Pi-hole issues | migrate to AdGuard Home ?

Ramadhir Singh

Ramadhir Singh

Wasseypur
Herald
edit/update - 16/02/24 - this issue is with the ISP and has nothing much to do with adblocker.
Bash: 
VM333:3 setNavigator - uri: https://media.themoviedb.org/t/p/w440_and_h660_face/aTpMwcMzgwUfs5mY8WJEhBn7Q7y.jpg
aTpMwcMzgwUfs5mY8WJEhBn7Q7y.jpg:1 Mixed Content: The page at 'https://media.themoviedb.org/t/p/w440_and_h660_face/aTpMwcMzgwUfs5mY8WJEhBn7Q7y.jpg'
was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure frame 'http://www.airtel.in/court-orders/'. This request has been blocked; the content must be served over HTTPS.

1) Has anyone migrated to AdGuard Home from pihole ?
please share your experience and if any points to keep in mind while migration of a complex setup, as i might consider migrating.

I have selected pihole over adguard, because piihole is 100% community backed where as adguard is owned by corporate, today or tomorrow they will inject "things" for their financial benefit for sure.
That being said, pi-hole seems to abandoned and not much development happening.

2) Issue wit pi-hole
pihole is breaking TMDB https://www.themoviedb.org/ , which im unable to rectify and solve in pihole. I believe this issue has started to occur with the recent version of pihole.
i asked for help in various pihole forums/ provided them all system, debug log, but unable to solve.
in website it unable to load random images at random time, right click and load images in new tab - loads images just time
and it breaks meta-data updates at random time from emby/jellyfin.

here is the images of TMDB - if i clear cache and reload, it will break another set-of random images/thumbnails.
Screenshot.jpg


This issues persists across platform and browser, desktop, mobile, ipad.. everywhere.

the logs looks like this -
Bash: 
09:12:14: query[A] media.themoviedb.org from 192.168.1.100
09:12:14: forwarded media.themoviedb.org to 127.0.0.1#5335
09:12:14: query[HTTPS] media.themoviedb.org from 192.168.1.100
09:12:14: forwarded media.themoviedb.org to 127.0.0.1#5335
09:12:14: reply media.themoviedb.org is <CNAME>
09:12:14: reply tmdb-web-image-prod.b-cdn.net is 103.180.115.15
09:12:14: reply media.themoviedb.org is <CNAME>
09:12:14: reply tmdb-web-image-prod.b-cdn.net is NODATA

As of now, now i have tried all possible ways to troubleshoot (some were asked by pihole dev team to test)
a) disabled unbound
b) disabled/alter adblock filter lists.
c) one point of time i have deleted entire Adblock list - that too didn't made any difference.
d) disable adblock for 10/30 minute from dashboard.

here is the images with all adblocking/regex disabled:
new.jpg



in nutshell, regardless my configuration if im using pihole dns it is breaking TMDB, if i change DNS to any public like 9.9.9.11 or 1.1.1.1, there is no issues with the site.
Today i attempted to downgrade pihole to previous version ( which is confusing and complicated), ended up corrupting the installation.
Hence had to do a complete clean installation - its still breaking this perticular site.

Anyone has any suggestion how to fix this, and if im missing something vital to troubleshoot.
I really want to stay in pihole, i liked the device grouping and i use that extensively. but if its breaking site like this ( plus dont know what else its breaking) - i have to move away from it.

TIA.
 
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It's an issue with the website.
Exactly the same images fail to load for me on the website

BUT if you right click and copy image address and open it in another tab then it works.
1707551210528.png

1707551229509.png

I use AdguardHome and lists are minimal. If lists were an issue then it wouldn't load on a new tab too.
 
enthusiast29 said:
It's an issue with the website.
Exactly the same images fail to load for me on the website
Click to expand...
strange, can you change dns to 1.1.1.1 or 9.9.9.11 and check?
as if i change the dns it solves the issue at my end.

enthusiast29 said:
BUT if you right click and copy image address and open it in another tab then it works.

