I tried hosting adguard as a standalone service and as a docker container. It only works on some devices and isn’t very effective in ad blocks even after adding several block lists.
Tried setting up pihole as a service and it instantly worked on all my devices.
Internet dns - 1.1.1.1
Dhcp dns - server ip, failover to 1.1.1.1
Docker logs doesn’t show any errors
Adguard live logs do capture allowlist and blocklist from like 2 devices but all other devices are using cloudflare dns.
nslookup picks 1.1.1.1, when i force server ip, adguard dns is still able to resolve
The devices where adguard dns is picked - Macbook on wifi, server on lan.
Devices forcing cloudflare - phones, windows pc.
On chrome i have disabled secure dns and morever with pihole it works.
I had similar issues. First I disabled ipv6, as it did not work properly with docker/adguardhome.
WAN side DNS, I gave my server ip, Mullvad DNS as backup. LAN side I gave only server ip, with no back up. Ensured all clients got their new dhcp leases. Worked for me. Though not really sure if it would have failed over to Mullvad if my dns server was down. But all clients were reporting to AGH.
Eventually, I did not bother tracking, and enabled ipv6, encrypted DNS, DoH to Mullvad, controld and adguard ad blocking options, and let it run on autopilot.
You can run the docker container on pretty much anything. Pi , or even beefy routers, or low power servers. I run mine on a workstation pc/media server that stays on nearly 24*7. Works on all ISPs, provided your router allows changing DNS. If it doesn’t, it’s likely a shit router, and time to replace it However, if you are new to this and want to try out, may be just look at nextdns to see if this is something you want in the cloud, or prefer self hosting.
I’m using a mini pc, M720q that I bought on TE few weeks ago. It uses very minimal resources and you can use it on raspberry pi just fine. It should work with airtel fibre too.
Airtel Routers are now pretty locked down.
Earlier I had raspberry pi setup with pihole on that router.
After I moved places, the Airtel router had issues connecting the network and the folks had to reset the router which removed my DHCP server config and static IP mappings.
Now, when trying to access the router configuration page none of the pages allow modifications.
Also, Airtel technical support team is shit in terms of supporting this use-case.
I am currently using my own personal router(double NAT’ed not ideal but it works) where I can control my network configuration.
I am currently looking out to replace my networking equipment as I am having issues with the Airtel router with signal coverage and their B.S. on not allowing customer to manage local network config.
@Pauljacob , and others who have experience please do share your setup and recommendations.
I would like to connect with you guys and get a decent replacement for my local networking setup.
I found the issue, but not the solution unfortunately.
After updating my server as the primary dns under dhcp, my connected clients are removed from the dhcp client list once the lease time finishes.
But get this, this doesn’t happen when pihole is the dns server
Also, I found adguard much slower than pihole, dns resolution times could be faster but the ad blocking is slow. I didn’t measure it but could see clearly in ad test sites
I wanted adguard because using DoH, I’m able to bypass some of the torrent sites. I can confirm this because when I enable the ‘Secure DNS’ option in chrome I can access these sites.
With adguard I was able to bypass.
With pihole, I’ve tried cloudflared but doesn’t help. Anyone knows how to achieve this with pinhole?
I tried AdGuard on the same network with exactly same hardware and it was disappointing. A few block list tweaks would help with the blocking but the user experience was bad. The pages loaded slower too. Put that system away and got the Pi-hole running again.
Strange, I use Adguard Home and the resolution time is as fast as using Google or Cloudflare DNS directly. Sometimes faster because of the common cache for the entire network.
Here’s my setup:
I’m using Airtel Fiber with my own VSOL ONU and a Linksys Mesh Router. AdGuard Home is running on an LXC container in my Proxmox machine.
On the router, AdGuard home is set as primary DNS. For 2nd and 3rd DNS fall backs, I specify Google public DNS (in case Proxmox is down). The router hands out it’s own IPv4 and IPv6 addresses via DHCP so all queries go to the router and then forwarded to AdGuard.
On AdGuard home, I use Google DoH as upstream and Cloudflare DoH as fallback. For resolving the DoH URLs, I specify Google and Cloudflare IPs.
If I need to connect to this on the go, I have Tailscale installed on the AdGuard LXC and all devices connected to my Tailscale network will have their DNS overridden to use my AdGuard instance.
I do not use DoH to connect to AdGuard on the local network. It’s not necessary because the router is under my control and AdGuard is set to use DoH for upstream anyways.
Interesting. Do share your block lists. I’d like to give it a try.
I had some block lists enabled on AdGuard and it blocked the in-app ads on Gmail Android app. Don’t get the same blocking on Pi-hole. It’s also been a bit wonky since switching to WiFi. The old Dell Wyse 3040s seem to have compatibility issues for the WiFi interface. The SSH fails and WiFi goes down frequently. It worked perfectly on LAN even after reboots and network going through some connection issues.
However, if you are new to this and want to try out, may be just look at nextdns to see if this is something you want in the cloud, or prefer self hosting.
