Pihole¶

Set Up From Scratch¶

Create a VM using VirtualBox.

See Create VM for details.

Install PiHole¶

• RUN in terminal of PiHole VM:

  curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash
  

  More details on installation can be found at https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#curl--ssl-httpsinstallpi-holenet--bash
• When you get to the blue "GUI" screen:
  • Majorly accept default settings. Read through and change as you wish.
  • When prompted for 'Upstream DNS Provider;, select which one you want. They all pretty much do the same thing. Recommendation: OpenDNS
  • Install the suggested block lists (usually 'StevenBlack's Unified Hosts List' is the default)
  • Install the Admin Web Interface, lighttpd and required PHP modules
  • Enable Query logging if you wish
• Once installation is complete, note the 'Admin Webpage Login Password' -- The password cannot be retrieved later on, but it is possible to set a new password (or explicitly disable the password by setting an empty password)

Finalize Setup¶

Regardless if setting up PiHole from scratch, or from a Virtual Machine File, some final configuration/verification is required.

Continue to Set the VM to auto-launch in headless mode on Mac login

Set Up From Virtual Machine File¶

Virtualbox Installation and Importing Applicance¶

1. Download and install Virtualbox from https://www.virtualbox.org

2. Download OVA file from OneDrive

   (Access to this link is restricted -- please confirm if you have access)

3. Open Virtualbox and click 'Import'

4. Click the folder icon next to the 'File' box and pick the .OVA file
5. Click 'Continue'
6. Appliance Settings: Change 'MAC Address Policy' to Include all network adapter MAC addresses. Leave all other settings the same. Click 'Import'

Verify Settings¶

1. Once the Applicance is imported, verify that the settings match the ones outlined above
2. Ensure the correct IP address is reserved in the eero app. Details outlined above

Start Up¶

1. Start VM in headless mode (click arrow next to start -> headless mode)
   
2. Click 'Show'

Verify Connectivity¶

1. Verify internet connectivity by entering command ping google.com. If you see a response similar to:

   64 bytes from 142.250.191.238: icmp_seq=93 ttl=57 time=42.931 ms
   

   the VM can reach the internet.

   Press Ctrl + C to exit.

2. Verify IP Address by entering command ip addr. Look at the result for the inet 192.168.4.x line. It should be the IP address specified in the eero reservation.

   1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
   ....
   2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
   link/ether 08:00:27:1a:f8:19 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   inet 192.168.4.4/22 metric 100 brd 192.168.7.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
      valid_lft 14039sec preferred_lft 14039sec
   ....
   

Finalize Setup¶

Regardless if setting up PiHole from scratch, or from a Virtual Machine File, some final configuration/verification is required.

Continue to Set the VM to auto-launch in headless mode on Mac login

Set the VM to auto-launch in headless mode on Mac login¶¶

Moved to Set the VM to auto-launch in headless mode on Mac login

Configure PiHole¶

• Remove or change admin web page password: RUN in terminal of PiHole VM:

  sudo pihole -a -p
  

• Open the Web UI (http://your.static.ip.address/admin)
• Configure as you wish

Set DHCP Server¶

1. Open the eero app
2. Go to Settings -> Network Settings -> DNS
3. Set to 'Custom'
4. Set 'IPv4 Primary' to the static IP address of PiHole
5. Set 'IPv4 Secondary' to a backup DNS provider to use.

Once the DNS server is set, Congrats! Pihole is now in use for all devices on the network. You can test PiHole by visiting a website that previously had ads, they should be blocked now :)

Troubleshooting Sites not Loading¶

Pihole is a tracking and ad-blocker. Because of this, some sites may not load, or be missing content.

Temporarily Disable Pihole¶

If this is a one-off thing that you need to load, you can temporarily disable Pihole across the whole network.

1. Open the PiHole Web UI
2. Click 'Disable'
3. Choose an amount of time to disable. 5 minutes is usually sufficent.

PiHole is now disabled, and will be automatically re-enabled once the time elapses.

Add a site to the whitelist¶

1. Open the PiHole Web UI
2. Click 'Whitelist'

3. Type the domain where you are encountering issues in the 'Domain' field.

   Add any comments as needed

4. Check the 'Add domain as wildcard' box

5. Click 'Add to Whitelist'

Use the Audit Log¶

Audit Log will show the top allowed and blocked queries with quick access to blacklist or whitelist them

1. Open the PiHole Web UI
2. Click 'Tools' -> 'Audit Log'

Updating Pihole (Pihole and underlying Ubuntu OS)¶

If you see red text at the bottom of the PiHole web UI ‘Update Available’, it needs an update. This is currently a manual process, work in progress to automate it. There are two options, both do exactly the same thing. The SSH option may be easier.

Via SSH¶

Pihole Updates¶

1. Open a Terminal and enter command: ssh pihole@pi.hole
   If you get a message similar to:
   

   The authenticity of host 'pi.hole (192.168.0.4)' can't be established.
   ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:jWxxjslC9ObhMty4d0UNERghKP6UWmetfEj80CKW6QY.
   This host key is known by the following other names/addresses:
       ~/.ssh/known_hosts:8: 192.168.0.4
   Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?
   

   This is likely because you have not connected to the PiHole VM using SSH previously, and your computer cannot verify the authenticity of the server computer.

   Verify the IP address is what you expect (in this example, 192.168.0.4) and if it’s correct, type yes at the prompt.

   After you have sone this once, you likely will not have to do it again, unless the fingerprint key changes.

2. At the prompt pihole@pi.hole's password: enter the PiHole user password. Once successfully connected, you should see a prompt similar to pihole@pihole:~$. You are now SSHed into the PiHole VM!

3. Run command

   pihole -up
   

4. If prompted [sudo] password for pihole: enter the PiHole user password
5. Wait for it to update. On success, you should see [✓] Everything is up to date!

Ubuntu Updates¶

It’s also a good idea to update the underlying Ubuntu instance periodically, especially if there is a notice then you logged into the Pihole VM similar to:

91 updates can be applied immediately.
9 of these updates are standard security updates.

To do this:

1. Run sudo apt upgrade

2. You may be prompted:

   After this operation, 430 MB of additional disk space will be used.
   Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
   

   Enter Y

3. Wait for it to update. This may take a while, depending on the number of updates.

Via Apple Remote Desktop¶

Pihole Updates¶

1. Open Apple Remote Desktop
2. Select MacServer from All Computers
3. Click on Control or from the taskbar, or choose Interact > Control
4. A new window will open with the MacServer display.
5. From the Dock, Applications Folder or Spotlight, open VirtualBox
6. Ensure Pihole is selected in the sidebar
   
7. Click Show
8. A new window will open with the PiHole VM.
9. In that new window, ensure you have a pihole@pihole:~$ prompt. If you do not, press Enter a few times to get to a new line.
10. Run command

    pihole -up
    

11. If prompted [sudo] password for pihole: enter the PiHole user password
12. Wait for it to update. On success, you should see [✓] Everything is up to date!

Ubuntu Updates¶

It’s also a good idea to update the underlying Ubuntu instance periodically, especially if there is a notice then you logged into the Pihole VM similar to:

91 updates can be applied immediately.
9 of these updates are standard security updates.

To do this:

1. Run

   sudo apt upgrade
   

2. You may be prompted:

   After this operation, 430 MB of additional disk space will be used.
   Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
   

   Enter Y

3. Wait for it to update. This may take a while, depending on the number of updates.