The latest articles on DEV Community by ghchattaoui-bit (@ghchattaouibit). https://dev.to/ghchattaouibit https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4121409%2F0d3de0c7-f87a-4035-9764-ba2d5515c956.png https://dev.to/ghchattaouibit en ghchattaoui-bit Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:26:27 +0000 https://dev.to/ghchattaouibit/building-a-pi-hole-home-lab-from-an-old-pc-why-29h2 https://dev.to/ghchattaouibit/building-a-pi-hole-home-lab-from-an-old-pc-why-29h2 <p>I've been learning Linux command line and going through MIT's Missing Semester course over the past few weeks, and I wanted a real project to apply it to instead of just following along with exercises.</p> <p>A friend is sending me an old PC next week, and my plan is to turn it into a Pi-hole — a network-wide DNS ad/tracker blocker that runs on your own hardware instead of relying on browser extensions. I picked this because it touches a bunch of things I want to actually understand: Linux system administration, networking, and just generally how to keep a small server running.</p> <p>I don't know much about networking yet beyond the basics, so I expect to break things. That's kind of the point — I'm documenting this as I go, mistakes included, instead of writing it up after the fact and making it look cleaner than it was.</p> <p>Current status: waiting on the PC to arrive Tuesday. Next post will be the OS install and initial setup.</p> linux networking beginners homelab