Pi-Hole Setup Tutorial

[mcazoo]

I dont think I can assign a static ip address via my router. is there another way to assign a static ip?

My router is form the cable company model VV5822  

 

[Cwcb08]

1 hour ago, Squeezy_boi said:

will be old raspberry p1 model A powerful enough for this ? (because pi zero is more powerful)

From what I read you should be able to run it on every single version of pi ever produced, give it a shot

[Necrocomputing]

@jakkuh_tAny way to just get a list of the black listed URLs so that someone could just block them via the hosts file ( C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts ) ? If you need to manually set up every pc to connect to the pihole anyways, might as well just configure the host file to do the same thing

[2FA]

11 hours ago, Twilight said:

would it work if i just ran it in a VM using a bridged connection to a spare network card i can put in my pc and then just setting Windows to the VM's IP?

I don't have mine on a dedicated NIC but my Pihole VM has its own IP address on the LAN, so yes it will work.

[jjk9]

1 hour ago, Necrocomputing said:

@jakkuh_tAny way to just get a list of the black listed URLs so that someone could just block them via the hosts file ( C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts ) ? If you need to manually set up every pc to connect to the pihole anyways, might as well just configure the host file to do the same thing

there is but each list pi-hole uses contains thousands of entries and from what I can see when it loads the lists it removes the duplicates from itself so that it's not slowed down comparing the same entries over and over. The lists are always getting updated with new urls and Pi-hole updates the lists once a week automatically.

You dont need to manually add each pc if you setup your router to use the Pi-holes ip address as the default DNS server. Then all the devices connected to the router should work fine. The only devices I had to manually add are the ones I setup with a static ip address as I didn't do that on the router before.

 

	Pi-holes Blocklists 
	https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts	
	https://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/justdomains	
	http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts	
	https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/blocklist.php?download=domainblocklist	
	https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_tracking.txt	
	https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_ad.txt	
	https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt
    
	Added myself
	https://github.com/abp-filters/abp-filters-anti-cv/blob/master/english.txt	
	https://easylist.to/easylist/easylist.txt

 

[ShadowPT12]

8 hours ago, Symphler said:

is impossible for me because my ISP (TWC/Spectrum USA) requires users to have a "business connection" in order to obtain a static IP address or I could pay a VPN extra to have a static ip service and use that instead both of which costing money that I don't have.

Yeah I have the same problem. Most of my settings are blocked by my ISP (MEO Portugal). The only way I could fix this would be to have a superuser account but only who works for my ISP has them...

[litetaker]

Hi folks, I'm thinking of using the Raspberry pi zero wireless version for this project as I want to avoid hooking up my raspberry pi to the router via an ethernet cable to avoid cluttering that area of my house and give me more flexibility in placing this. However I noticed that the raspberry pi zero wireless is only capable of connecting to 2.4 GHz WiFi and not 5 GHz. I use the 5 GHz network on all my devices as it gives me more speed than the 2.4 GHz network. So if I connect to the 2.4 GHz one with the pi hole, can I still get ad blocking for the 5 GHz network? Or am I forced to use the ethernet cable?

[jjk9]

4 minutes ago, litetaker said:

Hi folks, I'm thinking of using the Raspberry pi zero wireless version for this project as I want to avoid hooking up my raspberry pi to the router via an ethernet cable to avoid cluttering that area of my house and give me more flexibility in placing this. However I noticed that the raspberry pi zero wireless is only capable of connecting to 2.4 GHz WiFi and not 5 GHz. I use the 5 GHz network on all my devices as it gives me more speed than the 2.4 GHz network. So if I connect to the 2.4 GHz one with the pi hole, can I still get ad blocking for the 5 GHz network? Or am I forced to use the ethernet cable?

It should work fine, the 2.4 and 5 GHz are still the same network just different speeds so devices using either can still communicate with each other.

[steelo]

On 8/16/2019 at 2:11 PM, jakkuh_t said:

removed for line spam - @jakkuh_t

Set this up yesterday with a pi zero and it works great! Initially I was afraid that the zero just didn't have the processing power not to slow down the connection speed. Works like a charm though and don't notice any kind of lag or delays.

[litetaker]

7 minutes ago, jjk9 said:

It should work fine, the 2.4 and 5 GHz are still the same network just different speeds so devices using either can still communicate with each other.

Excellent! Good to know!

[rgrist15]

i keep have ftl install errors and cant do pihole -r or pi hole -d becuase its not installed

 

[BlackBird11]

can anyone help me?

so i was able to get everything to work. it even works on my ipad! but not on my xiaomi mi box and not on my oneplus 7 pro

if i only type in the dns 1 in wifi settings i can't save, so i also have typed in the ip, gateway and networkprefix (24 in my case) in

most of the internetpages work, but a lot don't! (err_address_unreachable) also my device doesn't show in query log/live tool .. only the ipad

what am i doing wrong?

[ApatureIntern]

I have a problem with setting up my Pixel 2. I have no problem with Windows 10. It worked just fine with the way shown in the video.

 

On my Pixel 2 I can not change the gateway or anything else on my chosen Wifi. The method of holding and waiting for options to show up does not work in Android P.

 

Setting up a private DNS does not work either because the phone will not accept normal IP addresses as I understand.

 

What should I do now? I searched for quite some time but could not find a solution for my problem.

 

(My router will not accept a change in DHCP settings. Stupid german internet provider router!)

