• Faresh@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I don’t quite understand the use-case for the pi-hole. Why use it, when one could simply use something like µBlock Origin?

    • TeddE@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      µBlock Origin is great for browsers that support extensions. But that won’t get most Android TV ads or Apple TV users. And I suspect many of the people with pi hole also use µBlock Origin for redundancy.

      • Antik 👾@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Correct, I use both myself. Pihole is also my DHCP server and I created different blocklists for different devices on my network. For example, I have “general”, “media”, “gaming” and “kids”.

    • Landless2029@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      One example. Can’t really AD block ios that easily. But with a pi hole you don’t need to worry about anything.

      Just setup the pi hole static IP as the dns in your routers settings and all devices are behind the one interface.

      Got an issue? Just login to the pi hole website to manage it. White list some critical AD site for some stupid mobile game your kids play for example.

    • Dehydrated@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Ads are not only present in the browser. For example, there are Smart (not really lol) TVs that have ads embedded right into the operating system (https://reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/co5aw4/unremovable_ads_on_my_2500_samsung_smart_tv/). You can’t install an adblocker there, but a DNS based filter will know how to deal with this. There are other alternatives, some are cloud hosted like NextDNS or ControlD, there are other local alternatives like AdguardHome or PfBlockerNG if you run a PfSense Firewall. There are also simple solutions like AdGuard’s Public DNS or Mullvad’s Adblocking DNS servers. If you use an iPhone or iPad, you can easily download a configuration profile that includes the DNS settings for these services. I think NextDNS offers a similar service. On Android, you can just set up Dns over TLS, I think it’s called Private DNS in the settings. DNS adfiltering can’t get rid of all ads though, e.g. YouTube’s mechanism for displaying ads is resistant to DNS filtering. That’s what uBlock Origin if for though.

      • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Can do that with Adguard’s DNS too. It’s what I use, which also works on mobile networks.

    • Pyro@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Speed and efficiency. Why waste time downloading ad content just for it to be hidden by the browser when you can simply stop them from being downloaded in the first place?