05-22-2018, 01:04 PM
https://pi-hole.net/
Pi-hole is an internet ad blocker. That does not sound very radical or transformative, but it is. Pi-hole works differently than other ad blockers. It protects your whole network - phones, tablets, desktop PCs, smart TVs, Roku, etc. Did you know that many "smart" devices "call home" every few seconds? Would you be alarmed to find out your "smart" doorbell or thermostat is calling China 20,000 times a day? Did you know that whenever you click on a web link, a high-speed auction takes place in which dozens of ad companies review the personal information they have on you and place a bid, hoping to win the chance to show you an ad on that page? This all happens within 1/10th of a second. Internet ads are a $200 Billion industry. And we all hate them, but what can we do?
We can Pi-hole the ba$tard$ !!
I thought about my Jag brothers because all the talk of the new web design and people seeing ads in the middle of the O-Zone column (I don't see any of these ads). So I thought I would try to make internet life easier for other Jag fans. Pi-hole does not block every single ad - YouTube ads are a problem because they originate from the same server as the video content so they are not easily blocked. But Pi-hole is blocking 60% - 75% of all my internet traffic. It's amazing to think that 75% of your internet traffic is actively working against you, either to spy on you or to entice you to buy something. But that's the reality today.
Bloomberg wrote a very positive article on Pi-hole a few weeks ago. The thing I worry about is now the cat is out of the bag and ad companies will spend billions finding technical workarounds.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/...d-blockers
[HOW IT WORKS]
If you use a browser-based ad blocker, you are still connecting with ad servers, giving them your personal information, and downloading ads. Even if the ad blocker does not display the ads, you still used the bandwidth to download them and you still allowed the ad server to collect information about you.
Pi-hole works differently. It uses DNS lookup to block ads. DNS is the service which translates internet addresses from words to numbers. So, to visit cnn.com you have to ask a DNS server what the actual numerical address is (151.101.193.67). Unfortunately, when you request the web page cnn.com, you also get intrusive ad content from doubleclick.net, facebook.com, googlesyndication.com, etc.
Pi-hole keeps a list of blocked domains. So when your request for the CNN webpage comes to Pi-hole, it checks the blocklist. cnn.com is not blocked, so Pi-hole lets the request through. But doubleclick.net IS on the blocklist. What does Pi-hole do about this? Pi-hole says "I am doubleclick.net" and instead of sending the ad request to the real doubleclick.net, Pi-hole simply returns a blank web page to be shown where the ad would normally display. The request for the ad never leaves your house, no ad servers were contacted, no personal information was shared and no bandwidth was wasted downloading the ad. Even better, Pi-hole does all this in a few milliseconds, and the requested web page loads very quickly and cleanly.
I tested Pi-hole with my old Windows XP desktop and was not impressed. It was blocking only 3% - 4% of traffic. I was going to uninstall it but decided to first try sending all the household traffic through Pi-hole. WOW!!!!!!!! Immediately it started blocking hundreds of requests per minute, even when nobody was using the internet. My 2 Roku boxes were sending out log files every few seconds (logs of what? Nobody is using them!). The Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs were calling Microsoft every few seconds, and the Android apps on our phones and tablets were generating plenty of steady traffic.
There are a bunch of different blocklists you can add to Pi-hole. The standard installation blocks about 142,000 domains. My current setup blocks 439,000 domains. I mostly use the ones that block ads, malware and telemetry (devices "phoning home"), but there are also some porn blocklists which block over 2 million porn sites. IMO, this feature is essential if you have kids. Even a lot of guy-oriented sports and hobby websites are showing soft porn ads on every page (Busty Asian women are dying to meet you!).
Pi-hole requires a bit of computer skill but not too much. Setup is very well-documented and Pi-hole runs beautifully on a $35 Raspberry Pi. I had mine up and running the first day, and it has been doing its thing for 3 months with no intervention.
There is something magically empowering about taking control of your technology. Pi-hole lets me see what my devices are doing. I can monitor the whole house traffic in real-time, with fine-grained control. I learned more about my network in 1 day of Pi-hole usage than from 10 years of fiddling around. Check it out.