I use AdguardHome and lists are minimal. If lists were an issue then it wouldn't load on a new tab too.
Click to expand...
yes... for me too that means the issue is not related to the adblock list, rather why ways these DNS server acts. of in this particular case interacting with this website. .

i just added new image in my previous post, disabling all adblocks lists.. issues remains the same.
here the website with quad9, 9.9.9.11 DNS
new_difrent.jpg

see all images loads fine
 
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TMDB has been having issues for me as well. Doesn't seem Pi-hole related as I tried after disabling it and it didn't help.

I used to rely on TMDB for Kodi library updates. I had to remove and rebuild the library to use TVDB.
 
gourav said:
I used to rely on TMDB for Kodi library updates. I had to remove and rebuild the library to use TVDB.
Click to expand...
yes, TVDB i use primarily for TV series,
for library updates it should use API of TMDB not the web, but tmdb's API is broken for long time now, it only work if has the mood to work . hence using tvdb as fallback for some time now.
for movies they are ok-ok.. good in terms of they have a good quality control of images ( but not better than fanart), but the metadata is still at early stages.
 
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I absolutely have 0 issues anywhere else. If this is the only site which may have issues with DNS based adblockers then I can live with it.
Although I'm pretty sure this is not an issue of adblockers as the image opens fine it definitely is an issue with the website.
 
enthusiast29 said:
I absolutely have 0 issues anywhere else. If this is the only site which may have issues with DNS based adblockers then I can live with it.
Although I'm pretty sure this is not an issue of adblockers as the image opens fine it definitely is an issue with the website.
Click to expand...
Yes, doesn't seem to be a Pi-hole issue.

Are you guys using Airtel internet? I didn't have this issue before and even now, when I tried connecting over 4G, the issue seemed to go away.
 
I have been using Adguard on my Asus router for several years and it works well on limited resources. But once in a while it ends up getting killed and blocking all DNS requests.

I use the built-in Diversion adblocker on the router now. It has a basic GUI within the router GUI to manage blocklists and update, though logs have to accessed using SSH.

Little to differentiate in the implementation of adblockers. However, TMDB itself perennially has issues.
 
t3chg33k said:
I have been using Adguard on my Asus router for several years and it works well on limited resources. But once in a while it ends up getting killed and blocking all DNS requests.
Click to expand...
Monitor your RAM on the router maybe it's getting filled up.
I'm using Adguard on an x86 router with just 1GB RAM since almost 2 years and it's stable AF.
 
enthusiast29 said:
Monitor your RAM on the router maybe it's getting filled up.
I'm using Adguard on an x86 router with just 1GB RAM since almost 2 years and it's stable AF.
Click to expand...
Probably, RAM usage is nearly always close to the full 512 MB even with Diversion. I had created a swap file specifically for that purpose, so found this behaviour a bit odd, especially when I am not at home and the net stops working for family members due to the adblocker.
 
t3chg33k said:
Probably, RAM usage is nearly always close to the full 512 MB even with Diversion. I had created a swap file specifically for that purpose, so found this behaviour a bit odd, especially when I am not at home and the net stops working for family members due to the adblocker.
Click to expand...
You should delegate this to a small server or SBC like Raspberry pi. Maybe an old useless laptop as homelab.
 
Maybe you need to revisit your block lists. As mine works fine. I am using own recursive unbound instance as well for upstream in pihole(both on RPi). What's your upstream DNS server in pihole?
 
enthusiast29 said:
You should delegate this to a small server or SBC like Raspberry pi. Maybe an old useless laptop as homelab.
Click to expand...
Probably, have an old Windows tablet already that does all the server duties while also being a home dashboard. Had Adguard Home running with WSL on that few years ago but it was quite unstable.

Anyway Diversion on the router seems quite stable now, so will keep monitoring it.
 
t3chg33k said:
TMDB itself perennially has issues.
Click to expand...
yes. first their API broken and not the website.
I have raised this issue with tmdb admin team. seem lots of people facing issues and the main guy who handles the website is not around.


Update from tmdb forums
Periodically, problems arise with access to one of the 3 TMDb domains.
Typically restriction issues imposed by your country's government or your access provider.
There have already been problems with China, Russia, India and other countries.
Check the conditions by accessing this link, with and without VPN:
https://status.themoviedb.org/
Click to expand...
:mad::mad::mad:
 
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