Consumer Wi-Fi routers are great at providing a basic firewall, reliable Wi-Fi, and speedy Ethernet ports for your wired connections. However, they really don’t offer you much control over your network.
Luckily, for about $15 and 30 minutes of your time, you can upgrade your network security using a Raspberry Pi and a Pi-hole.
Your network can protect your devices
How does a Pi-hole work?
A Pi-hole acts as a gatekeeper that controls traffic between your devices and the rest of the internet using DNS filtering.
Domain Name System (DNS) is the system that turns the familiar URLs you use to visit websites into the IP addresses computers actually use. Every time you type in a website’s address on your phone or PC, your device sends a request to a DNS server, which then returns the required IP address.
Usually, those DNS requests go straight to the DNS server set by your ISP.
A Pi-hole works by intercepting those DNS requests and comparing them to a block list that you set. If the requested domain is on the block list, then you won’t be able to connect at all. If it isn’t on the list, then you’ll connect normally.
Your Pi-hole doesn’t actually read the data you send to a site.
Quiz
Single-board computers and the Raspberry Pi
Trivia challenge
From humble British classrooms to global maker labs — how well do you know the world of SBCs?
HistoryHardwareFoundersCompetitorsSoftware
In what year was the Raspberry Pi Foundation established?
Correct! The Raspberry Pi Foundation was established in 2009 in the UK, though the first Raspberry Pi board didn’t go on sale until February 2012. The Foundation’s mission from the start was to promote the study of computer science in schools.
Not quite — the Raspberry Pi Foundation was established in 2009, though it became famous when the first Pi launched in 2012. The gap between founding and product launch reflects how long it took to refine a board that could sell for just $35.
Who is widely credited as the primary creator and driving force behind the original Raspberry Pi?
Correct! Eben Upton, a computer scientist and engineer, co-founded the Raspberry Pi Foundation and is widely regarded as the primary visionary behind the project. He was inspired by his experiences teaching at Cambridge University, where he noticed a decline in programming skills among incoming students.
The answer is Eben Upton, who co-founded the Raspberry Pi Foundation and spearheaded the development of the board. Gordon Hollingworth is another key figure on the engineering team, but Upton is the most public face and driving force of the project.
What was the original price of the entry-level Raspberry Pi Model B when it launched in 2012?
Correct! The original Raspberry Pi Model B launched at $35, a price point that was deliberately chosen to make computing accessible to students and hobbyists worldwide. A cheaper Model A was also planned at $25, though the Model B shipped first.
The original Raspberry Pi Model B launched at $35, not the price you selected. The $35 price point was central to the Foundation’s mission — affordable enough that schools and individual students could buy one without much financial strain.
Which SBC, produced by ODROID, became a popular Raspberry Pi competitor known for its significantly faster processor performance in the early 2010s?
Correct! The ODROID-U2, made by South Korean company Hardkernel, was widely praised for outperforming the Raspberry Pi in raw processing power when it launched in 2013. It featured a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and quickly gained a following among users who needed more computing muscle from an SBC.
The answer is the ODROID-U2 by Hardkernel, a South Korean company. While the BeagleBone Black and Cubieboard were also notable Pi competitors, the ODROID-U2 stood out in the early SBC scene for its significantly faster quad-core CPU compared to the Pi’s single-core chip at the time.
The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, launched in 2019, was notable for being the first Pi to support which key display feature?
Correct! The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B introduced dual micro-HDMI ports capable of driving two 4K displays simultaneously, a major leap from its predecessors. This made it a genuinely capable desktop replacement candidate for the first time in the Pi’s history.
The answer is 4K video output. The Raspberry Pi 4 was the first in the lineup to support 4K resolution via its dual micro-HDMI ports. Earlier models topped out at 1080p, so the jump to 4K was a significant milestone for the platform.
What is the name of the official operating system developed and maintained by the Raspberry Pi Foundation for its boards?
Correct! Originally called Raspbian, the official OS was rebranded Raspberry Pi OS in 2020. It is based on Debian Linux and is optimized specifically for the Pi’s ARM-based hardware. The Foundation maintains it as the recommended starting point for new users.
The official OS is Raspberry Pi OS, formerly known as Raspbian before a 2020 rebrand. While Armbian and DietPi are popular third-party options that run on the Pi, Raspberry Pi OS is the Foundation’s own Debian-based distribution and the one they officially recommend.
Which company released the Orange Pi series of SBCs, offering very low-cost alternatives to the Raspberry Pi often at a fraction of the price?
