I’ve been aware of pi-hole for a while now, but never bothered with it because I do most web browsing on a laptop where browser extensions like uBlock origin are good enough. However, with multiple streaming services starting to insert adds into my paid subscriptions, I’m looking to upgrade to a network blocker that will also cover the apps on my smart TV.

I run most of my self hosted services on a proxmox server, so I’d like something that’ll run as an LXC container or a VM. I’m also vaguely aware that various competing applications have come out since pi-hole first gained popularity. Is pi-hole still the best thing going, or are there better options?

@lemming741@lemmy.world
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I run pihole on proxomox, and also opnsense in the same box. Then you can forward all port 53 traffic to your pihole. Some devices have hard-coded DNS that will bypass the DHCP DNS.

@AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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Some chromecasts stop working when you do that.

Really? I run several Chromecasts, and I block their access to all DNS services except my internal Pi-holes. They work just fine.

@4am@lemm.ee
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It’s probably not blocking DNS-over-HTTPS

Lol - not my first rodeo. I’m blocking dns.google as well, and I’m 99.999% certain Google won’t have coded Chromecasts to use anyone else’s DNS servers.

@AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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Yeah, I don’t know if it’s all models, but the ultras do at least.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/pmt4cw/chromecast_ultra_just_updated_and_now_wont_work/

Ah - I only have the Chromecast GTVs. Good to know I don’t need to pay for an upgrade then!

@zzzz@lemmy.world
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Chuck 'em in the garbage and get something that doesn’t break when you insist on privacy.

Apathy Tree
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Ha! This is my new way of looking at my smart devices. I’ll sell you off if you don’t do what I want, and buy something that does. Very much a threat.

I recently factory reset all my Roku TVs, and didn’t connect them to the internet… and they work much better now.

Roku broke big time when I insisted on privacy. blocked the entire Roku domain, it broke the apps on a 1-month schedule like clockwork to get the network release for reinstall which allowed for phone home. lol no. I trashed it. They are dumb TVs now.

@zzzz@lemmy.world
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I’ve done the same! It’s impossible to buy dumb TVs nowadays, but you can always prevent them from connecting to the network.

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