[jjk9]

23 minutes ago, ApatureIntern said:

I have a problem with setting up my Pixel 2. I have no problem with Windows 10. It worked just fine with the way shown in the video.

 

On my Pixel 2 I can not change the gateway or anything else on my chosen Wifi. The method of holding and waiting for options to show up does not work in Android P

Maybe a DNS changer app? There seems to be quite a few on the google store.

[finnieboy388]

When i try to install it i get a error message:

 

Checking for existing FTL binary…
[✗] Downloading and Installing FTL
Error: Unable to get latest release location from GitHub
[✗] FTL Engine not installed

 

I tried a lot of stuff but nothing worked. Does someone here know a fix?

thx

[ApatureIntern]

42 minutes ago, jjk9 said:

Maybe a DNS changer app? There seems to be quite a few on the google store.

I downloaded DNS Changer - Lilly. Now it works. But some of the apps I tried were horrible. They sucked hard with unskippable ads from hell. But now I can see all those lovely blocked sites. Reddit will be fun again!

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

[jjk9]

54 minutes ago, finnieboy388 said:

When i try to install it i get a error message:

 

Checking for existing FTL binary…
[✗] Downloading and Installing FTL
Error: Unable to get latest release location from GitHub
[✗] FTL Engine not installed

 

I tried a lot of stuff but nothing worked. Does someone here know a fix?

thx

If you check https://pi-hole.net/ there is a lot more information and a discourse containing a FAQ and many users who are more able to help. One option I can see to try is running:

sudo update-ca-certificates

and try again.

[finnieboy388]

22 minutes ago, jjk9 said:

sudo update-ca-certificates

 

thanks, after this i got some other errors and resoled them. Now it works!

[ds krille]

Will this still work if i have a VPN connected? (using nord VPN)

 

[jjk9]

5 minutes ago, ds krille said:

Will this still work if i have a VPN connected? (using nord VPN)

 

From what I can see, not without some changes. You have to force the VPN to use the pi as a DNS somehow. It looks way to complicated for me. Search for Nord VPN on  https://pi-hole.net/ discord page.

[mcazoo]

is there a way to set a static ip not on your router??

my router does not allow to assign a static ip 

[ManB34rP1g]

So noob to this and sorry if it has already been asked.

 

Will this slow my internet to 100mbps speeds while using this as a DNS, Micro USB to RJ45 max speed?

 

Thanks for the help

[jjk9]

20 minutes ago, mcazoo said:

is there a way to set a static ip not on your router??

my router does not allow to assign a static ip 

Might be out of date and their may be a simpler way but this is what I can find.

https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-set-a-static-ip-address-in-raspbian-jessie-using-etc-dhcpcd-conf/239

Despite lots of confusing information out there, it is actually pretty straightforward to set a static address in Raspbian.

Being by editing the file (do not use /etc/network/interfaces anymore!)

sudo vi /etc/dhcpcd.conf
Then all you need to do is append this to the bottom of the file, substituting the correct IP address and interface identifier you want.

interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.1.141/24
static routers=192.168.1.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1
Restart your Pi to apply the changes.

 

[jjk9]

5 minutes ago, ManB34rP1g said:

So noob to this and sorry if it has already been asked.

 

Will this slow my internet to 100mbps speeds while using this as a DNS, Micro USB to RJ45 max speed?

 

Thanks for the help

No, it's simply taking the request from your computer for the webpage and images and then telling your computer where to find them while filtering out the ads. Your computer then uses its own connection to your router to download the pages and since the ads are blocked it doesn't download them so your computer might be even faster.

[Symphler]

15 hours ago, pamdemonia said:

(So I created an account for you and everything!) 

 

The ip address mentioned in the tutorial is a "local" address, and probably starts with either 192.168 or 10. This address is completely internal to your network and is yours to assign as you wish. The "static" IP your ISP is talking about is the address which your router/modem uses, and is not necessary for setting up your Pi. 

 

Or, you could say the static IP (or not static in your case) is the street address of the apartment building that is your network, while the IP addresses of the devices on the network are like the apartment numbers. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

Hmm.. So let me get this straight... in this world of wireless communication there are three levels. I know this might sound like a big question but could you explain how the internet works or perhaps link me to a resource to help me understand?

From what I've read on the internet there's many layers. But here's what my understanding of the internet.

 

1) The internet is a bunch of connected servers that can communicate with each other.

2) ISPs (Internet Service Providers) act as a utility service to provide create the (hard-wired [like broadband or by satellite]) connection from one's home to have access to the internet.

3) The wires travel through a medium (light/sound/electric pulses) and must be translated through the modem which interprets this into websites/useful information.

4) Since most people have multiple devices, people use routers to "route" traffic and information to different devices.

5) Within this router, there are different channels that each device must speak through and these are called IP addresses.

6) IP addresses are identifiers that computers have so that packets of data know where to go. And there are many categories of IP addresses, but some categories are static addresses, dynamic addresses, local addresses, 

 

Linus explains in the video (2:28 - 3:30) the RPI acts as a sinkhole such that ad-based addresses are redirected to NULL thus "blocks" the ad.

 

Now when I was attempting Step 5 of the tutorial I didn't actually need a static IP address from the ISP, what I had to do is first redirect my data packets to the RPI (which acts as a fake static IP address or a "local" address) then the Pi will filter that data and send only non-ad related IP addresses to be fulfilled.

 

Thanks so much for reading and replying, and I urge you to correct me, or lead me in the right direction if I provide inaccurate information as this is an important part of knowledge I wish to understand better.