Setting Up PiHole on a PC

[Greenish]

So I saw Linus' video on the PiHole ad blocking thing. Figured seeing as I had a few Dell Optiplexes laying around, I kind of want to set it up.

I am not too interested in blocking YouTube ads (as I have premium, big flex) but I would also like to block mobile ad's because whenever I am playing a game with hella ads, I always have an Internet Blocker app on, which is annoying bc it shows as a VPN in my Notification Bar and I really like having it clean.

I would also like to block specific websites (don't ask), but I would like the blocked websites to redirect to a specific page of my choice (whether it be the sites maintenance page or my own locally hosted HTML doc.

 

Anyways, seeing as I have a spare Optiplex to setup, I would like to know: for one - is it possible? And if so, how do I do it? I am not scared of loading up Linux (I am just not too fluent with using it), but I also have a heap of Windows 10 keys laying around.

Thanks :)

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, Greenish said:

Anyways, seeing as I have a spare Optiplex to setup, I would like to know: for one - is it possible? And if so, how do I do it? I am not scared of loading up Linux (I am just not too fluent with using it), but I also have a heap of Windows 10 keys laying around.

PiHole isn't really anything other than a DNS-server and a bunch of scripts that update the blocklists. You can muck around with bind9 to get similar results or you could just simply install PFsense, then install pfblockerng on it and use that as your router.

[Greenish]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

PiHole isn't really anything other than a DNS-server and a bunch of scripts that update the blocklists. You can muck around with bind9 to get similar results or you could just simply install PFsense, then install pfblockerng on it and use that as your router.

I have 0 experience with networking, other than plugging in a few ethernet cables. Please explain?

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Greenish said:

I have 0 experience with networking, other than plugging in a few ethernet cables. Please explain?

Bind9 is a DNS-server software. PFsense is a router OS.

[Greenish]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

Bind9 is a DNS-server software. PFsense is a router OS.

I haven't gotten any other router that what my ISP has given me. I doubt it will work. However I know that I can change my default DNS for PiHole.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Greenish said:

I haven't gotten any other router that what my ISP has given me. I doubt it will work

You install Pfsense on a PC to turn it into a router. You don't install it on a router you've gotten from your ISP.

[Greenish]

Just now, WereCatf said:

You install Pfsense on a PC to turn it into a router. You don't install it on a router you've gotten from your ISP.

Aight. I still wouldn't mind knowing how to setup PiHole, I would still prefer to get rid of ads, and PiHole looks like the easiest way to do it

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Greenish said:

Aight. I still wouldn't mind knowing how to setup PiHole, I would still prefer to get rid of ads, and PiHole looks like the easiest way to do it

If you want PiHole, then use PiHole, but you're the one who asked for a way to do the same thing without PiHole and I answered.

[Greenish]

3 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

If you want PiHole, then use PiHole, but you're the one who asked for a way to do the same thing without PiHole and I answered.

I was asking if it was possible on a regular PC, and how to do it.

[Denned]

Install Linux on it and run:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

That's it. Guide

[Greenish]

2 hours ago, Denned said:

Install Linux on it and run:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

That's it. Guide

All done! Thank you! How do I find the DNS address that my devices have to connect to?

[Denned]

1 minute ago, Greenish said:

All done! Thank you! How do I find the DNS address that my devices have to connect to?

Under Query Log. You can filter on IP's.

[Greenish]

2 minutes ago, Denned said:

Under Query Log. You can filter on IP's.

Looks like there are Query's coming from my PC, meaning that I indeed have the right DNS. However I am still getting ads on youtube when I go into incognito. I am also getting ads on Speedtest.net. What should I try? 

Sorry for the newbie questions, I am very new to this sort of stuff

[Denned]

4 minutes ago, Greenish said:

Looks like there are Query's coming from my PC, meaning that I indeed have the right DNS. However I am still getting ads on youtube when I go into incognito. I am also getting ads on Speedtest.net. What should I try? 

Sorry for the newbie questions, I am very new to this sort of stuff

The querys you see are probably just random broadcast then.

You can an ipconfig /all and it should list your active DNS Servers.

You're going to need to either change the dns server on your router or change it on all your clients.

Guide here

 

Pihole is pretty well documented. So it shouldn't be a problem finding the information

[Greenish]

15 minutes ago, Denned said:

The querys you see are probably just random broadcast then.

You can an ipconfig /all and it should list your active DNS Servers.

You're going to need to either change the dns server on your router or change it on all your clients.

Guide here

 

Pihole is pretty well documented. So it shouldn't be a problem finding the information

Fixed it all, will be restarting, and flushing all my DNS' and then be testing