I want to use pi-hole and it comes highly recommended to use raspberry pi to cover the house and have an always on capability. I started looking at just starter packages at Amazon and they don’t come with a monitor, which it looks like you need. How do I do this? I want a raspberry pi to run pi-hole to protect my house.
Edit: Thank you all so much for the tips and all the different ways to get this up and going , I am officially on my pi-hole journey!
Raspberry Pi’s come with VNC pre-installed and you can pre-set up things like hostname, username, password, WiFi, locale, and SSH using the Raspberry Pi Imager, and then once you boot it for the first time and it has fully started up, you can log in with SSH, use raspi-config and enable VNC, and then you can remotely log in with a PC that has a monitor.
You can do setup entirely without ever needing a monitor as long as you have another PC you can connect to it with on your local network.
I promise you, the Pi-hole is a great and simplistic tool. Just look at my post history, if I can get this thing running you can too. I can’t give you a full detailed post right now, but you need a card to load the files up. I used an SD card loaded with DietPi (they have tutorials on this) and it sets itself up pretty easily once you set up SSH (I use putty, it’s also great and easy to set up). As far as the model of Pi goes, most people say you can use whichever you want because its not resource intensive, but I went with a model that has a native Ethernet port, and its been 10/10. Good luck, I can help you out more later if you’d like
Rasperry PIs have micro-HDMI outputs, so you can use those (with an appropriate cable/adapter) to hook the PI to any monitor (or to your TV) for the initial setup (you’ll also need a keyboard and - possibly - a mouse). After that, you can unplug everything and use the raspberry pi without keyboard/monitor/mouse (pi hole has a web interface).
Note that you don’t strictly need a raspberry pi to run pi hole: any old x86 PC or a cheap thin client bought on ebay will do just as well (actually, they will most probably perform better).
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A raspberry pi running pihole does not need a monitor. Pihole itself only requires a lan connection (wifi should also work, check pihole docs for that) and only uses the monitor to show your ip address at the start. You can use any monitor with the pi, you don’t need a dedicated one
It’s not all that hard.
Youll need a pihole and a micro SD card for it. On that micro SD you’re going to install the operating system. There is a guide for how to do this on the raspberry pi website. As part of that installation, you can tell the installer to also install an SSH server. That will allow you to connect remotely. You can also have the installer create a user account for you. Do that.
Once you’ve done that you’ll put the SD card into the pihole and plug in the pihole. It should boot from the SD card. Plug the pihole into your router via ether net, this is very important. It guarantees it will get an IP address.
Check your router for the pihole. You should see it. Grab it’s ip address, and use whatever SSH client you like. On windows I like mRemoteNG. SSH into your pis IP address using the username and password you made earlier, when you installed the OS. Then, Google pihole. Follow the install directions on the pihole. Once it’s set up, set your router to use it for DNS.
That’s all!
Plus your PiHole into your router via Ethernet net, this is very important. It guarantees it will get an IP address.
Are you suggesting that Wifi-connected devices don’t get IP Addresses?
No, but I can’t remember whether the OS installation includes options for setting up a wifi connection. Safest bet is to use ethernet.
Raspberry Pi Imager indeed has options for setting up your WiFi during image creation.
However, you’re still correct that Ethernet is best bet, simply because if you mistype your WiFi info… it won’t be able to connect.
Raspberry pi can run pihole easy, but you can install pihole on any linux machine. Just saying because raspberry pi is not that cheap anymore, but it is one of the most power efficient options.
When I first started years ago, I just used my TV as the monitor.
Now, I connect directly to my raspberry pi from another computer.
What I’m trying to say is there’s lots of ways to do this. And hopefully a raspberry pi is your first step to coding/hacking/taking control of your tech. Godspeed!
You can use any PC to run pihole. The reason for Raspberry Pi is because it’s a machine you can set and forget, and leave it on for years at a time with very little power usage.
Don’t buy from Amazon, use an official reseller off the Raspberry Pi website. Only get an Amazon one if the price with free shipping is less than an official reseller + shipping; otherwise, you’re getting ripped off. Pi Zero W should be all you need, but if you want a little more power you can use a Pi Zero 2W.
You don’t need a monitor to run a pi. Most people run their pis “headless” without anmonitor, and you can google headless tutorials. However, you can use an adapter to temporarily connect it to a tv or monitor if you wish.
I’ll add here that not only can you setup your pi to block ads, but you can also host your own VPN on it at the same time. So now I can block ads with mine, even when I’m not at home.
