CraftComputing

PiHole as a Recursive DNS Server Tutorial

Added 2021-01-28 17:31:21 +0000 UTC

Pi-Hole is an awesome service to run in your house. It keeps ads from loading on every device, and will run on any Raspberry Pi, Docker container or virtual machine you'd like. But did you know it can do SO much more than just block ads? You can also completely bypass 3rd party DNS servers like 8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1, 208.67. 222.222, or the ones ran by your ISP.

But first... What am I drinking???

Freigeist Bierkultur's Aufschneider, a 'Hoppy German-style Hefeweizen Ale'. This reminded me a lot of a Radler... you know, a lager mixed with grapefruit soda? But think of a Hefe mixed with a Pale Ale. It's better than it sounds, but it's also neither a Pale Ale, nor a Hefe. Not bad, but not for me.

Installation Steps

Install Ubuntu Server 20.04 (https://ubuntu.com/download/server)

Install Pi-Hole - sudo curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

Set the Web Admin Password - pihole -a -p [password]

Install Unbound DNS - sudo apt install unbound

Create Unbound Configuration File - sudo nano /etc/unbound/unbound.conf.d/pi-hole.conf

Copy example config - https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/

Restart Unbound to apply Configuration - sudo service unbound restart

Disable Forwarding DNS in PiHole

Set Custom DNS in PiHole - 127.0.0.1#5335

And you're done! Bonus points for sending all DNS traffic through a VPN Gateway to encrypt all outbound requests - https://youtu.be/xFficDCEv3c

Find the parts I recommend on my Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/craftcomputing