The main way is it has a built in recursive DNS server so you don’t have to duct tape Pi Hole and Ubound together
Comment on Self-Hosting a DNS Sinkhole is really important
lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoIn what way(s)?
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ooops@feddit.org 2 weeks ago I never understood pihole in the first place. It’s just a fancy web interface you do never look at if the thing does its job quietly in the background. And unbound alone is perfectly able to use blocklists with one line of configuration (and an onliner script to convert the common lists into the right format).
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Because you have to mess with it all the time. It’s easier to get in and get out to make changes with the nice interface. It’d be different if it was set it and forget it but realistically it’s not.
- Ooops@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
It literally is cron job or systemd timer to load an updated blocklist from time to time and I haven’t looked at it for years.
awelo@tuiter.rocks 2 weeks ago @Ooops @EncryptKeeper
Those scripts never worked for me....... so pihole-unbound to the end......xddddddd- Ooops@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
My “script” was literally
curl *<blocklist1 link>* > templist
curl *<blocklist2 link>* >> templist
grep ‘^0\.0\.0\.0’ templist | awk '{print “local-zone: \”“$2”\" always_refuse"} > blocklist.conf
systemctl restart unbound.serviceand an
include blocklist.confat the bottom ofunbound.conf(awk to convert it from the “0.0.0.0 <site>” format to “local-zone: <site> always_refuse”).
bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
It’s a more complete dns server. You can more easily do dns over https, set up zones, and custom dns entries are a lot easier imo.
In summary it’s more focused on being dns, the ad blocking is a feature on top. You also don’t have to manually configure unbound for recursive dns like you do pi hole. Etc etc
lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh. I guess if you just want dead simple ad blocking, pi hole is still the way
stratself@lemdro.id 2 weeks ago
I’d prefer Adguard Home. Does the same thing but also supports encrypted DoT/DoQ/DoH upstreams. And the UI looks a bit neater for me
lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
AdGuard looks like a paid SaaS service though? No way am I paying for someone else running a device on my network, no friggin way
kmartburrito@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah but what you will eventually find, if reliability matters at all to you, is that the pihole isn’t the best for this. For one, many run on an SD card, which isn’t really stable long-term (I started here and had to fix it due to SD card corruption quite a few times). Second, you don’t have a backup. DNS not running when your machines depend on it equals an immediate outage across ALL devices (as long as you have it configured at your router level, which you should be doing, right?).
Technitium (and others) solve this problem gracefully.
I started with pihole (ad blocking) and unbound (recursive DNS), and that was a pain to set up properly.
Moved do technitium (which offers all of these in one package) plus the ability to natively cluster a second instance (so you have a backup load balanced instance for this critical service)
The best part is that setting it up if you have an old laptop or desktop running docker is incredibly simple. I had two nodes up and running clustered in less than 15 minutes. Took less time than setting up one pihole.
If you don’t have docker it may take more time, but that’s the slippery slope of setting up a homelab and running services like this.
lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My Pi hole has been up and solid for about a decade now, so not sure “isn’t really stable long term” is landing
Thank you for the in-depth explanation, Technitium sounds really involved. I just plunked down a pi hole, turned it on, and it’s been working for years and years. I’ll keep this in mind though if I ever want to drive myself nuts with networking
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 weeks ago
No backup with PiHole?
PiHole can run redundant if you want. Does Technitium do this differently? Or more easily?
If you just want simple ad blocking you don’t actually need pi hole for it’s web interface you don’t ever look at once it runs. Unbound alone can do the job with minimla configuration.
Nowadays I even changed my setup to dnsproxy, which doesn’t even need any config. It’s just a handful parameters when you start it. And it does all the filtering for my home network as well as providing DoH access for when I’m not at home and connected from somewhere else.
An ONT failure has me fiddling with my network this weekend and I might do this. Pihole is okay but having more power would be great.