Pi-Hole Setup Tutorial

[SenKa]

Can PiHole be used as a router? Say, if I got 2 gigabit USB 3.0 adapters and plugged one LAN cable in to each.

 

Probably a very noobish question, im new to this stuff.

 

EDIT: Duh... I can just use a switch

[james_castrello]

On 8/21/2019 at 10:25 PM, Donozo said:

I got mine going as well, dashboard shows its blocking but, haven't really noticed the blocking. I have it connected to the router via dns changes it showing on dashboard fine any good test website that it should be blocking?

 

I think just the website speedtest.net always has ads on it. I think that the LTT video used it too...

[dlshadow07]

On 8/25/2019 at 2:09 PM, FarvaSCW said:

So I am flowing your guide but I am a total noob with command line, and I am getting stuck at this part (Proceed to create a configuration file for cloudflared by copying the following in to /etc/default/cloudflared. This file contains the command-line options that get passed to cloudflared on startup.), tried copying the commands under that getting a command not found error, again total noob I'm sure I am missing something easy, but can't figure it out if anybody could help that would be amazing.

Seems I'm more of a noob than you were and I can't figure out what exactly to look for on google. What was the command ?

 

[jakkuh_t]

Image links fixed

[PDisOsm]

Hello, I never saw the select interface page and may have skipped it, selecting the incorrect option. Do I have to fix this and if so, how?

[Jarsky]

13 minutes ago, PDisOsm said:

Hello, I never saw the select interface page and may have skipped it, selecting the incorrect option. Do I have to fix this and if so, how?

 

If it's not working properly, you can open a terminal window, or SSH into your Pi, and run the command 

pihole reconfigure

That will guide you through reconfiguring it again

[Plissken]

I have gotten to set 3/4, and the pi is not sahowing up on my network. I plugged it into my TV and it is asking for login info. This is a new install of Raspbian Buster Lite, so I would think that it should not need any login info since I have not created any account or set any password, but it will not fully boot up without login info. I tried typing a login and pass that I used previously on RetroPi, but I can't even do it. I typed in the login name, pressed enter, it asked for a password, I started typing and nothing appears. It's not even allowing me to try to type a password. I hit back, and it said password incorrect. So i can't even boot the device.

[1wjw1]

HI guys..

 

Uber NOOB here..

 

I just bought a Pi Zero with a 16GB Micro SD..

 

Following these steps I have Tried to flash my uSD with  "Raspbian Buster Lite"  Which I Downloaded through the link provided..

Next I downloaded  balenaEtcher also from the link provided.

 

The flash seemed to have run successfully as once completed the  balenaEtcher software had listed one successful flash "Flash another ? "..

 

When inserting the Flashed uSD to do the headless setup,

The disk is not recognized..

There is no notification tune.

No extra drive is listed in the " Device and Drives " file explorer window.

When checking Disc Management, only my pre-existing  disks are available.

 

Any advise on how to Assign a drive letter when you cannot see the drive??

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bomba]

13 hours ago, 1wjw1 said:

HI guys..

 

Uber NOOB here..

 

I just bought a Pi Zero with a 16GB Micro SD..

 

Following these steps I have Tried to flash my uSD with  "Raspbian Buster Lite"  Which I Downloaded through the link provided..

Next I downloaded  balenaEtcher also from the link provided.

 

The flash seemed to have run successfully as once completed the  balenaEtcher software had listed one successful flash "Flash another ? "..

 

When inserting the Flashed uSD to do the headless setup,

The disk is not recognized..

There is no notification tune.

No extra drive is listed in the " Device and Drives " file explorer window.

When checking Disc Management, only my pre-existing  disks are available.

 

Any advise on how to Assign a drive letter when you cannot see the drive??

 

 

 

I'd try and flash the drive again, or reboot and see if itll pop up. (try reformatting in linux if you cannot see it in windows.) 

 

 

 

[Bomba]

Id try and flash the drive again, or reboot and see if itll pop up. (try reformatting in linux if you cannot see it in windows.) 

[tuleggi]

Hello,

as a couple of you I have problem to have the login screen with ssh in putty.

I have correctly created the ssh file without extension in the boot + checked that after it is insert in the rapserri pi is actually removed (so each time I check I also create a new one).

I disable all safety/filter/fiewall features in the router and on windows but it does not seems to work, it says connection timeout and I do not get the login in the putty terminal. Of course I had also fixed the mac address with an IP address and I try to login in Putty with the fixed IP address.

