Raspberry pi zero w for running pihole (or home web server) - anything good/necessary accessories?
Hey, I thought folks on tildes might have some personal experience here. For context - I'm not stuck on the raspberry pi zero, and I'm open to alternatives. I'm looking at it because it's inexpensive ($15), which is my limiting factor right now.
I am curious to play around with pihole to block ads network wide. I'd also love to be able to run a web server to host my website. After some precursory research, I learned that raspberry pi zero w is a good option.
My question is - are there any other things that are good (or necessary) to purchase to go along with it? Asking because I am going to have to buy it online (one of the authorized sellers), and since I'm going to pay for shipping, I only want to make one purchase. So, if there's other things I need to get, I'd love to know.
Alternatively, if you have personal experience with an alternative device, I'm all ears. (P.S. I realize I could just run pihole on my laptop, but I don't want to do that, as I'd need to keep it running 24/7...) I did see some alternative devices (orange pi, for example). But they were all much more expensive ($40 + rather than $15 for raspberry pi zero w)
You can run PiHole even on a Gen 1 Raspberry Pi if you really want to. It takes pretty much zero resources and it's all in memory. The only recommendation I'd have is to have whatever you choose be hardwired to your router instead of being on WiFi.
The only issue I've had with Raspi+PiHole is the SD card dying and then your network starts acting all wonky, DNS requests become slow or unresponsive and web pages load reaaalllly slowly because your devices start falling back to secondary or tertiary DNS after retrying multiple times.
I personally just pay someone else to run my ad-blocking DNS: NextDNS (referral link for 30% off). It's $19.90/year if the free tier isn't enough for you. I can just click through the web UI for what to block and it has never not worked.
How cool, I didn't even know anything like this existed! Definetely going to check this out! To be honest, I already have ad blocking taken care of on my laptop (which is my main device) using ublock origin. It's mostly my phone that annoys me. I do not use the phone often, but when I do it really bugs me. I bet I could use the free tier of nextdns just for that purpose, and I"m sure I'd be within the limit.
About the raspberry pi zero - tbh the only reason I landed on this one, is because I learned that it would work, and I was actually able to find it on one of the retailers websites. Most the raspberry pis I was looking at seemed to be jacked up in price from some sort of scalpers? Really sad! I'd be all for a first generation one. Would that work as a web server?
The first and second generations are pretty ancient by modern standards, you really shouldn't pay more than $5 for one =)
If you want it for a web server I'd say anything from 3+ onwards is good enough. But at least over here the 3 sells for higher prices than the 4 =)
And if you're going up to the just released 5, then you might as well get a Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 (or the Dell/HP equivalent) from eBay - they'll run pretty much anything you can need for server purposes.
Just to clarify, is Raspberry Pi - Model B what you are referring to? (EDIT: Insane, people selling used ones of this for $30-$40). Stupid me, I saw "raspberry pi zero" and assumed that must have been the first one. Interesting - so this one does not have wireless LAN, but it would still work for pihole. I'm assuming that's because you connect it directly to the router itself (via ethernet)?
Yeah, I have no particular affinity for the zero model, so wonderful to know of other alternatives.
Re: web server... I should add... no one visits my website but me haha. The idea of running my own web server is more just a personal networking project to get my feet wet and teach myself how this stuff works. I don't need anything fancy or high speed.
The names of the first few versions aren't that clear :)
Model B was the very first one, Model A after that
B+ was an improved design and pretty much the oldest semi-viable one, but it's still dog slow
Pi 2 was after B+
Pi 3 Model B (2016) and Model B+ (2018) are pretty decent still, but the prices are bonkers
Pi 4 Model B is still good and can actually be cheaper than Pi 3.
The oldest viable zero (Zero W) is from 2017, Zero 2 W is from 2021 and still pretty good - it's basically a tiny Pi3. The Zero is mostly for integrated purposes like creating a wireless webcam with the raspi camera module.
tl;dr Anything past Pi 3 Model B+ is good to go.
this is such a useful rundown. I appreciate this. Yeah, the prices are what has turned me off from playing around with a raspberry pi. The prices are so all over the place it's crazy. It leaves me not knowing which one is someone ripping me off, or it's legit, or some broken crap. I realize I could spend a while looking into each and every model to determine this for myself, but tbh I'm so worn out on researching things due to so many people trying to rip off (either gouging prices or selling junk equipment), that I just gave up on the prospect!
