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I'm gonna pay you $100 to fuck off
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
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Stupid question, but does pihole offer any substantial benefit over using a remote ad-blocking DNS like AdGuard or whatever?
Please ignore the other two commenters.....
Adblockers block ads at the user level, meaning you have to manage the adblocker for each device in your ecosystem.
PiHole and similar DNS based ad blocking technologies OTOH block ads at the network level and only needs one install location to manage content for all devices you have on your network.
This means with PiHole you can have one set of custom rules that block all ads at the network level by using a set of pre-loaded and customizeable DNS blocklists. OR! you can install Ublock on 2 devices in your house and let the other 7 devices that have no access to adblockers (like IoT devices) be subject to the atrocity that is modern advertising.
Additionally, adblockers in browsers can eventually be shut off. See: Google Chrome and Ublock Origin.
But what does a pihole (which is DNS blocking) do that AdGuard's free public DNS (which is DNS blocking) doesn't? Of course uBlock Origin alongside them is better, but what's a pihole specifically doing?
I was pretty specific as to what advantages PiHole has over Ublock alone.
Please re-read the above comment and lmk if I can clarify anything.
He was asking about pi hole versus and AdGuard DNS.
And I was pretty specific about PiHole over AdGuard's public DNS. And to be honest, the person you originally replied to was as well.
Yes but there are public DNS servers that block blacklisted domains. I can set that as DNS in my router settings and it works the same as using pihole as a blacklisting DNS server, right?
They're basically the same thing
It’s a good way to dip your toes into learning about Linux, self-hosting, and administering reliable services.
Functionally they are the same though.
Please see my comment parallel to yours.
This thread is about dns level blocking not client side blocking.
Its both, actually. Ublock is client side and only available on Firefox, PiHole is network wide and available for anyone who can setup a simple DNS server.
Yes. And the person I replied to was asking if running your own dns is somehow different than using an opinionated dns service. The answer is no.