A Solution for Getting Rid of (some of those) Annoying Ads

Who isn’t annoyed by online ads? How would you like an easy domain blocker to keep your kids safer online? This might be the solution for you.

PiHole is a stand-alone DNS server that can automatically block ads from listed sites and also allow you do block entire domains if you want. If you have some IT/computer skills, this is pretty easy to incorporate.

  1. You need a (preferably) low power computer. A Raspberry Pi, Intel Atom or Core i3 will work just fine.
  2. Load up you OS – Raspberry Pi OS for Pi’s or Linux (I use Ubuntu) for Intel or AMD CPUs.
  3. Go into your router and assign the DSN computer a static IP address.
  4. Go to https://pi-hole.net/ and downoad and install PiHole. Just accept the defaults to start with, you can adjust things later.
  5. Once you have PiHole up and running, go back into your router and tell it to assign your DNS server as the primary IP address to all DHCP clients (all the computers, wired and wireless) on your network.
  6. Want to block a domain? Log into your PiHole, select “Domains” from the menu, add the domain and a comment at the top (why you’re blocking), then click on “Add to Blacklist”.
    Note: Use “Add to Whitelist” if you want to always allow content from a domain.

That’s it. You’re now running your own DNS server with ad blocking and domain blocking. This will do a great job of blocking ads from your phones, but only when they are connected to your home WiFi.

Heads-up… some devices like Google smart speakers, some cameras, etc. are hard wired to a specific DNS server and will go completely nuts if you try to force another DNS server on them. It’s best just to exclude them from your home DNS server and let them connect to their own DNS. This is really only a problem if you’re using a custom firewall/router with a DNS redirect rule, but worth mentioning.

If you have problems, add a comment and we’ll try to help.

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