This list is very helpful. I think I might wait until these supply interrupts with the raspberry pis die down a little bit (even if it's a year from now), before I attempt playing with one. As I assume there will be less people trying to rip off at that point. Raspberry pi has intrigued me for a long time, but I'm in no great rush.
I have a couple older models sitting around my desk I don't have a need for; I'd be willing to send one your way if shipping costs aren't too crazy. Are you in the US?
EDIT: I PM'd you! Of course I will reimburse for the shipping costs. Another cool thing about USPS is you can schedule a pickup, so you don't have to go to the post office to mail it and can do this from home. Please no pressure to do this.
When I ran a PiHole (on a Pi 4) I noticed my DNS resolution times were unacceptably slow - around a second. Has anyone else seen that problem? In the end it’s not been super important as my pfSense router can do the same job.
Can't say I have, ever. I'm running on a pi3, and tried on my pi4 as well - no issues with either. I will say my pi4 choked hard on being a Jellyfin and a MC server, and even on being a Valheim server, so they're not the strongest.
I wondered about this myself. I looked it up, but I kept reading reports that there were no lags. Interesting to hear the opposite experience
Running on a Pi 3B+ for years now - no issues with speed or reliability. Wired ethernet to router. Running the 64bit OS. Pihole is the main thing running on it, with a few custom lightweight python/java things that fire off at various intervals. I've been very happy with it.
I considered running Pi Hole a long time ago, but instead I chose to run the adblocker on my router.
If your router is capable of running OpenWRT you can just install the adblock as a package:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/ad-blocking
Even if you have to buy a cheap secondhand router that will still be a lot cheaper and more reliable than handing over your whole network to a Raspberry.
Thanks a lot. This is an excellent idea, and to be honest I would prefer this approach. Right now I am using the ISP's router, but it sucks. I don't even have the ability to log into the router any longer. I do have a cheap router I bought last year. Maybe I should try setting it up and doing this.
Honestly this was my big concern here. I also am a total novice with networking, so I worry that if something goes wrong, it's going to be a huge headache for me to figure out.
What router do you have right now?
I can really recommend Netgear R7800 (other models might work but you don't want one with a broadcom chip!)
Here is a link to the table of hardware:
https://openwrt.org/toh/start
Hey thanks. I have a wavlink model (WL-531P3). Cheapest of the cheap, I realize. And I know its probably not very good. I got it about a year ago mostly to have something to play around with to try and build up my networking knowledge (I am eager to understand networking concepts more.) I looked into openwrt's table last night, and it doesn't appear to be supported. Unfortunately I can't afford a new router right now, but I will keep this recommendation in mind for the future. Definitely something I'd love to play around with.
Can you explain why you consider raspberry a bad alternative compared to a cheap router?
For a pihole you probably won't need it, but for a web server I'd recommend some form of passive cooling. Aluminum cases can work pretty well.
I did start with a pair of Pi Zero W years ago, then moved to a Pi4 and a Pi3, both running Cloudflared for DNS over HTTPS upstream.
From my various tests with DNSBench, the ethernet connection does not add any significant performance advantage against WiFi. The switch from the Pi Zero W to beefier Pis was to make sure I use a recent Cloudflared daemon (not compatible anymore with Pi1 / Pi zero W architecture), as well as save a few watts as the Pi4 and Pi3 were already providing other services anyway.
Thanks for this! Really surprised that you didn't experiencing a performance increase using ethernet connection. Just curious what was your main use for your raspberry pi? Always curious to know what projects people use these for.
You're welcome. I have quite the bunch of Raspberry Pi in operation.
I'll go chronologically.
The home lab part of it is all together in a box, all attached on a DIN rail, with a 60W 10 ports Anker USB power supply and a 8 port gigabit switch stripped naked to save space. All the DIN brackets were of course 3D printed.
It consumes 16 watts when idle, I'm really contemplating moving to a Proxmox setup on a N100-based mini PC.