IAN1975 Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 Happy Holidays to all, It's boxing day and I want to buy a hardware or device connected to the modem of my ISP (internet service provider) before going into the C4 router to block all the ads on my home network (Wifi and Ethernet), is there a such device that you guys recommend? I saw there's one called Pi-hole, what are you thoughts? https://www.raspberrypi.com/tutorials/running-pi-hole-on-a-raspberry-pi/ Thanks! Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 I would not recommend that without a lot of customization Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN1975 Posted December 26, 2023 Author Share Posted December 26, 2023 Hi msgreenf, Do you have any recommandation for a hardware ad blocker for the network? Thanks! Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 I have used PiHole for years. Occasionally I have to put stuff on the whitelist and I think that from time to time it may cause problems with voice control of Control4 using Alexa. I run PiHole in a Docker container on an unRAID server, which is where I run other stuff like a Unifi controller, Plex server, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 If you're going to use a pi hole exclude all the control 4 equipment from it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 What problems does it cause? And do you have to exclude all C4 equipment or just the primary controller, or all controllers? Does it really matter if an old matrix-amp uses the PiHole as the DNS? I have used it for years, and there have been other people on here mentioning it so I am not the only one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 7 minutes ago, zaphod said: What problems does it cause? And do you have to exclude all C4 equipment or just the primary controller, or all controllers? Does it really matter if an old matrix-amp uses the PiHole as the DNS? I have used it for years, and there have been other people on here mentioning it so I am not the only one. I have seen it break entire updates, I have seen it break Alexa device setup. one time a controller got totally wiped due to a pi hole blocking an apt repo and killing the controller. That wasn't fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjh Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 The days of needing pihole are gone. Just use a filtering dns like adguard or even better (more customizable) nextdns. Setup an account with nextdns (free!) and you can add blocking lists and more. Very good, quality, service. Then on your router / dhcp server, push out the nextdns dns servers and you are set. On your c4 hardware, use 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 for dns and you bypass the restrictions. Done. Popolou and msgreenf 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAV Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 11 hours ago, cjh said: The days of needing pihole are gone. Just use a filtering dns like adguard or even better (more customizable) nextdns. Setup an account with nextdns (free!) and you can add blocking lists and more. Very good, quality, service. Then on your router / dhcp server, push out the nextdns dns servers and you are set. On your c4 hardware, use 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 for dns and you bypass the restrictions. Done. Thanks. Setting up NextDNS is pretty easy, using Araknis router and having Araknis DDNS do the IP linking. I like that it could be used to allow clients access to logging and history etc. and a layer of parental controls. (It's also pretty easy to circumvent from a Parental standpoint, just like others if you know what you're doing.) Araknis Turn on DDNS, input a domain name of choice. Create NextDNS account, on main page input said DDNS name on the right, should pull in your dynamic IP. Copy DNS settings into router. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 14 hours ago, cjh said: The days of needing pihole are gone. Just use a filtering dns like adguard or even better (more customizable) nextdns. Setup an account with nextdns (free!) and you can add blocking lists and more. Very good, quality, service. Then on your router / dhcp server, push out the nextdns dns servers and you are set. On your c4 hardware, use 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 for dns and you bypass the restrictions. Done. Isn't PiHole just a filtering DNS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjh Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 1 hour ago, zaphod said: Isn't PiHole just a filtering DNS? Yes. But requires on-prem hardware of some sort while the likes of nextdns do the same thing but without the hassle of maintaining hardware/software. Of course, some still argue the value of that setup msgreenf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 4 hours ago, cjh said: Yes. But requires on-prem hardware of some sort while the likes of nextdns do the same thing but without the hassle of maintaining hardware/software. Of course, some still argue the value of that setup I am not sure that you really need special hardware. I have PiHole running in Docker container on my unRAID server, along with my Unifi Controller, Plex Server, Home Assistant, Linux and Windows VMs, etc. wnpublic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 30 minutes ago, zaphod said: I am not sure that you really need special hardware. I have PiHole running in Docker container on my unRAID server, along with my Unifi Controller, Plex Server, Home Assistant, Linux and Windows VMs, etc. Sadly it doesn't run under BSD, so I can't run it in a FreeBSD (TrueNAS) Jail... RyanE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN1975 Posted December 30, 2023 Author Share Posted December 30, 2023 "The days of needing pihole are gone. Just use a filtering dns like adguard or even better (more customizable) nextdns. Setup an account with nextdns (free!) and you can add blocking lists and more. Very good, quality, service. Then on your router / dhcp server, push out the nextdns dns servers and you are set. On your c4 hardware, use 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 for dns and you bypass the restrictions. Done." I have a ISP modem/router connected to my Araknis before going into my C4 system? How do I set up Nextdns step by step without affecting the C4 system? I have no experience with this. These are the photos of my current setup... Thanks! Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAV Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 1 hour ago, IAN1975 said: I have a ISP modem/router connected to my Araknis before going into my C4 system? How do I set up Nextdns step by step without affecting the C4 system? I have no experience with this. These are the photos of my current setup... Thanks! Ian You'll want to discuss with your dealer. Need access to the router administration login, and knowledge of how other components are set as to static or dynamic DNS. Araknis Setup Turn on DDNS, input a domain name of choice. Create NextDNS account, on main page input said DDNS name on the right, should pull in your dynamic IP. Copy NextDNS settings into router. Edit: But you have a Pakedge Router, Not Araknis BTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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