Pi-hole is an internet ad blocker. That does not sound very radical or transformative, but it is. Pi-hole works differently than other ad blockers. It protects your whole network - phones, tablets, desktop PCs, smart TVs, Roku, etc. Did you know that many "smart" devices "call home" every few seconds? Would you be alarmed to find out your "smart" doorbell or thermostat is calling China 20,000 times a day? Did you know that whenever you click on a web link, a high-speed auction takes place in which dozens of ad companies review the personal information they have on you and place a bid, hoping to win the chance to show you an ad on that page? This all happens within 1/10th of a second. Internet ads are a $200 Billion industry. And we all hate them, but what can we do?
We can Pi-hole the ba$tard$ !!
I thought about my Jag brothers because all the talk of the new web design and people seeing ads in the middle of the O-Zone column (I don't see any of these ads). So I thought I would try to make internet life easier for other Jag fans. Pi-hole does not block every single ad - YouTube ads are a problem because they originate from the same server as the video content so they are not easily blocked. But Pi-hole is blocking 60% - 75% of all my internet traffic. It's amazing to think that 75% of your internet traffic is actively working against you, either to spy on you or to entice you to buy something. But that's the reality today.
Bloomberg wrote a very positive article on Pi-hole a few weeks ago. The thing I worry about is now the cat is out of the bag and ad companies will spend billions finding technical workarounds.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/...d-blockers
[HOW IT WORKS]
If you use a browser-based ad blocker, you are still connecting with ad servers, giving them your personal information, and downloading ads. Even if the ad blocker does not display the ads, you still used the bandwidth to download them and you still allowed the ad server to collect information about you.
Pi-hole works differently. It uses DNS lookup to block ads. DNS is the service which translates internet addresses from words to numbers. So, to visit cnn.com you have to ask a DNS server what the actual numerical address is (151.101.193.67). Unfortunately, when you request the web page cnn.com, you also get intrusive ad content from doubleclick.net, facebook.com, googlesyndication.com, etc.
Pi-hole keeps a list of blocked domains. So when your request for the CNN webpage comes to Pi-hole, it checks the blocklist. cnn.com is not blocked, so Pi-hole lets the request through. But doubleclick.net IS on the blocklist. What does Pi-hole do about this? Pi-hole says "I am doubleclick.net" and instead of sending the ad request to the real doubleclick.net, Pi-hole simply returns a blank web page to be shown where the ad would normally display. The request for the ad never leaves your house, no ad servers were contacted, no personal information was shared and no bandwidth was wasted downloading the ad. Even better, Pi-hole does all this in a few milliseconds, and the requested web page loads very quickly and cleanly.
I tested Pi-hole with my old Windows XP desktop and was not impressed. It was blocking only 3% - 4% of traffic. I was going to uninstall it but decided to first try sending all the household traffic through Pi-hole. WOW!!!!!!!! Immediately it started blocking hundreds of requests per minute, even when nobody was using the internet. My 2 Roku boxes were sending out log files every few seconds (logs of what? Nobody is using them!). The Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs were calling Microsoft every few seconds, and the Android apps on our phones and tablets were generating plenty of steady traffic.
There are a bunch of different blocklists you can add to Pi-hole. The standard installation blocks about 142,000 domains. My current setup blocks 439,000 domains. I mostly use the ones that block ads, malware and telemetry (devices "phoning home"), but there are also some porn blocklists which block over 2 million porn sites. IMO, this feature is essential if you have kids. Even a lot of guy-oriented sports and hobby websites are showing soft porn ads on every page (Busty Asian women are dying to meet you!).
Pi-hole requires a bit of computer skill but not too much. Setup is very well-documented and Pi-hole runs beautifully on a $35 Raspberry Pi. I had mine up and running the first day, and it has been doing its thing for 3 months with no intervention.
There is something magically empowering about taking control of your technology. Pi-hole lets me see what my devices are doing. I can monitor the whole house traffic in real-time, with fine-grained control. I learned more about my network in 1 day of Pi-hole usage than from 10 years of fiddling around. Check it out.
![[Image: Screen_Shot_2018_05_23_at_7_22_37_PM.png]](https://preview.ibb.co/csiYLo/Screen_Shot_2018_05_23_at_7_22_37_PM.png)