I've been thoroughly enjoying ZERO YouTube ads via Apple TV 4K for nearly a month using the standard Pi-Hole install the the original set of exclusion lists. Now, I'm seeing some ads. I just started to make sense of Tail pinhole.log to see the ATV traffic while intentionally getting a commercial to trigger and trying to see what could be blacklisted. So, I'm hoping you can help me to improve on the pi-hole functionality and success in blocking such ads.
I have recently blocked without any obvious success:
googleads.g.doubleclick.net
googleapis.l.google.com
i1.ytimg.com
securepubads.g.doubleclick.net
ytimg.l.google.com
Is there a way to test my results right away without dealing with caches and the ATV? I'm concerned that my ATV might be caching DNS data such that I don't even know if my DNS exclusion was successful.
Might the update of the standard lists block newly found YouTube domains? Or, is there a list that I should subscribe to?
Also, is there a way to get Tail pinhole.log to see just the DNS requests from my ATV (.112)?
The caches have to empty. If you unplug the Apple TV and power it back on, that should clear the cache.
The lists are updated regularly by the list maintainers. Gravity is rebuilt weekly early on Sunday morning. So, if there were any changes last week they would be included in your current gravity list.
YouTube ads are difficult to block, as YouTube streams ads from the same domains as the content, with changing subdomains. Since Pi-Hole is a domain blocker, it is difficult to know which subdomains to block and you can't block the entire domain or you won't get the content.
Tailing the Pi-Hole log shows you unfiltered data from the log in real time. However, the log is kept in a file on your SD card, and you can directly search that log. The command below will show every line in the log that contains that IP address: