Pi-hole for just one device?

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peejayw

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#277310 7-Oct-2020 11:07

Can Pi-hole be set up to just block ads to one device on a network or does it affect the whole network?

I have got it installed and running on a Pi 3 and now I want to try to block ads going to my Nvidia Shield.

I have set a static IP for the Pi but now I am confused :-)

Do I need to make any changes on the router or can I just change the DNS on the Shield to point to the Pi?

Does the Pi need an ethernet connection or is WiFi OK?

The router is an HG659.

Many thanks.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

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Geek of Coastguard
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#2580560 7-Oct-2020 11:17

Set the DNS on the Shield to the PiHole - leave your router DHCP DNS alone. So only systems with the DNS pointing to the PiHole will be affected. Everything else will run as usual.

Use ethernet where possible.

XPD / Gavin

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Rodders1nz

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#2580565 7-Oct-2020 11:24

You can run it for the whole network or just selected devices

On you shield go to your ip configs and enter the ip for the dns to the address of the pi-hole

If your make a change to your router it will apply to your whole network.

I would recommend using wired over wifi

Gurezaemon

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#2580568 7-Oct-2020 11:27

Agreed with just setting it on the Shield. Definitely the simplest option.

Another option, that is more future-looking, is to set the Pihole on the router, and then use the Group Management function in Pihole to configure all the other devices to have no protection. This would let you gradually introduce blocking to other devices if you so wished at a later point.

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timmmay

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#2580590 7-Oct-2020 11:57

The new version of Pi Hole can have profiles for different devices, so you can easily target who has full access and who has ad blocking. I find it best to have Pi Hole doing DHCP, delegated from the router.

CB_24

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#2580636 7-Oct-2020 13:31

Why not Pi-Hole everything?

peejayw

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#2580637 7-Oct-2020 13:32

Thanks everyone. So I set the Pi up on Ethernet and set the DNS on the Shield to point to the Pi but now the Shield says that Wifi has no internet connection. All my other devices connect just fine.

Any ideas on what I may have done wrong?

Thanks.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

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timmmay

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#2580643 7-Oct-2020 13:50

Does say a laptop work on the same ethernet connection? What about if it's configured to use Pi Hole as DNS? What's doing DHCP, your router or the Pi Hole?

peejayw

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#2580650 7-Oct-2020 13:59

Yes laptop works on same ethernet even when using Pi for DNS. Router is doing DHCP.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

Rodders1nz

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#2580662 7-Oct-2020 14:12

Did you set the wired port to a static ip? can you access your pi by http://(your ip here)/admin/

peejayw

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#2580670 7-Oct-2020 14:14

Yes I set it to static and I can access via the admin page.

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timmmay

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#2580701 7-Oct-2020 15:21

I wonder if the Shield is using a site to test connectivity that is blocked by Pi Hole. Go into the Pi Hole UI, disable for 15 minutes, reboot Shield and try again.

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peejayw

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#2580798 7-Oct-2020 18:28

Thanks for everyone's help. I finally connected the Shield via Ethernet, should have done that at the start. I now have the Shield ethernet connection using the Pi-hole as DNS server and I set up a few relevant ad lists but I still get Youtube ads and the Pi-hole does not show any blocking from many queries. Was I mistaken in thinking Pi-Hole could block Youtube ads?

Thanks.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

fearandloathing

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#2580868 7-Oct-2020 19:12

peejayw:
Was I mistaken in thinking Pi-Hole could block Youtube ads?

Thanks.

Largely yes, as youtube adds are served from the same host as the videos.

peejayw

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#2580869 7-Oct-2020 19:15

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

fe31nz

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#2581687 9-Oct-2020 02:09

If you want to be able to block ads from the same domain name or IP address, you could try a web proxy such as Privoxy:

https://www.privoxy.org/

You have to have a PC (Windows or Linux) to run it on - a Pi should work too. With Privoxy you can set a block on any URL and I have also used it to edit the data on a web page to cut out some code that did ads. I run my mobile and tablet through Privoxy also and I get surprised when I see ads when I am on mobile data (which is fairly infrequent). When on mobile data I can also enable an OpenVPN connection back to home and get to use the home network (including Privoxy) when out and about.

Privoxy provides a web page to use to edit the blocking rules, and you can set particular web sites to not be blocked by each rule if necessary, so you do not need to disable any general rules to get one particular site to work. For example, there is a rule blocking all URLs that match ad*. so if you are trying to access a site that has a name starting with "ad", you may need to add an unblock rule for it.

The downside of using a proxy is that you have to enable use of it individually on each device or even at the web browser level. A DNS blocker just catches the DNS traffic and the device will use it without changing any configuration. And Privoxy will only block web traffic, not things on other ports or protocols.

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