Pi-Hole vs Ublock

[mahadevan_iyer]

I have 6 devices. All have adblocking enabled using AdAway, ublock chrome extension, Adblock Plus etc. All have a relatively good adblocking capability. Though, some ads like Youtube video ads cannot be blocked.

I also use NextDNS, which filters ads through DNS.

There is a lot of hype about Pi-Hole. Apart from the convenience of being able to do adblocking across connected networks at once, does Pi-Hole have any significant difference between other adblocking methods?

 

[JB701]

You can use both. Pi-Hole and DNS based blocking will block system wide rather than just on the browser (uBlock Origin, ABP). I would recommend using uBlock Origin though as ABP doesn't block so called "acceptable ads". Don't use regular uBlock use uBlock Origin specifically.

DNS Adblocking can block things like Microsoft Telemetry, Mobile Ads etc which browser adblockers can't.

DNS Adblocking can't block things like YouTube ads or Instagram and Facebook sponsored posts because these use same domains as regular content.

I just use both so if something isn't picked up by network wide DNS blocking, it will be blocked at browser.

 

[venkatachar]

Couple of advantages
1) The adblockers on devices will not block in-app ads effectively
2) I think pi-hole is quicker and faster and supports DNSSEC
3) You can enable pihole+unbound which acts as your private DNS server and thereby providing more privacy
4) I am running pixelserv-tls along with pi-hole which helps blocking https (secure) ads.

 

[mahadevan_iyer]

@venkatachar Does it block Youtube Video ads ?

 

[venkatachar]

No, YouTube ads are tricky. There is no silver bullet for YouTube ads apart from subscribing for their premium account

 

[mahadevan_iyer]

@venkatachar @JB700 Can I do it with Raspberry Pi Zero W ?

 

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[JB701]

yes, you can install pihole on pi zero w, its called pi-hole for a reason. You can also install unbound for DoH and DoT.

However with W model you won't have Ethernet and will have to rely on wifi for DNS queries. This can be a problem for reliablity as wifi has higher latency compared to wire.

I would also suggest AdGuard Home. This is what Im using myself as it support DoH and DoT upstreams without additional programs.

AdGuard Home also has parralel querying for upstreams. So it'll query multiple servers at once for faster results. From my experience this improves browsing significantly.

 

[gkarthik]

@venkatachar @JB700 Can I do it with Raspberry Pi Zero W ?

You can but it would be slow i would say, Zero W is not meant for such task + it's on Wifi.
Maybe run on a 3 B+ the last year model it is much better Pi i my opinion.

 

[venkatachar]

@mahadevan_iyer , I am running it on orangepi zero which has a lan interface and wifi .
This was a cheap alternative for pi zero w with a similar price range and more powerful. However the prices might have gone up given the current situation.

 

[devangpatel]

If you don't have Raspberry Pi like me then you can use Docker and run Pi-hole from it.

But the only problem with this is that the computer/laptop where you host Pi-hole container need to be kept on all the time.

This Docker method worked pretty good for me since I add the IP of that container in my router DNS setting so all the devices in the WiFi network runs ads free also I can monitor network traffic from it.

Also coming to Youtube Ads free it works pretty good if you update the block list in pi hole. (Simple import the CSV or the txt file(formatted)).
Updating block list once a month works pretty good since all youtube ads get blocked properly with latest block list.

Latest block list can be available from GitHub

Build software better, together

GitHub is where people build software. More than 100 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 420 million projects.

github.com

Or this is also pretty good website for block list

The Big Blocklist Collection

Pi-hole compatible blocklists for you to have a more enjoyable online presence

firebog.net

Also if not possible to keep the Docker container online all the time then you can host the Docker container on Amazon ECS.
If your student then you get free $100 credit on AWS.

For GCP you get free $300 credit for student discount, but I feel AWS works pretty good with docker then GCP.

Note: You need to pay extra for Elastic IP Addresses on AWS so that you can add Pi-hole remote DNS IP to your router.