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.
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.
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.
Current status: waiting on the PC to arrive Tuesday. Next post will be the OS install and initial setup.
Top comments (1)
Great first project. Before installing, decide whether the old PC will be the LAN’s DHCP server. If the router keeps DHCP, point clients’ DNS to Pi-hole and reserve its IP; if Pi-hole provides DHCP, disable the router’s DHCP to avoid split leases. I’d also keep a second DNS path documented for rollback, and test one client first.
digfrom a client plus the Pi-hole query log will make troubleshooting much easier.