites using Safari on Mac. Websites would be loading without a problem, and then browsing became slow and some websites wouldn't load.

We checked the websites in question were online by using another computer and they were, so the problem seemed to be confined to the Apple laptop being used at the time.

We changed the DNS being used, from the IP address of the Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole to 9.9.9.9 (Quad9) and everything started working OK again - so the problem seemed to be specific to the Pi-hole installation.

Much online investigating later we came across a suggestion to swith off Apple's "Limit IP address tracking" option in the network settings of the WiFi network being used at the time. THIS WORKED!!!

Not sure WHY this worked, so if anyone reading this knows, please let us know and we'll update this post.

How do you keep the Pi-hole software up to date?

That's easy!

Just ssh into your Raspberry Pi and run the command pihole -up

Should you run Pi-hole on your home network?

Whether or not you should run Pi-hole on your home network is a personal decision. However, if you are looking for a way to block ads, improve privacy, and improve performance, then Pi-hole is a great option.

Here are some of the potential drawbacks of running Pi-hole

Pi-hole can block some legitimate websites

Pi-hole uses a blacklist of known ad and tracker domains. However, it is possible that some legitimate websites may be included in the blacklist. If this happens, you can manually add the website to the whitelist.

Pi-hole can slow down your network

If your network is already slow, then running Pi-hole may make it even slower as it's adding extra checks each time a device tries to access a website. However, this is usually only a problem if you have a very slow internet connection.

Conclusion

Overall, Pi-hole is a great way to block ads and improve privacy. If you are looking for a way to do these things, then grab yourself a Raspberry Pi, install Pi-hole and give it a try.