Setting up Pi-Hole on a Virgin Vincent modem-router

[deHakkelaar]

@PantsMasterson

The pi-hole Pi has a reserved IP address set by the modem/router. Should I be doing something on the Pi itself to secure that internal IP address?

Yes.
A DHCP reservation from the router wont work anymore once you've disabled the router DHCP service (the source of the reservation).
You need to configure the Pi with a true static IP for it to be able to function as a DHCP server for your LAN.
For Pi-OS Bookworm you can use the nmtui tool for that (Network Manager Text User Interface):

sudo nmtui

Example below:

Client 192.168.1.1 has been rate-limited (current config allows up to 1000 queries in 60 seconds)

Below an nmtui example with 10.0.0.1 being my router and home.dehakkelaar.nl the domain configure in the Pi-hole DHCP service: [image] You can configure the default domain name displayed in the DHCP service settings. Or "home.arpa", "internal" or "lan". EDIT: I prefer home.arpa as its intended for this purpose and that name cant be stolen: $ whois home.arpa. [..] contact: technical name: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) [..] remarks: This domain is administered …

@PantsMasterson

Before I do this -- I'm assuming if things don't go well, I can always turn DHCP back on in the Vincent modem/router?

Yes you flip on the router DHCP service again.