Expected Behaviour:
PiHole blocking URLs and adverts. Acting as DNS.
-Raspberry Pi 4
Actual Behaviour:
PiHole is receiving queries semi-infrequently and blocking nothing. The URL/Domains filter is also not working.
Things of note. My PiHole no longer appears in the client list of my router. Clients used to appear in the list of configured clients. The queries are trackable through the PiHole dashboard, but don't seem to be affected by the setup. Wired connection.
Debug Token:
https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/8dFXPPfR/
Any help would be massively appreciated.
Your debug log shows none of your Clients have a Group assigned.
The same happens to your Adlists.
You need to assign your Clients and Adlists to Default Group:
DeBug Log.txt (36.8 KB)
Made that adjustment, still no luck. I'm noticing that it seems to be dialling 8.8.8.8.
Some things are being blocked now. About 6%. I still get ads at cnn.com and the URL blocklist is not filtering.
It's notable that the client list is 'grey' where originally it was a combination of green and red.
Thanks again,
This means Pi-hole is working.
This is expected.
You debug log doesn't show the option for web interface Theme. This means you are using the default one (auto theme).
The auto theme automatically selects between Light and Dark themes if the browser is configured to do so. As a result you are currently using the dark theme and the colors were changed.
Did you clear the browser cache after enabling the group?
If you did and still are seeing ads, maybe you need to block a few more domains.
I didn't understand this part... what do you mean?
After clearing my browser cache, it seems to be working pretty effectively. One or two getting through, but a much more reasonable amount.
I take it that I simply, one at a time, clear browsers caches before use (just once, but first use post PiHole installation).
I am also trying to use PiHole to restrict access to certain websites using it's URL domain feature. Using Blacklist functions, that does not seem to be working.
Pihole is a domain level ad blocker. It does nothing with URLs and cannot block them.
I'm a bit confused here. I thought by having PiHole act as the DNS for my network...I would be able to restrict URLs fairly easily as that's the primary function of a DNS.
I've tried beefing up the adlists, but it almost every webpage is showing ads on every device. I'm very lost as to what part of the process is lacking here, the Pi, the router, the PiHole configuration, the devices internal settings...I don't know, it just doesn't seem to work the way I hoped.
No.
The DNS server function is to translate human readable domains into IPs.
Example:
If you type on your browser an URL like https://www.example.com/path/page.php
, the browser will ask the DNS server: What is the IP of www.example.com
? (only the domain).
The DNS server will answer with an IP. After that the browser will request the URL, replacing the domain if the IP.
Pi-hole works just like that and answers with the real IP for every allowed domain, but if the query is asking for the IP of a blocked domain, Pi-hole answers with 0.0.0.0
and the browser is not able to download the content.
Pi-hole will never know the other URL parts (https://
or /path/page.php
). Only the domain will be received.
" but if the query is asking for the IP of a blocked domain, Pi-hole answers with 0.0.0.0
and the browser is not able to download the content."
How do I block a domain?
This confirms that I have somehow set the PiHole up wrong. I have tried both of these options and neither has worked. This, on top of the extremely low % blocked and seeing ads everywhere.
I will clean wipe it and start the installation process again.
That could suggest that Pi-hole is being by-passed, e.g. if the browser was using DoT, or the client it runs on is aware of alternative DNS servers, or some VPN client or antivirus s/w is forcefully redirecting DNS to other DNS servers.