How to use Quad 9 Domain Name Server on your Hackintosh

[pastrychef]

Wondering what the advantage is of running Pi-Hole on a Raspberry Pi as opposed to running it in a Linux VM ? I really like the idea of blocking ads on a DNS level instead of running ad blockers as a browser extension. I'll have to research this a bit.

Technically, you can run Pi-Hole off of just about anything. It's extremely lightweight.

I could have easily run Pi-Hole in a Docker on my NAS which is up 24/7. However, this would have prevented my NAS from entering extreme low power states such as sleep. That's why I went with a Raspberry Pi Zero W. This thing is ridiculously power efficient and more than adequate to run such a lightweight app like Pi-Hole.

 

[VioletDragon]

Wondering what the advantage is of running Pi-Hole on a Raspberry Pi as opposed to running it in a Linux VM ? I really like the idea of blocking ads on a DNS level instead of running ad blockers as a browser extension. I'll have to research this a bit.

It depends. i run Pi-Hole in Ubuntu Server environment on my XCP-ng Server along with iSCSI Storage works perfect it also works on the Pi but you may find that DNS lockup could be slightly slower if there are processes using a lot of resources, problem with running it on the same system in a VM is you have to worry about starting the VM in order to have internet connectivity. I also recommend point your router to the actual Pi-hole instead of pointing each device to the Pi-Hole Server. You have both advantages using Upstream DNS option or DHCP of course depends on the Router you have.

 

[pastrychef]

It depends. i run Pi-Hole in Ubuntu Server environment on my XCP-ng Server along with iSCSI Storage works perfect it also works on the Pi but you may find that DNS lockup could be slightly slower if there are processes using a lot of resources, problem with running it on the same system in a VM is you have to worry about starting the VM in order to have internet connectivity. I also recommend point your router to the actual Pi-hole instead of pointing each device to the Pi-Hole Server. You have both advantages using Upstream DNS option or DHCP of course depends on the Router you have.

A DNS server is not intensive at all. Even on my Pi Zero W, I've never experienced any slow downs.

If you look below, you see that the Pi's CPU is 94% idle...

 

[VioletDragon]

A DNS server is not intensive at all. Even on my Pi Zero W, I've never experienced any slow downs.

If you look below, you see that the Pi's CPU is 94% idle...
View attachment 436462

I know but if there is another service that is using a lot of CPU usage on the Pi it will cause the DNS look up time to be slower.

 

[pastrychef]

Wondering what the advantage is of running Pi-Hole on a Raspberry Pi as opposed to running it in a Linux VM ? I really like the idea of blocking ads on a DNS level instead of running ad blockers as a browser extension. I'll have to research this a bit.

I restarted my Pi-Hole this morning. Here's what it blocked in just about half a day...

Also, you can use whitelists or blacklists to customize what you want blocked. It's really an awesome app.