this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Pi-Hole or something else for network ad blocking? (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by plenipotentprotogod@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I've been aware of pi-hole for a while now, but never bothered with it because I do most web browsing on a laptop where browser extensions like uBlock origin are good enough. However, with multiple streaming services starting to insert adds into my paid subscriptions, I'm looking to upgrade to a network blocker that will also cover the apps on my smart TV.

I run most of my self hosted services on a proxmox server, so I'd like something that'll run as an LXC container or a VM. I'm also vaguely aware that various competing applications have come out since pi-hole first gained popularity. Is pi-hole still the best thing going, or are there better options?

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[–] Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I went with a pi running pi-hole. I got it as a project where the tool is the project. But, it's essential infrastructure now and I don't want to mess with it incase I break it. I'm an idiot with a poor history with pi guides so far, so I will break it. It's running the adblock fine, I assume it's doing the tracking and malware blocking fine too.

Sadly, that's where I leave the project for now, I had intended to give it a HDD and some... other... software but I really don't want to break it. I tried convincing the better half that I obviously need to N+1 but she wisely did not see reason.

[–] khorak@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you want to try setting it up in high availability with failover, give me a poke. And until then - go to Teleporter in the settings, and download the backup. You can restore from there.

One thing worth saying is this - you can grab a cheap refurbished ssd (the smaller - the better), check it's SMART data for any red flags, and attach it to the pi as OS disk. It will be much more reliable than SD, but overkill if you only run pi on the box. Alternatively look into log2ram, it keeps your SD card alive for longer :D but backup first!

[–] Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks. I already have Log2Ram running to prolong the life of the SD. My planned disaster relief is a spare SD, already set up and taped to the box ready to swap and reboot in case of emergency. SD cards are cheap so chucking <£10 at the setup once in a while is no big thing. A fresh install on the new SD allows me to improve on what I've already done, for example the new SD I'll run DietOS instead of Raspbian, and reinforce skills. Less time efficient but that's no matter when the box is working and it's a hobby. I can then keep the old SD card taped inside the case as a physical back up. Perhaps more expensive in the long run, but an SD card taped to the inside of the case with simple instructions is an easy sell to the fiancée.

My experience with guides has shaken my confidence quite a bit. Which is fine, I'll get over myself and the point is to learn, so me hitting snags is a good thing. But, until I have a functioning back up I'm not going to be fucking with it. Facebook cannot go down on account of my education.

But if I may, I have one question, a bunch of recommendations have the setup "segregated" (I dunno the word) in Docker and Portainers but I don't understand the rationale. I wasn't intending on doing this, instead opting to install Pi-hole, Log2Ram, UFW, and the... other... softwares directly to the OS for simplicity. Why would one set up a Pi-hole et al in a containers instead of directly?

My current set up is Raspbian OS running Pi-hole as ad, tracker, malware block and DHCP (the ISP router is a Sky2 box so no IP or DNS customisation), Log2Ram and UncomplicatedFireWall.

[–] khorak@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I wasn’t intending on doing this, instead opting to install Pi-hole, Log2Ram, UFW, and the… other… softwares directly to the OS for simplicity. Why would one set up a Pi-hole et al in a containers instead of directly?

So there are many reasons, and this is something I nowadays almost always do. But keep in mind that some of us have used Docker for our applications at work for over half a decade now. Some of these points might be relevant to you, others might seem or be unimportant.

  • The first and most important thing you gain is a declarative way to describe the environment (OS, dependencies, environment variables, configuration).
  • Then there is the packaging format. Containers are a way to package an application with its dependencies, and distribute it easily through the docker hub (or other registries). Redeploying is a matter of running a script and specifying the image and the tag (never use latest) of the image. You will never ask yourself again "What did I need to do to install this again? Run some random install.sh script off a github URL?".
  • Networking with docker is a bit hit and miss, but the big thing about it is that you can have whatever software running on any port inside the container, and expose it on another port on the host. Eg two apps run on port :8080 natively, and one of them will fail to start due to the port being taken. You can keep them running on their preferred ports, but expose one on 18080 and another on 19080 instead.
  • You keep your host simple and empty of installed software and packages. Less of a problem with apps that come packaged as native executables, but there are languages out there which will require you to install a runtime to be able to start the app. Think .NET, Java but there is also Python out there which requires you to install it on the host and have the versions be compatible (there are virtual environments for that but im going into too much detail already).

Basically I have a very simple host setup with only a few packages installed. Then I would remotely configure and start up my containers, expose ports etc. And I can cleanly define where my configuration is, back up only that particular folder for example and keep the rest of the setup easy to redeploy.

[–] Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I have nothing to add, and an upvote isn't enough. Truly, thank you for your time, there's a lot to think about.

I think for this initial iteration I'm going to direct install in the name of keeping it simple. Next go around I'll try containerising, just to learn if nothing else. If I out-grow the Pi4 they'll be good skills to have.