I'm willing to pay someone to walk me through the pihole setup

Help
1

I have tried and I have failed.. for months now. I'm using docker desktop on my Dell. I also have the ubuntu app I got from the microsoft store. It runs inside Windows 10. I have followed many guides but the main one is here. Install Pi-hole on Windows 10 and live ad-free forever | Andrew Denty

What I've been doing is setting my computer's IP address to static and copy the information from IP config. When I get to DNS server, I use the Ip address from the WSL connection. Then I go into the router (TP Link Archer 6) settings and go to DHCP settings and change the dns server to the WSL connection's IP address. To complicate matters, my router has it's own ip address along with subnet. I haven't done anything with those because no guide I have used has addressed this issue.

Everything seems to be set up with my understanding of the instrucions I'm using but that is where the problem lies. I don't understand but I keep searching, reading and trying anyway. I've have tried setting up pihole as a dns server, as a dhcp server but I can't even get it to run at the most basic level. I can login to the admin page but everything is at zero except the number under the domains and adlist.

I'm computer literate and I have an understanding of the basic settings but this is beyond what I can accomplish alone. If you are willing to help me, I can venmo you some money for your expertise in this area. Let me know what else you need from me and I'll try my best to send it to you. Thank you in advance.

P.S. It says attach debug token by running pihole -d. I ran that in cmd prompt but the only thing it produced was an error. It doesn't specify where to run pihole -d. For most, that information is probably annoyingly obvious. Not so much for me. I'll try to get a debug token from the webpage now.

(moderator edit: explicit debug log removed)

2

Just out of curiosity, as I am not setup using Docker.

Is your PC hosting Docker always on, with the Docker image/whatever running? If not, it won’t work, unless your router is using an alternate DNS provider, which it should not do, as that provides a route bypassing Pi-hole randomly, or seemingly so.

The Ubuntu instance in WSL is what should, I believe, have the static IP address, and that address is what should be configured in your router. Not at all familiare with TP Link Archer, and its configuration.

Not sure if this helps, but that is all I have, and have zero interest in being compensated for that.

Good luck.

3

I don't think you need to do that. A lot of people in this forum are willing to help. Get the debug token posted, so moderators and developers can look at it. The token looks something like this https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/xxxxxxxxx/
with 'x" being random generated.
If you could post an image of what you put in your router config would help too.

btw, since you're running Windows, the command pihole -d won't work. When you generate a debug token, make sure you check box the option above.

4

For your own privacy and security, please do not post your full, unsanitised debug log.
We just ask for the token.

You'd have to run that on the machine where you've installed Pi-hole.
In case of Docker, that would mean you'd have to run it from inside your container, e.g.

docker exec <pihole-container-name> pihole -d

where you replace <pihole-container-name> with your actual Pi-hole container's name.
Note that on Windows, I believe you'd have to run docker commands from an administrator shell.

Also, please share your docker compose or docker run script for starting your Pi-hole container.

5

hello

6

I tried to do the debug log. When I went into Pihole on the internet and generated a debug log, they did not allow it to be posted here. I probably did something wrong but I did get a report. I tried to follow the instructions of going to https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/xxxxxxxxx/ and created an account but got an 404 error when I put in the web address.
I then googled how to create a debug token in pihole and on this same sight the first option listed is what I already did but they didn't allow it. The second option says to login to Pihole command line. I used the command echo "hello developers" | pihole tricorder... nothing happened. Then I opened the Ubuntu I got from the Microsoft store and ran root@ubuntu:~$echo "help me" | nc tricorder.pi-hole.net 9999 but that got an error saying root@ubuntu isn't a proper command.

So, again, I don't know where to do from here because I don't know how to generate an acceptable debug token.

7

???
Please run the command within your Pi-hole Docker container as requested, allowing debug log upload when prompted, and share the token shown after the log has finished.

If that doesn't work, then your container's configuration may be incorrect.
Sharing your container startup scripts as requested may allow us to fix that.

8

You have two methods to generate a debug token running docker for Windows

Method 1:

  • Open Docker Desktop: Ensure Docker Desktop is running on your Windows machine.
  • Access the Docker Container: Open a command prompt or PowerShell window with administrator privileges.
  • Run the Debug Command: Execute the following command to enter your Pi-hole container:
docker exec -it <pihole-container-name> pihole -d

Replace <pihole-container-name> with the actual name of your Pi-hole container.

Method 2:

  • Log in to the Pi-hole Admin Interface: Open your web browser and go to the Pi-hole admin page. The URL is usually something like http://<your-pihole-ip-address>/admin.
  • Navigate to the Debugging Section: Once logged in, go to the "Tools" section in the sidebar.
  • Generate Debug Token: In the "Tools" section, find and click on "Generate Debug Token." Follow the prompts to generate the token.
1 Like
9

https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/7zFx5pFn/

10

Excellent. I don't have access to the token except Mod or Dev. Hopefully they can look at your token and help you further.

Good luck

11

Thank you so, so much! I could not have done it without you.

12

Just a note:

The access to your Debug Log is restricted.
Only Pi-hole team is allowed to read tricorder links.

13

Thank you for that information.

14

The mod also ask if you could share the content of your docker compose. Just open the docker-compose.yml, then copy and paste the content here, so they can exam it to troubleshoot your issue.

15

This is what I found in a file named compose.yaml.txt.

services:
  pihole:
    container_name: pihole
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "67:67/udp"
      - "80:80/tcp"
    environment:
      TZ: 'America/Pacific'
      # SECUREPASSWORD: 'mypassword'
    volumes:
      - './etc-pihole:/etc/pihole'
      - './etc-dnsmasq.d:/etc/dnsmasq.d'
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    restart: unless-stopped
16

Did I do all the things that were needed on my end?

17

You've provided everything that was asked by the mod. Hopefully he'll reply and provide assistance. chk your msg.

18

Are you positive that you are using that compose.yaml.txt?
Your debug log doesn't indicate that you'd run a Docker Pi-hole container at all.

Please share the exact docker command you use to start your Pi-hole container.
And in case you are not using Docker, please share how you run your Pi-hole on Windows 10.

22

No, I am not positive. I never heard of that file until I came here. These are the steps I took...

First thing was to download and install docker desktop. After that I installed pihole via docker pull pihole/pihole command. Next, I got the information for my active internet connection by running ipconfig and used that information (A) (ip address, subnet, default gateway) in the top part of my connection's ipv4 properties.

In the DNS I used the IP address of the WSL connection (B) as the primary DNS and 1.1.1.1 as the secondary DNS. I then ran this command... docker run -d --name pihole -e ServerIP=192.168.x.xxx -e WEBPASSWORD=mypassword -e TZ=America/Pacific -e DNS1=127.17.0.1 -e DNS2=1.1.1.1 -e DNS3=1.0.0.1 -p 80:80 -p 53:53/tcp -p 53:53/udp -p 443:443 --restart=unless-stopped pihole/pihole:latest.

Finally, I went to the DHCP setting of my TP Link Archer 6 router and changed the DNS address to the ipv4 ip address of the WSL(B) and left the second one blank. Lastly, I rebooted both my router and my computer. I can login to the pihole website. I thought that meant it was running. I don't recall running a specific command to start pihole.

23

I had no idea what a compose.yml file was, so obviously I never created one to use. I'm just now looking into what that file is and how to build one. I need instructions that are annoyingly simple to understand, as I'm already stuck on trying to figure out what platform I'm using. I'm googling all this now but any help or a good shove in the direction of a good tutorial would be greatly appreciated.