Send online ads down a Pi-Hole
YOU’LL NEED THIS
LINUX
Some sort of Linux computer. A Pi Zero is a perfect choice at just $10.
AN ACTUAL HONEST-TO-GOODNESS letter (well, an email) from a reader arrived in the busy MaximumPC newsroom recently. Once we’d read it, we were even more shocked to discover it was filled with sensible questions and ideas, rather than the usual offer of manhood-enhancing medication. So thanks to Shawn, without whom we might have written about something completely different this month.
Shawn’s suggestion relates to Internet of things (IoT) devices, specifically smart lightbulbs, which he wants to connect to a segmented guest network to deny them full access to the wider internet while keeping their useful functionality. He found he could do this with his guest network, but the presence of a Pi-Hole network ad blocker put a spanner in the works. We’ll get to the segmented network part in a later issue, once we’ve worked out how to do it, but first here’s how to set up a Pi-Hole DNS server and never see an online advert again. Except for the ones you whitelist, of course, because ad revenues write writers’ checks.
So, the moral of this story is this: please email us. It’s not that we’re lonely (honest!), it’s more that your ideas might just make it into the magazine.