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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 26th, 2024

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  • Depends on how you do it and what you need from it. I’ve actually moved on from my Pihole instance, for reasons I’ll get into later.

    The broad appeal of using Pihole for DNS in a homelab is the ability to route services from domain names on the local host. This can be really useful, especially for “hacking” service availability onto other unintended devices. Additionally, it can be nice for less tech-savvy users who might not be comfortable editing /etc/hosts or just want to check out a service on their phone web browser.

    I would generally recommend using an isolated device for Pihole needs; If you’re doing work on your home server, you’ll probably want all users on your service to keep their internet connection working to not be a burden to others living in your household (if you have others). A raspberry pi is a really good target for a pihole, and even a cheap old/used one from the interwebs can serve you well (I was using one recently on a pi3b and it was no issue.) Keep in mind that you can’t really do fallback dns configuration unless you’re ok with losing the key feature of pihole (blocking ads and redirecting domains). Notably, I’m actually not a proponent of running all services on individual compute units generally, I just think DNS is special and you don’t really want to tie it into docker services to keep a separation between the services and the server, so to speak.

    This brings me to the second feature: adblocking. This one is really a mixed bag. Ultimately, I turned this feature off only because it doesn’t work for the websites that have arguably the most ad content (youtube, twitch) and really only serves to hurt the smaller players. Sometimes it’s great for blocking things like SmartTV advertisements or data encroachments, but it’s very hard to block ads from a web domain in a way that doesn’t outright block the service itself (so blocking youtube ads without blocking youtube is, seemingly, a fools errand.) I’m willing to hear other people’s opinion on this, I just couldn’t get this working to a satisfactory degree.

    I’ve abandoned Pihole as a local dns resolver. This is because Tailscale suits my needs and also allows me out-of-house connectivity to things like my music or personal data so my phone never goes out of communication with my home network. When you use tailscale at home, it’s generally really good about routing that through your local network instead of the relay, so there shouldn’t be that many downsides. Note, I say generally, because there have been times where it goes through a relay unexpectedly which I haven’t solved yet (this is likely a local router configuration issue, anyway…)

    I notice that you’re already familiar with Pihole, but just thought that it would be best to “explain” my thoughts on it in the form of a recommendation/editorial form.








  • Is it plugged into a GFCI protected outlet?

    Would this help? I’m currently using a standard 3-prong outlet with no ground fault protection, but I suppose I could install one on the given port…

    There could just be too many devices with some earth leakage connected to the circuit, causing it to trip without any of them being faulty.

    This could be, I suppose. Though what should someone do about this ultimately? I’ve already tried removing elements a piece at a time, but it would only work properly once the ender was off the circuit.









  • A narrow majority, 54%, of Republicans surveyed said that Trump is focussed on the “right priorities”, while the president’s numbers with crucial independent voters are much weaker. Just 9% of independents said that the president is focussed on the right priorities – with 42% believing Trump is paying attention to the wrong issues.

    So you’re telling me that these idiots voted for this guy and are now upset that he’s doing what he said he’d do and was obvious to everyone, including democrats, why this guy was unfit to serve?

    Frankly, I have no sympathy for a republican with second thoughts now, after he’s deporting babies with cancer. You’ve slept with dogs, you have fleas, and we all hate your guts. The end.

    Let’s put it this way, they’re not so unhappy with him that they’re the ones protesting him.