Did anyone has a tip or found a workaround if in a similar situation?

thanks!

[tuleggi]

38 minutes ago, tuleggi said:

Hello,

as a couple of you I have problem to have the login screen with ssh in putty.

I have correctly created the ssh file without extension in the boot + checked that after it is insert in the rapserri pi is actually removed (so each time I check I also create a new one).

I disable all safety/filter/fiewall features in the router and on windows but it does not seems to work, it says connection timeout and I do not get the login in the putty terminal. Of course I had also fixed the mac address with an IP address and I try to login in Putty with the fixed IP address.

Did anyone has a tip or found a workaround if in a similar situation?

thanks!

I found the solution which was not written in the article: you need to fix also as static IP your windows PC with an IP adiacent to the one you set for your raspberry Pi (e.g. 192.168.000.001 and 192.168.000.002), then it works!

[Hudokin]

So after the setup it the only issues I have found is that my wife's iPhone still gets a good amount of adds on her phone and when I check my dashboard on the site is shows that the phone is not active even tho I have it set up to cover my entire network. AND I also set the DNS to the Pi-Hole's IP. Can any one help?? Also does any one have any solid blacklists for Facebook and YouTube that are more up to date? The lists I have found are from 2018.

(The Top device is my PC the second is her phone.)

[13CA350]

Anyone have recommendations on a router to pair with this? Just mainly for tinkering?

[dealio]

Just a day ago I implemented Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi 4 using the network-wide approach (replacing the router's primary DNS with the RPi's) successfully, following Jake's process! Yay! I was thrilled that I had no issues and that it worked so well. About a day passed where I tested on several wireless devices and a couple wired computers and all were successfully working with no ads. I came home today to get on the internet and do some searches and found that no devices had internet connection. I checked local network access to a NAS and that worked, so I knew it wasn't a network issue, but an internet access issue. The ISP checked my modem and found it working properly. I tried disabling Pi-hole from the web interface for 5 minutes (then eventually permanently), but even then, no internet access. Finally I restored the router's original DNS entries (Google's DNS servers) and internet access was restored.  I have no idea what caused this problem as I've made no configuration changes to Pi-hole, just monitoring to check for false positives.

 

I'd appreciate any tips on how to troubleshoot this problem. Also I wonder if the ISP can block this approach if they somehow found out I was using Pi-hole?

 

TIA

 

[SilverStrings]

I'm having an issue that i can't figure out how to fix. Every time i've tried to set up the pi-hole it works until the last step of downloading. I'm using a raspi zero with wifi, i can connect to wifi, everything downloads fine but when it checks for FTL, FTL fails to install and I can't get past that point. "unable to get latest release location from Github". google hasn't provided any relevant help with this either

[BairdGoW]

I have my static IP and ready to log in with putty but whenever I do I get this error. Is this normal and safe for me to try and connect to?

[BuckGup]

20 minutes ago, BairdGoW said:

I have my static IP and ready to log in with putty but whenever I do I get this error. Is this normal and safe for me to try and connect to?

Yes putty says this on the first time you connect. If you are really concerned you can validate the keys match on both ends

[BairdGoW]

1 minute ago, BuckGup said:

Yes putty says this on the first time you connect. If you are really concerned you can validate the keys match on both ends

I have literally been trying to see how to check the key on the pi. do you know how by chance?

 

[BairdGoW]

Got that up but the command script to install pihole is returning command not found. Anyone else having that issue?
curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

edit: im a moron i didnt realize it was cap sensitive

[BuckGup]

1 hour ago, BairdGoW said:

I have literally been trying to see how to check the key on the pi. do you know how by chance?

 

I am positive someone hasn't hijacked you or is using a MIM attack. 

[BairdGoW]

I got everything set up and working. However I am trying to add the whitelists and am a bit confused. I am accessing my pihole through putty with ssh. Im confused about the following...
 

