I’ve run Pi-hole in my homelab for years and benefited from using the service. As well as the hands-on education.

With that said, what is everyone else’s experience with the software? Do you use Pi-hole in your homelab setup? I would assume many hundreds of thousands of people use Pi-hole.

Edit #1:

The image attached to this post is my RPi 5, which hosts the Pi-hole software. Big supporter of the whole “SBCs for learning and home improvement” mentality.

Edit #2:

It is interesting to see the broad support for Pi-hole and DNS blockers in general. The more options, the healthier the tech ecosystem is, which benefits everyone.

  • Chaser@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    26 days ago

    I run pihole without any problems as a docker container. I assume you want to ask how well it works to add custom records, because that’s what you usually do with a dns server.

    Adding single records with the web ui works just fine. However, adding wildcards isn’t possible. So you end up attaching a terminal to your container and adding dnsmasq configs yourself. This is a bit poor.

    On the other hand: How often do you need to add wildcards? I needed like 2 entries since I set up pihole a few years ago.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    pihole has got the best UX for DNS management hands down. it’s easy, not overly complicated, and perfect for entry-level selfhosting.

    the fact that it actively blocks ads is a bonus.

  • ORbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    Indispensible.

    A longer answer would come out of: “What do you think of a home lab environment without Pi-Hole?”

  • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I use technitium, but there is nothing “wrong” with using a pihole. I used to run several (containers, plus one physical), and have set up quite a few for family and friends.

    • iegod@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      What I like about running a dedicated physical deployment of pihole (and only pihole) is better reliability, especially when using at for DNS. If a VM host has any issues, the network will lose DNS services. This is much more likely to occur the more layers and services you run on that host.

      A friend recently had this happen while they weren’t home and their family went mad as they lost useful internet access - some necessary for remote work.

  • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I preferred AdGuardHome over PiHole, but currently my servers are collecting dust as I need to get electrical work done before I can hook them up.

    It really sucks…

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I use Pi-Hole unbound, and I really like it. However, Technitium seems to be the new favorite and has a lot of bells and whistles that Pi-Hole doesn’t. I haven’t run Technitium basically because Pi-Hole fits my needs. If I were just starting out, I would probably consider Technitium.

    • nfreak@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      I’ve thought about switching to Technitium but dealing with network tools is a whole can of worms I don’t want to open up again until PiHole or Unbound shits the bed on me lmao. PiHole’s working just fine for what I need it to do.

      • mmmac@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        26 days ago

        Technitium is much easier to set up than pihole/adguard IMO, as it supports recursive resolving or DoH/DoT out of the box.

        It also supports mirroring root servers, clustering etc. I switched last week and I’m very happy with it

    • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      27 days ago

      I’ll have to check on this one, never heard of it, and unbound has a tendency to randomly fail on me after a few months.

  • JohnnyWanker@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I use a RPi 5 running docker for: Pi-Hole, Jellyfin, Home Assistant, Heimdall. Works great, and there’s still capacity left to add more services.

    • Bret Bernhoft@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      27 days ago

      It’s amazing what you can do with modern computers. The number of services you are running on that RPi 5 is impressive.

      Hadn’t heard of Heimdall until you mentioned it. That looks like a fun tool to use.

      • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        27 days ago

        Hadn’t heard of Heimdall

        If you’re looking for a dashboard, there are quite a few of them. I use Homarr, but there is:

        • Homer
        • HomePage
        • Dashy
        • dashdot
        • Starbase-80

        …

        • Bret Bernhoft@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          0·
          27 days ago

          I have tried Dashy and enjoyed having a dashboard.

          Out of those mentioned, Heimdall looks like the top contender. I need to ponder if a dashboard is a good move.

  • sylver_dragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    26 days ago

    I run Pi-Hole in a docker container on my server. I never saw the point in having a dedicated bit of hardware for it.
    That said, I don’t understand how people use the internet without one. The times I have had to travel for work, trying to do anything on the internet reminded me of the bad old days of the '90s with pop-ups and flashing banners enticing me to punch the monkey. It’s just sad to see one of the greatest communications platforms we have ever created reduced to a fire-hose of ads.

      • sylver_dragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        26 days ago

        Ya, I actually run both uBlock Origin and NoScript in my browser on my phone and personal machine (desktop). On my work laptop, those are a no-go. So, I get the full ads experience on my work machine when traveling.

  • CameronDev@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I mostly like it, but over the last few months I’ve had my pihole die randomly during the day, which killed my home network, and I had to walk my partner through rebooting everything.

    I’ve now got redundant pihole instances, but I’d really like to know what is going wrong with pihole. Its impossible to replicate, and very sporadic.

      • CameronDev@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        27 days ago

        I use a separate nuc, and even still, rebooting the router is a non-trivial exercise. The internet was wired into the top shelf of a cupboard, so need a step ladder to get to it.

        Since getting a second pihole setup I haven’t had any issues, so I think I’m okay now. Hopefully it fails over the christmas break when I’m home :D

  • bobthecowboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    PiHole 4b powering my home DNS. Been running for ~4 years as of next month (and still on the original SD card I installed it to!). 100% recommend.

    • metaStatic@kbin.earth
      0·
      27 days ago

      and still on the original SD card

      incredibly lucky. my Pi burned through so many cards I wouldn’t use it for a pihole again, especially when mini pcs are better and cheaper

      (and before anyone asks yes I was logging to ram)

      • The_Jit@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        27 days ago

        3B on the original SD card still. But I also use log2ram to help reduce writes to the SD card.

  • picnic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I have that virtualized, times three. Two to have a failover, and third one with different settings for my kids (cloudflare’s family dns)

  • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    It’s fine, did the job for me at the time. Just wanted the ad and nasty blocking. Keeping it and the filters up to date is easy.

    Now have a pfSense box with pfBlocker-NG, which does essentially the same thing. Also runs Snort as an additional layer, and makes penning in IoT stuff possible.