PiHole should be a must

If we spend enough time on TE, we keep getting more and more ideas for tinkering with our home networks. While SBC like raspberry pi or some openwrt router can run an ad-blocker, vpn etc.., these tasks can be very ram intensive (pihole) or cpu intesive (vpn). We can also soon out-grow the abilities of our hardware.

With an all in one unit like openwrt hardware router we need to reconfigure network everytime we decide to **upgrade** the inbuilt wifi. With time i have learnt its best to have a wired network which is independent of the wifi, since this keeps network always up while we can endlessly tinker.

My advise for newcomers who would like to learn while tinkering is to first consider how much they want to spend. The premiums on new RPi4 (8GB) is so much we can easily buy an used x86 PC and a 8-port smart switch for within 15K. So what I suggest is that once at about a 15K budget, its best to go for x86 PC + smart switch with proxmox which can consolidate many seperate features like nas, router, adblocker etc. using a single machine, which will prove a much more flexible and tinker-able system for your money.

Its like one ring to rule all the applications guys ;)
 

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gwrench2000 said:
If we spend enough time on TE, we keep getting more and more ideas for tinkering with our home networks. While SBC like raspberry pi or some openwrt router can run an ad-blocker, vpn etc.., these tasks can be very ram intensive (pihole) or cpu intesive (vpn). We can also soon out-grow the abilities of our hardware.

With an all in one unit like openwrt hardware router we need to reconfigure network everytime we decide to **upgrade** the inbuilt wifi. With time i have learnt its best to have a wired network which is independent of the wifi, since this keeps network always up while we can endlessly tinker.

My advise for newcomers who would like to learn while tinkering is to first consider how much they want to spend. The premiums on new RPi4 (8GB) is so much we can easily buy an used x86 PC and a 8-port smart switch for within 15K. So what I suggest is that once at about a 15K budget, its best to go for x86 PC + smart switch with proxmox which can consolidate many seperate features like nas, router, adblocker etc. using a single machine, which will prove a much more flexible and tinker-able system for your money.

Its like one ring to rule all the applications guys ;)
Click to expand...
i have collected most most of pieces of the puzzle
cheap am4 board, intel nic ,my old 1700x , psu used cabinet and i am waiting for some confirmation from community regarding mediatek wifi 6e cards and support on maybe openwrt and pfsense
 
burntwingzZz said:
i have collected most most of pieces of the puzzle
cheap am4 board, intel nic ,my old 1700x , psu used cabinet and i am waiting for some confirmation from community regarding mediatek wifi 6e cards and support on maybe openwrt and pfsense
Click to expand...
If you go for proxmox route (openwrt x86 on proxmox) with a smart switch or multiple lan cards and you dont need vlans (multiple networks) on the AX wifi router it is not an issue at all. The wifi will all become dumb **access points** . Vlan functionality is required with oem firmware or openwrt on AX router, only if we need seperate networks on wifi also.
 
gwrench2000 said:
If you go for proxmox route (openwrt x86 on proxmox) with a smart switch or multiple lan cards and you dont need vlans (multiple networks) on the AX wifi router it is not an issue at all. The wifi will all become dumb **access points** . Vlan functionality is required with oem firmware or openwrt on AX router, only if we need seperate networks on wifi also.
Click to expand...
Hey, what's the role of the smart switch here? How useful is it compared to an unmanaged switch?
 
I'm having trouble updating my pihole through pihole -up command. I keep getting this error ," [✗] Update local cache of available packages
Error: Unable to update package cache. Please try "sudo apt update"
Output of sudo apt update is as below
up-err.jpg
 
LaatSahab said:
I'm having trouble updating my pihole through pihole -up command. I keep getting this error ," [✗] Update local cache of available packages
Error: Unable to update package cache. Please try "sudo apt update"
Output of sudo apt update is as below
View attachment 159113
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with pihole. Your repo is missing the keys. Try the command mentioned here to retrieve the missing keys -
stackoverflow.com

sudo apt update NO_PUBKEY error on raspberry pi 4

Im running Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) on a Raspberry Pi 4 and trying a project, https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-internet-speed-monitor/ , where it runs a speedtest and logs the result. I just
stackoverflow.com stackoverflow.com
 
Anybody now seeing ads (just before loading any content, 10 sec ad) in hotstar after their recent changes to the UI/UX? This is on Web/PC, I'm unsure about the app at this point.
 
Update - Had a spare/unutilized NUC i3 8 Gen but didnt want to remove windows as had occasional usage in windows , Same already has hackintosh installed
Installed Adguard Home and unbound on windows 11 , Achieved same results as on Linux
Power draw might be little more than a Pi but .....Adblocking works perfectly
 
Funnily enough my Mi TV stops working whenever PiHole is up. The UI still loads but none of the apps ever launch or finish loading. Says a lot about the amount of tracking these devices do. Ended up getting a Chromecast
 
Amzn did't liked my decision of ditching its cancer inducing ott services https://techenclave.com/threads/discontinued-amazon-prime-finally-i-am-so-happy.222853/s
1732372349486.png


1732372570073.png


Try harder, Jeff.


peanutbutter said:
Funnily enough my Mi TV stops working whenever PiHole is up. The UI still loads but none of the apps ever launch or finish loading. Says a lot about the amount of tracking these devices do. Ended up getting a Chromecast
Click to expand...
the beauty of android based system is -- one can connect it via adb and disable the data stealing services.
If the Mi has powerful hardware you can use it after sanitizing it.
 
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Ramadhir Singh said:
Amzn did't liked my decision of ditching its cancer inducing ott services https://techenclave.com/threads/discontinued-amazon-prime-finally-i-am-so-happy.222853/s
View attachment 214717

View attachment 214719

Try harder, Jeff.



the beauty of android based system is -- one can connect it via adb and disable the data stealing services.
If the Mi has powerful hardware you can use it after sanitizing it.
Click to expand...
I have a Mi Pad and the first thing I do is get off the official ROM. Unfortunately, that is not an option on TV. It can simply refuse to work if it doesn't get a ping back response, which in most cases is to Chinese servers.

And yes, the data collected by the Chinese government is up for sale thanks to scrupulous government officials.
www.wired.com

China’s Surveillance State Is Selling Citizen Data as a Side Hustle

Chinese black market operators are openly recruiting government agency insiders, paying them for access to surveillance data and then reselling it online—no questions asked.
www.wired.com www.wired.com
 
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