Pi-hole Has a Free Network Ad Blocker — Block Ads on Every Device Without Browser Extensions

Browser ad blockers work. But they don't help your smart TV, your phone's apps, your IoT devices, or anyone else on your network.

Pi-hole blocks ads at the DNS level. Point your router's DNS to Pi-hole, and every device on your network stops seeing ads. Smart TVs, phones, tablets, game consoles — everything.

What You Get Free

EUPL licensed:

• Network-wide ad blocking — every device, no per-device setup
• DNS-level filtering — blocks before content downloads (saves bandwidth)
• Dashboard — real-time query log, stats, top blocked domains
• Custom block/allow lists — fine-tune what gets blocked
• Regex filtering — block patterns of domains
• DHCP server — replace your router's DHCP
• API — query stats, manage lists programmatically
• Group management — different rules for different devices
• Query logging — see what every device on your network requests
• Low resource — runs on Raspberry Pi (512MB RAM)

Quick Start

# One-line install on any Linux
curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

# Or Docker
docker run -d --name pihole \
  -p 53:53/tcp -p 53:53/udp -p 80:80 \
  -e TZ='America/New_York' \
  -e WEBPASSWORD='your-password' \
  -v pihole:/etc/pihole \
  pihole/pihole:latest

Set your router's DNS to Pi-hole's IP. Every device on the network is now ad-free.

Real Impact

Average household blocks 15-30% of all DNS queries. That means 15-30% of your network traffic was ads, trackers, and telemetry. Pi-hole eliminates it.

What You Can Build

1. Home ad blocker — every device ad-free. No app-level setup needed.
2. Network monitor — see which devices talk to which domains.
3. Privacy shield — block telemetry from Windows, smart TVs, IoT devices.
4. Parental controls — block specific categories of content network-wide.
5. Guest network filter — clean browsing for visitors.

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