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Pi-Hole in Homenetwork 2025-10-17 2025-10-17

Pi-Hole in Homenetwork

I followed this tutorial: World's Greatest Pi-hole Tutorial - Easy Raspberry Pi Project! - YouTube

DNS Settings on Router

!Pasted image 20251017195849.png

Make Pi-hole the Network’s DHCP (so all clients use it as DNS)

Goal: Your router can’t set custom DNS, so we’ll let Pi-hole (192.168.1.51) hand out IP addresses and advertise itself as DNS. This gives you network-wide ad-blocking without touching per-device settings.

Prereqs (do these first)

  1. Give Pi-hole a fixed IP

    • Make a DHCP reservation on your router for the Dell/Pi-hole at 192.168.1.51 (MAC = Dell’s NIC).
    • Or set a static IP on the Pi-hole host (keep it in the router’s LAN subnet; gateway = 192.168.1.1).

  2. Know your LAN details

    • Router (gateway): 192.168.1.1
    • Pi-hole server: 192.168.1.51
    • Choose a DHCP range that avoids statics, e.g. 192.168.1.100–192.168.1.200

  3. Make sure Pi-hole web UI works

Step 1 — Configure Pi-hole DNS (upstream)

In Pi-hole → Settings → DNS:

  • Choose upstream resolvers (e.g., Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1 or Quad9).
  • (Optional) Conditional Forwarding to see client hostnames:
    • Local network/CIDR: 192.168.1.0/24
    • IP of router: 192.168.1.1
    • Local domain name: e.g. home (or leave blank if unsure for now).

Click Save.

Step 2 — Enable Pi-hole’s DHCP (but don’t disable router yet)

UI method
Pi-hole → Settings → DHCP:

  • ✅ Enable DHCP server
  • Range: 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.200
  • Router (gateway): 192.168.1.1
  • (Optional) Domain name: home
  • Save

CLI equivalent (optional)

# On the Pi-hole host:
sudo pihole -a enabledhcp 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.1

At this point Pi-hole is ready to serve DHCP, but your router is still doing it too.

Step 3 — Disable DHCP on the router (Zyxel AX7501-B1)

Router UI → Home Networking → LAN Setup:

  • DHCP Server State: Disable

  • Apply/Save

From now on, only Pi-hole hands out leases, setting DNS to 192.168.1.51 and gateway to 192.168.1.1.

Step 4 — Renew client leases

Force a couple of devices to renew so they switch immediately.

  • macOS: System Settings → Network → Wi-Fi → Details → TCP/IP → Renew DHCP Lease (or sudo ipconfig set en0 DHCP)

  • Linux: sudo dhclient -r && sudo dhclient (or reconnect Wi-Fi)

  • Windows: ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew (run in elevated CMD)

  • iOS/Android: toggle Wi-Fi off/on or “Forget” and reconnect

Verify on a client:

  • IP is in 192.168.1.100–200
  • Gateway is 192.168.1.1
  • DNS is 192.168.1.51

Step 5 — Verify Pi-hole is the resolver

On a client:

  • nslookup example.com → Server/Address should show 192.168.1.51
  • Or dig google.com and check the SERVER line

In Pi-hole:

  • Dashboard → Query Log should show that client’s queries.

(Optionally visit a test page such as ads-blocker-test.com.)

Step 6 — Add static leases (optional)

Pi-hole → Settings → DHCP → Static DHCP leases:

  • Reserve fixed IPs for NAS, printers, servers, etc., so their IPs never change.

Day-to-day operation

  • Keep the Dell/Pi-hole on 24/7 (it’s now your DHCP + DNS).
  • For maintenance windows, either temporarily re-enable the router’s DHCP or set manual DNS on your workstation (e.g., 1.1.1.1) so you stay online while tinkering.

Undo / Rollback (if anything fails)

  1. Router: Enable DHCP again
    • Router → Home Networking → LAN Setup → DHCP Server State: Enable → Apply
  2. Pi-hole: Disable DHCP
    • Pi-hole → Settings → DHCP → Disable → Save
    • CLI: sudo pihole -a disabledhcp
  3. Renew leases on clients (same steps as above) so they use the router again.
  4. Emergency quick-fix on your own machine: set manual DNS (e.g., 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8) until the LAN is restored.

Troubleshooting quick hits

  • Clients still show router DNS → They kept old leases. Renew or reconnect Wi-Fi. Confirm router DHCP is disabled.

  • Pi-hole unreachable → Ensure it has a reserved/static IP in the same subnet; ping 192.168.1.51.

  • Local hostnames don’t resolve → Use Conditional Forwarding, or add Local DNS → DNS Records for key devices.

  • Resolution slow/spotty → Try a single upstream first; keep DNSSEC off until stable; avoid binding Pi-hole to a single interface.

Todos

  • disable blocking - automation: should be easy for every user
  • backup pihole settings
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