Block Ads everywhere with pi-hole

Pi-hole allows you to block all the ads without even installing an ad blocker on your device. One of the main advantages of Pi-hole is that you can use it anywhere you like (TVs, smartphones, etc.).

• Easy to Install - Less than 10 minutes
• Content is blocked before reaching your device
• Open Source, therefore, free
• Very fast & Reliable

Installation

To install Pi-hole, you'll either need a Raspbery-Pi 4/3 or a small server such as one on DigitalOcean

For simplicity, I'll show you how to install it on DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean

If you already have an account, you can skip to step 2.

1. Create an account on DigitalOcean here.
2. Create a Droplet
3. Choose Ubuntu
4. Choose the 1GB/1CPU Option
5. Choose the location that best suits your needs
6. Add an SSH Key for better protection or use the One-time Password
7. Create the droplet

The deployment of the drop should take less than 2 minutes.

Once the droplet has been deployed, look for its IP address.

Then just log to your Droplet

# SSH to your droplet
ssh root@<ipaddress>

Install Pi-Hole on your freshly installed Ubuntu or Raspbery-Pi 4/3

• Run

# One line installer
 curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

• Accept everything except if you want to customize(only if you know what you are doing)
• Save the admin password

Re-configure your router so that Pi-hole is the DNS Server for your network

Doing this will make sure that it has a minimal impact on your current network setup. Most routers are by default the DNS Server for clients of the network. By replacing the DNS server used by your router with Pi-Hole DNS Server, it means that all the devices on your network will use that DNS Server.

• Log into your router as an administrator
• Set the primary and secondary DNS server to the IP address of your Pi-Hole installation.

If you get stuck try searching how to change your DNS configuration online based on your router device

• Save your settings, reboot all your devices, and enjoy a network-wide ad-blocking experience.

Use Pi-Hole as per device DNS Server

This approach is more tedious, but you can change the DNS Server used by default by your devices.

• Do a quick search on how to change the default DNS Server of your device
• Change the primary DNS Server address to your Pi-Hole Server

Pi-Hole Admin Panel

• Go to http://<yourpiholeip>
• Log in with your password If you forgot the password, then connect via SSH to your server and run sudo pihole -a -p

From this panel, you’ll be able to add/remove specific sites from your Adblocking experience.

Have fun!