Pinhole with pfSense

Hi all

Whats the view of running piHole in the same environment with pfSense (also hosting pfBlockerNG and Suricate).

– I’d love not to have the adds inside Youtube… if possible.

G

Running piHole and pfBlockerNG would be redundant and IMO not buy you any extra protection. I would use Quad9 as your DNS that would be a positive. As to ads on Youtube use Adblocker Ultimate ad on in FireFox NO ads its been 199% ad free for me.

the main pain point is iOS devices on the wifi so the FireFox solution don’t work.

and with pfBlockerNG in place we still have those irritating mid stream adds, in Youtube and in FB videos.

I’m using 1.1.1.1. and 8.8.8.8 as DNS at the moment, think also have 8.8.1.1 as last option… if I recall, but guessing they jsut carry any/all domains requested to carry and don’t filter much/any.

G

Well piHole has a pretty GUI and charts :slight_smile:

Though if you are using pfBlocker you can use the same lists as piHole, so I suppose it ought to be the same.

However, if you are using a YouTube app to view videos, I don’t think you will be able to block those ads no matter what you do.

I’ve used the YouTube app on an Android tablet, I’m running pfBlocker, ads were still coming through. Finally, I couldn’t take the 25s ads any more, I’m now using Youtube via Brave browser with no add-ons, I don’t get any ads.

The mobile browser experience isn’t as good as the app but it’s at least without the constant ads.

2 Likes

Forgot about Brave. Android is Google and they won’t allow ad blocking. Now if you can load GrapheneOS, deGooled Android then it’s a different story, much more private. Check out Techlore’s Youtube chan and their website there is an app that allows for Youtube videos without ads. Might want to try the Duck Duck Go browser for IOS.

Ok I don’t use anything apple but I would recommend Quad9 for DNS in any event.

I just use my tablet for browsing YouTube. Until Linux becomes more common place on phones and tablets then Android is the solution, when you start faffing around with the device there’s a chance of bricking it.

The irony of GrapheneOS is that it works best on Google’s own phones.

e2guardian should remove most of the ads, but not a straight forward install on pfsense. You could run everything through a linux box proxy, then e2guardian is easy to maintain (but proxies can be a pain). I have pretty good luck with the default blocking filters.

An all that said, if the device is using encrypted DNS, then you are hosed. Your choices are block the secure DNS, or use a man in the middle certificate which getting the cert installed on an apple product is probably no fun at all.