Pi-Hole Is Kinda Working?

[jfb]

An Android phone would not be my first choice for a test platform. These have been difficult in some cases to get on a Pi-Hole. Google is in the ad-selling business. If you have a laptop or computer you can use, typically you can control their settings more easily.

That said, things to look at (all hard to do on a phone screen):

1. I would connect a single client to the Pi-Hole for this testing (then you don't have to filter through DNS requests for multiple devices). Disconnect all the others (turn off wireless, etc.).

2. When you have that one client connected, look through this guide which will help you determine where ads are coming from and if they are blocked. In particular, the Chrome extension DNSThingy is very helpful.

How do I determine what domain an ad is coming from?

Block ads or fix broken sites This FAQ is written in the context of finding out how to block an ad that isn't blocked automatically, but the same steps can be used to troubleshoot issues with sites that don't function properly. An example is that sometimes certain payment gateways try to collect metrics on the sale, but these domains are blocked by Pi-hole, so the payment cannot be processed. Also, some links send you through several referrers and if one of them is blocked, you may land on a b…

3. The count of blocks and percentages isn't as important as the output from the admin GUI query log, which tells you every request and how it was resolved by Pi-Hole.

4. If you can't navigate to pi.hole/admin now (we can fix that later if needed), use "IP address of the Pi"/admin and that gets you to the same place.

5. Work with one connected client only until you have the Pi-Hole working, then add clients one at a time to ensure they can shift their DNS to the Pi-Hole.