Having an adblocker at modem (Fritzbox 7530) level?

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caffynz

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#315393 11-Jul-2024 12:28

I use UBlock Origin on my browsers (both computers and on mobile phones); wondering since I have smart TVs / Apple TV and watch TVNZ+, ThreeNow, YouTube etc. through there, if it is possible at all to have adblockers at the modem level? I didn't fully understand the search results when I looked this up, if yes it is possible or not. Did see some mention of using Pi Hole; I have a really OLD Raspberry Pi lying around somewhere so I guess I could give that a go (I'm a noob when it comes to Raspberry Pi though!), but preference would be to do something within the modem instead. It's a 2degrees supplied Fritzbox 7530.

Are there any downsides/unintended consequences of doing this?

lxsw20

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#3258422 11-Jul-2024 12:31

Sort of, you can do it at a DNS level with likes of a pihole, you need another bit of hardware to do it though. Make sure you unblock geekzone obviously.

https://pi-hole.net/

Yoban

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#3258432 11-Jul-2024 12:52

NextDNS - The new firewall for the modern Internet works a treat if you do not want to self-host with the likes of PiHole

jnimmo

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#3258445 11-Jul-2024 13:43

Yeah NextDNS is a great option. If you do go down the AdGuard Home/Pi-hole route, in the Fritz!box settings there's an option to specify "Fallback to public DNS servers when DNS disrupted", so if the Raspberry Pi falls over it won't disrupt your internet connectivity.

caffynz

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#3259372 14-Jul-2024 13:46

Discovered my Raspberry Pi is way too old :( so I will try NextDNS in the meantime. Thanks for the suggestions.

cddt

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#3259396 14-Jul-2024 14:55

caffynz:

Discovered my Raspberry Pi is way too old :( so I will try NextDNS in the meantime. Thanks for the suggestions.

If you have a model B (rather than model A) then it should be possible to get pi-hole running on even the original Raspberry Pi model.

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rhy7s

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#3259402 14-Jul-2024 15:17

There are other online DNS services as well, e.g. see the list at https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists#dnsservices

Similar to a Pi-hole, you could also consider Adguard or Unbound if you're looking at a local caching DNS server, DietPi makes it easy to set up https://dietpi.com/docs/software/dns_servers/

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timmmay

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#3259505 14-Jul-2024 20:22

jnimmo:

Yeah NextDNS is a great option. If you do go down the AdGuard Home/Pi-hole route, in the Fritz!box settings there's an option to specify "Fallback to public DNS servers when DNS disrupted", so if the Raspberry Pi falls over it won't disrupt your internet connectivity.

This is under internet -> account information -> DNS Server. I'm not sure it'll work if you have the Pi Hole set up to provide DHCP like I have, which seems to be the best way to set up Pi Hole.

lxsw20

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#3259506 14-Jul-2024 20:28

It shouldn't really make a difference what is providing DHCP, long as DHCP is pointing DNS to the pihole.

timmmay

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#3259507 14-Jul-2024 20:42

I can't remember why, but it seemed to be a more robust configuration. I don't recall why though, just the conclusion.