Block Page Not Loading

[att33tt]

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Hello,

I have pihole installed on an Ubuntu 18.04 instance on AWS. I wanted to implement a custom block page. I found this post https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/customize-block-page/4693/20 and followed it thoroughly but every time I try to access a site that is blacklisted, I get ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT on Chrome. I tried different browsers and http and https websites. For testing, I nuked my whole instance and started from scratch, this time I didnt create a custom html file, I just want the default index.php to come up. That doesn't even work.

Expected Behaviour:

When trying to access a blacklisted site, I want to see the index.php "Block page"

Actual Behaviour:

I get ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

Debug Token:

https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/t0xhz8emsw

I have read so many articles, all saying conflicting things. Does anyone have the block page successfully working with Chrome and https websites?

Many thanks!

[yubiuser]

I haven't setup a blocking page myself, but I know it doesn't work on https. See here

Blocking Page kind not working

https://pi-hole.net will not work with a blocking page. That domain is https only and you can not use blocking pages for https sites. The block page listens on port 80 and https uses port 443. Even if you open port 443 on the Pi-hole it will not work as you don't have the certificate for https://pi-hole.net. So the mobile is the view you will get. If the desktop clients are still seeing the site then they are not using Pi-hole for their DNS server.

[jfb]

You have the NULL blocking mode selected. To get a blocking page (of any kind) you will need to select one of the blocking modes that provides a block page, then work from there.

From your debug log.

[2020-05-05 05:28:30.223 9735] BLOCKINGMODE: Null IPs for blocked domains

https://docs.pi-hole.net/ftldns/blockingmode/

As noted in a previous comment, the blocking page is not served for https sites.

[att33tt]

That really sucks about the https not showing the blocking page. Is there really no way to do this? How do other DNS level blocking applications do this?

I tried both of these and the same result. What's weird is when I sent you the debug, it should have been in 1 of the these 2 modes. I never had it explicitly to NULL or just not have a blocking mode at all (default)

BLOCKINGMODE=IP
BLOCKINGMODE=IP-NODATA-AAAA

I wonder why the logs shows this "[2020-05-05 05:28:30.223 9735] BLOCKINGMODE: Null IPs for blocked domains"

After I set the blocking mode, I restarted all the services and even reboot the ubuntu instance...any thoughts on that?

THANK YOU!!!

[jfb]

@att33tt

That really sucks about the https not showing the blocking page. Is there really no way to do this?

To intercept https pages, you need to create a Man-in-the-Middle and have your own SSL certificate. That is not something we support.

@att33tt

when I sent you the debug, it should have been in 1 of the these 2 modes. I never had it explicitly to NULL or just not have a blocking mode at all (default)

I wonder why the logs shows this
[2020-05-05 05:28:30.223 9735] BLOCKINGMODE: Null IPs for blocked domains

NULL is the default setting, for thr reasons discussed in the documentation. In the absence of any setting in /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf, NULL will be used. Since you didn't have an alternate blocking mode set, the output line in the debug log shows that NULL was set when pihole-FTL started. If you made a subsequent change in the configuration, either it was not saved of pihole-FTL was not restarted after the changes.

[att33tt]

Thanks. I have given up on https sites for now. I just want to see the damned block page for a blocked site. I added a local businesses website that is http to the blacklist and I am using that site for testing. I made some changes the block page html and both conf files I believe I fixed the blocking mode. Rebooted. Still when I go to the test http site...in Chome I get: ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

Here are the new logs. If you can kindly review and give me your thoughts.

https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/727n9blxmg

Thank you.

PS: when I go to http://pihole_server_public_ip/CustomBlockPage.html, it displays my custom block page just fine so I know it's valid and responsive in that path.