Hey makers! Want to give your home network a boost of privacy and speed? Letās turn your Pi into a stealthy ad-blocking powerhouse.
š§° What it does
This project uses a Raspberry Pi to run Piāhole ā a DNS-level ad-blocker that filters out ads, trackers and unwanted requests for every device on your network.
š¦ Required parts
- Raspberry Pi (any model with network access)
- SD card with Raspberry Pi OS installed
- Network connection (Ethernet recommended)
- Basic access to your routerās DHCP / DNS settings
šÆ Why itās valuable/fun
- Blocks ads for every device on your network (phones, tablets, TVsā¦)
- Reduces distraction + speeds up page loads
- Teaches you about DNS, network settings, and system configuration
- Totally āset-and-forgetā once configured ā but with lots of room to tweak
šŖ Setup steps
- Flash Raspberry Pi OS, boot the Pi and update it (sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade).
- Run curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash and follow the on-screen installer.
- Assign a static IP to the Pi or reserve it in your router.
- Point your routerās DNS server (or individual devices) to the Piās IP so all DNS queries go through Pi-hole.
- Open the Pi-hole admin dashboard in your browser, review whatās getting blocked, and optionally add extra block-lists or whitelist trusted sites.
⨠Optional customization
Link your Pi-hole with a dashboard like Grafana or set up email alerts when blocking spikes happen (could indicate a device got hacked or an ad-infested app).
Have you ever managed DNS settings or network-level blocking before? Would you set this up for your whole familyās devices or just one part of the network? Letās hear your thoughts below š
š„ Video walk-through
Hereās a solid tutorial to get you started: