Would love to see this feature! When my Samsung TV is on it hits it's ad network which I've blocked but would be nice to not see my query logs always full of the same thing.
2 Likes
New to discussion but it feels like the devs misunderstood the request. I believe OP wanted the ability to simply not see certain domains in the query log screen in the web interface. This would be in the Rust code as I understand, not in the C code. It literally would be a line of code such as [if domain I'm about to write to the screen is not in this list then ...] if that makes sense. At least this is what I want to be able to do.
There are some domains that I don't even care to log, eg. doubleclick, googleadservices, or google-analytics ... Yep, everybody and their dog uses these on their websites, and even my dogs fitness tracker tries to send analytics. Logging these queries is just wasting space and causing unnecessary disk writes. There are other threads where this is made more clear.
Just adding my vote... some polling services query so much causing the log to be cluttered with useless items, which makes it difficult to find the actually useful info you're looking for 
Perhaps a different approach would be to:
- add the ability to exclude domains/clients via the query log filter
- add an optional setting in the settings page to automatically exclude certain domains/clients, so when opening the query log the filter would automatically be set to exclude these domains
Already 4 yeas old, I wonder why this gets so few attention 
Actually this is a bug, as the actual status affects the usability of the query log and blows resources. It should be possible to completely drop domains from any logging.
Comparing an incoming domain against yet another list will have an performance impact on Pi-hole as this is obviously something that has to happen after the query is received but before anything is logged.
How is this a bug, which is generally defined as an unintended behavior in software?
Is our code producing unintended results?
Have you looked at the source of the repetitive queries? Experimented with lower rate limits?
As this would be intended for just a small amount of domains, it could be implemented in another way that does not affect resources.
Yes you're right, it is not a bug per se, but it has a bad impact on the usability of the query log.
It is especially my hue bridge which sends so many requests for the blocked domain. I have found no proper solution. Only way I read about is to disable the portal which also disables the update functionality of the bridge.
And which way would that be? Hints to how you see the implementation would help us see the same.
I am no coder but I want to suggest a possible solution.
I think we do not need another list. Why not use just the domain list we have.
We just put a specific special character string right at the beginning of the domain.
So for example !#adserver.evil
The "!#" indicates that this domain will be blocked but completely silent.
This could also be extended easily for other options.
2 Likes
This doesn't answer Dan's question.
It just states how you'd mark a domain for a separate purpose, not how you'd imagine it would actually be processed.
And as that suggestion would deviate from the hosts format, it would not only affect just Pi-hole, but potentially blocklist maintainer's as well, broadening the parties involved to accept and support your proposed change.
There's no need to touch the source lists.
This can just be appended in the personal blacklists.
+1 to this request.
As a user
I would like to exclude specific domains from logging at all
So that I can enhance my privacy OR help to minimise the amount of logging for very noisy domains ensuring that my dashboard view is actually useful and not just a bunch of noise.
Ideally for me, this would just be a check box when creating allow or block list entries, where per entry you could choose if logging takes place. Approached in the right way, wouldn't this actually reduce the overall load on the piHole (we are talking about the removal for the logging operation for most of the traffic in my house, and then the removal of the requirement to keep, maintain and make available in searches).
Specifically the top blocked domains would benefit the most, and this would be the primary information most users are keen to see. For me this is currently filled with device-metrics-us-2.amazon.com, audible.sc.omtrdc.net, app-measurement.com, c.amazon-adsystem.com, pagead2.googlesyndication.com, pubads.g.doubleclick.net, csi.gstatic.com, 2mdn.net, tlx.3lift.com.
Thank you to the piHole team for their work and dedication to helping us all live a more secure and less risky digital life. Hope this request raised by @bertoost can be considered at some point.
1 Like
PS - I've been thinking about running two piHoles in serial, using the first one to be my block no logging, and the second to operate as my normal piHole. This would achieve what is outlined above, but certainly not in the way that I'd like to approach it.
You have the option today to drop any or all of these from the top lists.