Correct! Shenzhen Xunlong Software is the Chinese company behind the Orange Pi range of SBCs, which have been sold for as little as a few dollars for the most basic models. The Orange Pi lineup has grown to include dozens of variants targeting everything from IoT projects to AI applications.
The answer is Shenzhen Xunlong Software, a Chinese company that produces the Orange Pi family of boards. Hardkernel makes the ODROID series, while the Banana Pi is a product from a separate Chinese collaborative group. The Orange Pi brand is known for undercutting competitors aggressively on price.
The Raspberry Pi 400 was a unique form factor released in 2020. What made it physically distinct from all previous Raspberry Pi models?
Correct! The Raspberry Pi 400 embedded a Pi 4-based computer directly inside a compact keyboard unit, evoking the spirit of classic home computers like the Commodore 64 and the BBC Micro. It was praised as a clever all-in-one design that made setup even simpler for newcomers.
The Raspberry Pi 400 was unique because the entire computer was built into a keyboard, a nostalgic nod to classic home computers of the 1980s. It wasn’t the first Pi with Wi-Fi (that was the Pi 3), and it had no built-in screen — you still connected it to a monitor via HDMI.
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Say goodbye to malware, phishing, and ads
When you choose the correct block lists, you can add a meaningful layer of protection to every device of your network. Sites that normally host malware simply never connect, and are consequently never given an opportunity to infect your device. Phishing sites, which can be very convincing, won’t load, and you’ll never have a chance to accidentally enter your details.
It also helps cut down on ad clutter, since there are block lists that are specifically curated to block domains known to serve ads.
There are a few trade-offs and limitations.
A Pi-hole isn’t a completely maintenance-free solution. Some websites host their actual content and their ads on the same domain. If you block that domain, you’re going to experience issues. Sometimes you’ll find that a video won’t play, or maybe an app feature won’t work.
When that happens, you need to allow the domain to get things working again. Additionally, you occasionally need to update your blocklists or dig through the DNS request logs to figure out why a certain site isn’t working correctly.
7 things I wish I knew before running a Pi-hole
Don’t be like me, make sure to prepare for these things before deploying Pi-hole the first time.
You don’t need a powerful PC or Pi to upgrade your network
Even a Pi Zero 2W will work
DNS filtering has another major perk: it doesn’t require much processing power. That means you don’t really need expensive hardware.
I use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W as a Pi-hole, and I haven’t had any significant performance problems on my network. It’s inexpensive and barely consumes power. The only drawback—and its fairly minor—is the lack of an Ethernet port. My Pi Zero 2W sits directly next to my router and the lack of a port hasn’t been a problem. However, if you run into issues, you could add a USB to Ethernet adapter or a HAT that has an Ethernet port.
If you have a network with hundreds of devices, the Pi Zero 2W might have an issue. In that case, a Pi 4 will provide more than enough power.
Above and beyond that, however, I wouldn’t recommend spending more money on hardware unless you’re going to use it for other self-hosted services too. The Pi-hole just isn’t demanding enough to justify the $300 price tag of the top-shelf Raspberry Pi 5.
Setting up a Pi-hole
There are a few things you need to buy if you don’t have them already. They are:
- A Raspberry Pi Zero 2W
- A microUSB cable to deliver power
- A small microSD card
Once you have all of that in-hand, I’d recommend installing Raspberry Pi OS Lite on the microSD card using the Raspberry Pi Imager. Be sure to enable SSH or remote connection.
Once that is done, log in to your router, find your Raspberry Pi Zero 2W’s IP address and reserve it—you don’t want it to change.
SSH into your Raspberry Pi, run the following commands, and follow the guided installation instructions that appear on your screen:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole.git Pi-hole
cd "Pi-hole/automated install/"
sudo bash basic-install.shFinally, change the DNS server address in your router’s DHCP settings from the default to your Pi Zero 2W’s local IP address.
A better network on a budget
Depending on which components you get, a Pi Zero 2W might cost between $15 and $30. For that price, you get another layer of security, adblocking, and a level of control over your network that is difficult to achieve with consumer routers alone. You can even add custom blocklists if there are specific domains you’d like to block on your network.
Just remember, it isn’t a complete replacement for good security practices or antivirus software. New malicious domains that aren’t included in the blocklists are popping up every minute, and a healthy dose of caution is the single best tool you have to protect yourself.
- Brand
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PNY
- Capacity
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32GB
- Speed (Read/Write)
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100MB/s
This 5-pack of PNY 32GB Elite microSD cards are perfect for your Raspberry Pi or other homelab projects. With read speeds up to 100MB/s with Class 10 U3 classifications, these cards are ideal for boot drives, storage, and much more.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