"For Automated Update

cd /opt/
sudo git clone https://github.com/anudeepND/whitelist.git

Make the script to run the script at 1AM on the last day of the week

sudo nano /etc/crontab

Add this line at the end of the file:
0 1 * * */7 root /opt/whitelist/scripts/whitelist.sh

CTRL + X then Y and Enter

sudo whitelist/scripts/whitelist.sh
sudo ./whitelist.sh"

I made it all the way to crontab, to the screen below. I am really confused where i type:
0 1 * * */7 root /opt/whitelist/scripts/whitelist.sh

[tomsquack]

_{Hi guys,}

 

_{Im trying to setup my pi. I have a Shaw BlueCurve router that I put into bridge mode (wasn't able to set static ip). I connected a Dlink 826L router. I followed all the steps verbatim and I am now stuck between steps 8-9 of Stage 2.  Ive attached some photos of what happened. The blue screen is what I last saw on step 8, and the black screen is what transpired with step 9. What to do next?} 

_{Stage 2}

_1. With our RasPi's OS, internet, and SSH ready to go, we can now install Pi-Hole....

     8. You'll then be asked about the web interface, web server, and logging modes. Leave these all at default by clicking Enter.

     9. After all that, Pi-Hole is going to do a bunch of stuff, and it might take a couple minutes so sit back until you're greeted with an      "Installation Complete!" page. This will list the IP and password for the Pi-Hole web interface.

 

This is my first foray into Linux, please help. Thanks

 

 

 

 

[Jarsky]

2 hours ago, tomsquack said:

_{Hi guys,}

 

_{Im trying to setup my pi. I have a Shaw BlueCurve router that I put into bridge mode (wasn't able to set static ip). I connected a Dlink 826L router. I followed all the steps verbatim and I am now stuck between steps 8-9 of Stage 2.  Ive attached some photos of what happened. The blue screen is what I last saw on step 8, and the black screen is what transpired with step 9. What to do next?} 

_{Stage 2}

_1. With our RasPi's OS, internet, and SSH ready to go, we can now install Pi-Hole....

     8. You'll then be asked about the web interface, web server, and logging modes. Leave these all at default by clicking Enter.

     9. After all that, Pi-Hole is going to do a bunch of stuff, and it might take a couple minutes so sit back until you're greeted with an      "Installation Complete!" page. This will list the IP and password for the Pi-Hole web interface.

 

This is my first foray into Linux, please help. Thanks

 

The black screen is normal, but the error message is not. It would indicate that your Raspberry Pi either has a network connectivity problem, or you have a configuration issue. 

 

On your Pi can you run these commands? 

 

dig github.com

curl -Si https://github.com/pi-hole/FTL/releases/latest

 

[Blyth]

On 2/16/2020 at 12:29 PM, tomsquack said:

_{Hi guys,}

 

_{Im trying to setup my pi. I have a Shaw BlueCurve router that I put into bridge mode (wasn't able to set static ip). I connected a Dlink 826L router. I followed all the steps verbatim and I am now stuck between steps 8-9 of Stage 2.  Ive attached some photos of what happened. The blue screen is what I last saw on step 8, and the black screen is what transpired with step 9. What to do next?} 

_{Stage 2}

_1. With our RasPi's OS, internet, and SSH ready to go, we can now install Pi-Hole....

     8. You'll then be asked about the web interface, web server, and logging modes. Leave these all at default by clicking Enter.

     9. After all that, Pi-Hole is going to do a bunch of stuff, and it might take a couple minutes so sit back until you're greeted with an      "Installation Complete!" page. This will list the IP and password for the Pi-Hole web interface.

 

This is my first foray into Linux, please help. Thanks

 

 

 

 

I too was getting the exact same error. Pi-Hole errors out on FTL when installed in RaspbianOS, the install STOPS, exactly like in the photo. I am an ubber noob with Linux and can just get my way around basic line commands. As a uber noob I thought that while the install had errored it had installed and was working. What I now realise is that the web interface login ans password had not completed its install. The Pi-hole was dead when trying to access it using the local DNS.

 

Out of frustration...

 

My fix was to download Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi using the 18 LTS. ( I used this guide - https://www.linuxincluded.com/install-pi-hole-on-ubuntu/ sorry if links are an issue here ). Updated it to Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS from that guide and using the bash command to install. It was very evident that it had installed cleanly with no FTL errors.

 

It installed the web access and avoided the RasbianOS FTL error. There appears to be an issue with Rasbian and the FTL github respository (if that is the right terminology here).

 

Hope that helps someone for the time being.

 

Note: I used Rufus to install the Ubuntu " ubuntu-18.04.4-preinstalled-server-arm64+raspi3.img " image onto the SD card.

Note: I am using a RP - Model 4B.

 

Is it possible to add a revised or Checked to the origial post - 5 months in Linux land can mean some unknown landmines in the install proceedure?