Pi-hole

Pi-hole is a Linux application used to block adds and user tracking on a local net. It can also act as a DNS sinkhole and a DHPC server.

Installation

I opted for running Pi-hole in a Docker container. The image I used is

  
  # More info at https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole/ and https://docs.pi-hole.net/
services:
  pihole:
    container_name: pihole
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    ports:
      # DNS Ports
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      # Default HTTP Port
      - "80:80/tcp"
      # Default HTTPs Port. FTL will generate a self-signed certificate
      - "443:443/tcp"
      # Uncomment the line below if you are using Pi-hole as your DHCP server
      #- "67:67/udp"
      # Uncomment the line below if you are using Pi-hole as your NTP server
      #- "123:123/udp"
    environment:
      # Set the appropriate timezone for your location (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones), e.g:
      TZ: 'Europe/London'
      # Set a password to access the web interface. Not setting one will result in a random password being assigned
      FTLCONF_webserver_api_password: 'SET-YOUR-PASSWORD-HERE'
      # If using Docker's default `bridge` network setting the dns listening mode should be set to 'all'
      FTLCONF_dns_listeningMode: 'all'
    # Volumes store your data between container upgrades
    volumes:
      # For persisting Pi-hole's databases and common configuration file
      - './etc-pihole:/etc/pihole'
      # Uncomment the below if you have custom dnsmasq config files that you want to persist. Not needed for most starting fresh with Pi-hole v6. If you're upgrading from v5 you and have used this directory before, you should keep it enabled for the first v6 container start to allow for a complete migration. It can be removed afterwards. Needs environment variable FTLCONF_misc_etc_dnsmasq_d: 'true'
      #- './etc-dnsmasq.d:/etc/dnsmasq.d'
    cap_add:
      # See https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole#note-on-capabilities
      # Required if you are using Pi-hole as your DHCP server, else not needed
      - NET_ADMIN
      # Required if you are using Pi-hole as your NTP client to be able to set the host's system time
      - SYS_TIME
      # Optional, if Pi-hole should get some more processing time
      - SYS_NICE
    restart: unless-stopped
  

Write this to a docker-compose.yaml file and store it in a folder. Run sudo docker compose up -d.

Be careful that other services might be using the port you are setting. In particular, I had problems with:

• Port 53: this port is usually used by systemd-resolved. You can disable it by

          
          sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved
          sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved
          
        

  After this, remove the file /etc/resolv.conf and create a new one writing in it nameserver 1.1.1.1.

  This is actually better than modifying the port in the yaml file, since the clients will use port 53 by default, so it is better to reserve it for pihole.

• Port 80: edit the docker-compose.yaml file, changing the port 80:80 to 8080:80.

When everything is set up, you can connect to the web GUI with http://YOUR-PI-IP:8080/admin, using the password you set in the image, at FTLCONF_webserver_api_password (line 22 in the code above).

Web Interface

You can connect to the web interface using http://YOUR-PI-IP:8080/admin. This will allow you to change the options of pi-hole in a nice GUI environment.

It is useful to set up a DNS, so that we can connect to databerry using a hostname, without memorizing its IP address. In order to do so, go to Settings -> Local DNS Records. Here, you can add the domain and its IP address. Usually, most systems (especially systemd-resolved) are fussy about "bare" hostnames unless they are defined in /etc/hosts, or the system is set to search domain suffixes (like .local, .net, etc.). I am not a fan of modifying /etc/hosts, so I opted for setting a suffix. It is possible to set a common domain name in Pi-hole, just go under Settings -> DNS -> DNS domain settings. Here, you can set a Pi-hole domain name. Flag the "Expand hostnames" option to automatically expand the hostnames. Moreover, add the DNS to the list of known DNS records. For example add databerry.local with its IP address.

Blocked lists

Pi-hole is very useful in blocking ads on website. In order to add a list of ads to block, simply go to Lists and add a new one. The ones I have up to now are:

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists/main/adblock/pro.plus.txt