Pi Hole and a website

Help
1

Hello, I want to use my Pi-hole to host a small local website , I do mean local, because I asked the same question on Reddit and people seem to confuse local and public. So I was told I could install Apache alongside Pi-hole, okay, but is there a cleaner way by using the server already built into Pi-hole, CivetWeb, to host my site? I should point out that my small local site runs with PHP, and it’s just a configuration interface for Pi-hole, but slightly reworked.

Thank you for your help.

2

I am not certain if it would be possible to leverage the ‘built-in’ web server, as it’s meant for Pi-hole only. I use lighttpd myself. Since the v5 Pi-hole used to install and use that, over the years I added on functionality needing/using that web server. In the now v6 days, I migrated my setup to still use lighttpd and proxy to both the Pi-hole interface and APIs as well as act as a reverse proxy for DoH. My lighttpd also serves up basic error and landing pages as well as rpimonitor. It’s light-weight and can provide many mods for specific needs.

3

So the best is to install Apache next to Pi Hole?

4

I'm not sure if this will work.

Civetweb can run PHP, but our embedded version doesn't have any specific configuration to execute PHP files. I never tried to run PHP using pihole-FTL web server. Also, I never heard about other users successfully doing it.

You can try it, but I think using apache or nginx to run PHP will probably be easier.

5

So how to install Apache next to Pi Hole

6

Yesterday, I answered a very similar question, on Reddit:

If you want to run Pi-hole and another web server at the same time, you need to install the other web server, then use different ports for each of them.

Examples:

  • Pi-hole using ports 80 and 443 and Apache using other ports, like 8880 and 8443 or
  • Apache using ports 80 and 443 and Pi-hole using other ports, like 8080 and 8443.

Note:

If you want to change Pi-hole settings to use custom ports, run this command:

sudo pihole-FTL --config webserver.port '8080o,8443so'
7

thanks you for your help

8

ok but so example I just installed pi hole, then install apache "sudo apt install apache2" modify the ports.conf file of apache by listening on ports 8080 and 8443 and is it okay?

9

The command above will change Pi-hole ports.

Pi-hole web interface will use ports 8080 and 8443. Then you will need to access the web interface using these ports:

Apache will use whatever ports you like (the default ones are 80 and 443).

10

ok thanks

11

I'm a little confused. Should I use a reverse proxy? Should I use Docker?

12

I think you are...

You can use a Reverse proxy, you can use Docker and you can use both at the same time...

They are completely different solutions, to different problems:

A reverse proxy handles how you will connect to a domain. A reverse proxy is a server that sits in front of web servers, acting as an intermediary between the browser and the web server, usually forwarding connections to different ports.

Docker will run Pi-hole (and also a reverse proxy, if you want it) inside containers.

13

ok so if I just want a small local website (that uses php) on the same PI as pi hole, how do I do it?

14

This is 100% unrelated to Pi-hole.

Search how to install Apache and PHP on your OS (this is out of scope here).

Then you execute the command I gave you above:

sudo pihole-FTL --config webserver.port '8080o,8443so'

And access Pi-hole web interface using this URL: http://pi.hole:8080/admin

The other website (your PHP web site) will be accessed using the port you configure on Apache.

15

ok thank you I'll try

17

its work, thank you bro