Client group management - how does it work?

Help
1

Hi there,

just wonder if someone can help me here. I want to use the client group management to define which device uses which lists.
I added 3 groups:

  • Default (where all adlists and whitelists are added to)
  • Ads_on
  • Ads_blocked

I have no list added to "Ads_on". I thought if I add this group to the specific device/IP all ads won't be blocked on this device, actually like if there's no pi-hole in use.
Obviously this doesn't work.
Can someone help me what I'm doing wrong?

Question is:
What do I have to do to use pi-hole to a group of devices and how to keep some devices "outside of pi-hole"?

Thanks

2

Creating groups and assigning blocklists to them is half of the job done.

By default, any client will use the Default list.

To treat a specific client differently, you first need to make that client known to Pi-hole.

So did you already add clients you want to assign non-default groups to under Group Management | Clients?

Once a client is added, you can then adjust group assignments as required:

clients-group-assign
clients-group-assign750×360 4.78 KB

3

Yes, I added the IP of my smartphone under Group Management | Clients and assigned the Group Ads_on to it - with no effect.

Any ideas?

4

Run from a client that doesn't get filtered, what's the output of:

nslookup pi.hole
5

The output is:
Server: raspberrypi
Address: 192.168.0.2

Name: pi.hole
Addresses: 2a02:8070:5382:b700:42d2:a03d:2de0:7741
192.168.0.2

I get the same output if I run this from a client that get's filtered or not.

6

Please generate a debug log, upload it when prompted and post the token here.

7

I generated the debug log - here's the token: https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/t3v5hu8zzd
Looking forward what you figure out.

8

Your client config looks good. You configured 3 groups , 4 clients are associated only to group number 2 (Ads_on) which itself is not associated with any adlist. Using one of those 4 clients you should see ads.

Reasons I can think of: you use a browser plugin that blocks ads as well. Your devices use different IPs than those you specified.

9

Thanks for the reply. And good to see, atleast, that my configuration seems to be correct.
Nevertheless I don't know what's wrong here. I added my local desktop-PC to the "Ads_on" group and even after a "Update Gravity" I still see now ads on this computer. I deactivated all adblockers in firefox (which I'm using at the moment).
So right now I have no clue what to do. For me it looks like a mistake in my pi-hole installation:
My router is a Connectbox with pi-hole (RBPi zero) as DHCP-server. Could this be the reason?

10

Does the IP of your desktop-PC show up in pihole's Query log?

ADD

Please run

echo ">top-clients" | nc localhost 4711

on your pihole device

11

My desktop-PC has the IP 192.168.0.214
In the querly log the following is listed for this ip:
[i] No results found for 192.168.0.214 within the block lists

The result for echo ">top-clients" | nc localhost 4711 is:
0 14701 192.168.0.159 nb1246.lan
1 7651 192.168.0.75
2 7417 192.168.0.156 ubuntu_1804.lan
3 4867 192.168.0.214 desktop-qaqg8r3.lan
plus 6 more. Do you need the whole list?

12

You mean no instead of now, I guess?

This shows that the device is using pihole - no ads should be blocked according to your group configuration. I don't know why it is not working for you :man_shrugging:

Please run from desktop-PC

nslookup flurry.com

13

Oh yes, sorry. I ment: "I still see no ads on this computer".
The result for nslookup flurry.com is
Server: raspberrypi
Address: 192.168.0.2

Name: flurry.com
Addresses: ::
0.0.0.0

One thing to add:
If I select "Disable for (whatever) 5 Minutes" I thought that pi-hole is not working for this period of time, which means that I should see ads on all devices. That's not the case, from my point of view "my pi-hole" is not possible to disable - completely or for single devices. Strange...

14

What upstream DNS servers is your Pi-hole using?

15

Yes, now we are getting closer I guess.
I have those defined - ads are blocked all the time:

grafik
grafik453×231 3.81 KB

No Upstream DNS servers on the left side.

But if I check those:

grafik
grafik383×181 2.39 KB

or those:
grafik
grafik378×116 1.29 KB

all of a sudden ads appear on the clients with the group "ads_on". Don't know why that's the case and don't know if that's any good, but it seems to work.
If check "OpenDNS (ECS) ads don't appear. Don't understand anything.
Can someone explain and recommend what do check?

16

That's easy:
At least one of your upstream DNS servers is also filtering DNS requests.

Get rid of those DNS servers, and you should see your Pi-hole working as expected.
In fact, it likely has been alll the time.

1 Like
17

And which do you recommend?

19

Whatever you prefer. :wink:

20

I have no clue what to look out for. I don't know any backgrounds, just want to make pi-hole work as good and flexible as possible. So no recommendations to expect?

21

What was your motivation for using custom upstreams then?