pihole setup on a pi 4, trying to do some testing to make sure everything is up and running properly.
I'm getting some ad blocking, but not as much as I'd like, and while doing testing I've run into some errors.
And this is what I'm getting when running this command
nslookup flurry.com 192.168.0.58
C:\Users\joeblow>nslookup flurry.com 192.168.0.58
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.0.58
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out
I'm also having an issue where my pixel 6 is unable to load any pages while connected to wifi when the pihole is set as my dns on my router, but whenever I switch my dns to cloudfire it works just fine.
Other wireless devices seem to be working just fine.
This is kind of a worthless tool in my opinion. The standard is - do you see ads or not in your daily browsing.
Your Pi-hole is not at that IP:
*** [ DIAGNOSING ]: Name resolution (IPv4) using a random blocked domain and a known ad-serving domain
[✓] www.oferta-175.order77711902.info is 0.0.0.0 on lo (127.0.0.1)
[✓] www.oferta-175.order77711902.info is 0.0.0.0 on eth0 (192.168.1.58)
[✓] doubleclick.com is 142.250.190.46 via a remote, public DNS server (8.8.8.8)
Additionally, your DHCP server (the router) is distributing its own IP for DNS, and not the Pi-hole IP:
*** [ DIAGNOSING ]: Discovering active DHCP servers (takes 10 seconds)
Scanning all your interfaces for DHCP servers
Timeout: 10 seconds
* Received 300 bytes from eth0:192.168.1.1
Offered IP address: 192.168.1.166
Server IP address: 192.168.1.1
Relay-agent IP address: N/A
BOOTP server: (empty)
BOOTP file: (empty)
DHCP options:
Message type: DHCPOFFER (2)
server-identifier: 192.168.1.1
lease-time: 7200 ( 2h )
renewal-time: 3600 ( 1h )
rebinding-time: 6300 ( 1h 45m )
netmask: 255.255.255.0
ntp-server: 128.138.140.44
broadcast: 192.168.1.255
dns-server: 192.168.1.1
router: 192.168.1.1
--- end of options ---
DHCP packets received on interface eth0: 1
Fair point about the adblock test, just trying to see if things were working properly.
I believe I've got the DHCP server to send out the correct DNS address now:
*** [ DIAGNOSING ]: Discovering active DHCP servers (takes 10 seconds)
Scanning all your interfaces for DHCP servers
Timeout: 10 seconds
* Received 302 bytes from eth0:192.168.1.1
Offered IP address: 192.168.1.166
Server IP address: 192.168.1.1
Relay-agent IP address: N/A
BOOTP server: (empty)
BOOTP file: (empty)
DHCP options:
Message type: DHCPOFFER (2)
server-identifier: 192.168.1.1
lease-time: 7200 ( 2h )
renewal-time: 3600 ( 1h )
rebinding-time: 6300 ( 1h 45m )
netmask: 255.255.255.0
ntp-server: 128.138.140.44
broadcast: 192.168.1.255
dns-server: 192.168.1.58
dns-server: 1.1.1.1
router: 192.168.1.1
--- end of options ---
DHCP packets received on interface eth0: 1
Everything appears to be working fine now, Thank you for the help.
I am curious though, If I am trying to make sure that I'm blocking tracking and telemetry, what is the best way to be sure of that? Just to be reviewing what is being blocked down the line?
It's really as jfb said – do you see ads? The tool you linked to, for example, might show that you are getting "50% blocking" but it's testing domains that you may never had otherwise encountered in your own normal usage, so you would have seen everything being blocked just fine. The tool is making a lot of assumptions which are very general and probably not valid.
Pi-hole is just acting as a DNS server and blocking domains on adlists and that you have manually added. If you are seeing these domains blocked in your Query Log (they show coloured red) then Pi-hole is working okay.
A good example is to go to cnn.com or dailymail.co.uk in your browser. Those sites are quite heavy with ad and tracking domains. You should see a lot of blocked entries in your Query Log to give a flavour of what Pi-hole is blocking.
If something is slipping through that you really want blocked, you can manually blacklist it, and similarly you can whitelist blocked domains too.