YOU’LL NEED THIS

PI-HOLE  ( https://pi-hole.net ), which requires Linux or Windows

(through Docker or WSL)

EVERY TIME A DEVICE on your network connects to the internet—in particular the web portion of it—there’s a load of junk downloaded alongside the legitimate content you want to access. Popup ads, trackers, and unsavor y subjects are just part of it—there’s the real danger of stumbling upon malware, too. By now, you’ve probably already made use of an ad blocker to protect your main PC, and your mobile browser may feature some limited ad-blocking tools, too.

But imagine if you could protect your network—including your smart devices—from this unwanted junk, all from one location. The good news is that Pi-hole is designed to do just that. Configure it as your DNS ser ver—the tool used to resolve domain names like tomshardware. com into their underlying IP address (199.232.194.114)—and it’ll act as a filter, screening and blocking known ‘bad’ IP addresses to prevent unwanted material getting on to your network.

Not only does it protect you from potentially malicious behavior; it’ll speed up web browsing and boost privacy, too. Setup may look a little fiddly, but we’ve done all the hard work so you can get your network protected in under an hour.

–NICK PEERS

A

1 GET READY TO INSTALL

Pi-hole is a Linux-based tool, compatible with the Raspberr y Pi (as its name implies), as well as major Linux distros, like Ubuntu 20.04 or later, including variants such as Mint, as well as modern versions of Debian and Fedora. It can be installed natively on these systems, while there’s also a script for Windows systems that installs Pi-hole through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). A docker container is also available, although that is much trickier to set up, so we’ll be focusing on the script-based native install in this tutorial.

» One major prerequisite—the PC on which you’ll deploy Pihole (the ‘host PC’) should have a static IP address that doesn’t change, so the rest of your network knows where to look for their DNS ser vices. This can be done from your PC’s end—Windows users would navigate to ‘Settings > Network & internet’, select either WiFi or Ethernet, then change the IP assignment from automatic to manual—or you may be able to do it from your router’s end if it supports DHCP reser vation, which basically instructs your router to permanently assign a specific IP address to a device based on its MAC address.

» For example, on Synology routers, you’d first open Network Center > Status > Device List tab’. Identif y your PC from its network name, then make a note of its MAC address. Now, navigate to ‘Local Network > DHCP Reser vation tab’, and click Add. You’ll need to enter your PC’s MAC address, plus the static IP address you’d like to assign it (the host name is optional) as shown in [Image A]. Click OK, and restart your PC to force the change.