Setting Up A Pi-hole Network Ad Blocker On A Raspberry Pi Zero W, Step by Step

In this video, I'll show you, step-by-step, how to assemble and set up a Pi-Hole ad blocker on your home WiFi network using a Raspberry Pi Zero W. Pi-Hole is a fantastic piece of software to create a network-wide ad blocker without the need for browser plugins, apps or any other software on the devices on the network. It'll block ads, improve your network speed, and save data if you're on a limited data plan.
Here's a step by step written guide - www.the-diy-life.com/setting-...
You can find out more about the Pi-Hole software here - pi-hole.net/
What You Need For This Project
Raspberry Pi Zero W Complete Kit - amzn.to/3kNfIgh
Alternately -
Raspberry Pi Zero W - amzn.to/34KlMAv
32GD Micro SD Card - amzn.to/3mJ4Q3m
Raspberry Pi Zero Case - amzn.to/325DOeJ
Power Supply - amzn.to/2JmjMpH
If you've got any ideas for Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other tech and electronics projects, let me know in the comments section.

[@MA6manalac]

this video's ads are the last ads I'll ever watch again!

[@LighteningOne]

No you won't. Pi-hole does not block youtube ads because these are shown through the same video stream link from where the video is being streamed. Try U-origin.

[@TF12191]

@@LighteningOne brave browser, on any device ;)

[@patricklomasney]

@@TF12191 or KZbin Vanced

[@biljoe209]

lol, lmao

[@abac6404]

​@@LighteningOne😢

[@ryanmerkel4832]

Great tutorial. Thank you! Was super simple and worked flawlessly!

[@harbirsaini665]

Thanks I was looking for this , can’t wait for my pi zero w to arrive

[@Maxplanar1]

This is a model for how all tech setup videos should be done. Excellent video Michael, thank you.

[@MichaelKlements]

Thank you for the great feedback!

[@delubiod1970]

I tried at least 6 tutorials before bumping into your tutorial. Those two files to add to the partition boot was missing in all of the 6 tutorials I watched. I was not able to make it to work. Now is working like a charm.

[@MichaelKlements]

That's great to hear, enjoy your Pi-hole!

[@4209211vikash]

Instantly subscribed. This is the first video I have seen from you and it was precisely the kind of video audiences wants. NO beating around the bush, cut to the chase, focused tutorial. Keep up the good work mate.

[@MichaelKlements]

Thank you for the great feedback!

[@shimon8139]

BTW Michael thank you for the tutorial. very straight to the point and easy to understand.

[@barrykruyssen]

Great tutorial. Good pace, no extraneous content (bullsh1t) . Precise and to the point. Your my number one Pi source now.

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks Barry!

[@MrAlan0151]

Works great thank you for all your advice, your a star.

[@TimothyEdDoran]

Thanks for the great instructions. It has worked perfectly for me.

[@MichaelKlements]

That’s great Tim!

[@AzizLomigora]

Amazing tutorial, thank you so much!

[@AdamSmith-oe3hu]

Amazing work Michael, thank you for making this process so simple to understand

[@MichaelKlements]

Glad it was useful to you!

[@moo00se]

Thanks a lot! Easy to follow. I totally dig the written piece to go along with the video as well. Liked & subcribed. :D

[@MichaelKlements]

Thank you, glad you find it useful!

[@TheKickboxingCommunity]

It works! But some ads still come through, so I hope you have tutorials for this also ( to add more domains on the blocklist etc )

[@gringotom242]

Thanks mate great guide!

[@sammyy1105]

very easy to follow thanks!

[@Gandalfnation]

very good tutorial thank you!

[@andriusvitalis1701]

this works so good! thanks dude

[@Cevans3535]

Thank you very much for your time creating this easy to follow video!

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks for the great feedback, glad you managed to get yours running!

[@PetriJarvenpaa]

Really helpful, thank you!

[@winstonwolf2981]

Thanks, very helpful

[@uknowme1811]

I set a music sserver and pi holle on my 0..no issues works great.

[@onegalaxyplay]

Ok I will also do that than.

[@kaaneris2757]

Great tutorial!

[@gabrieltoothman7534]

Best tutorial out there👍

[@anonymous39400]

very nice, very clear. Thanks so much.

[@MichaelKlements]

Glad it was helpful!

[@terriblegamer9267]

THANKYOU SIR!

[@ozbayalperen1]

thanks for tutorial

[@samuelfarrar8954]

thank you so much

[@IBurnThings90]

It won't show up on my network at all.

[@Hexavelli]

*Thank You.*

[@PedroNuno]

Just done it will test now :-)

[@techdiyer5290]

Thanks!! i couldn't find out which text that was.

[@LorenzoDeSousa]

got my pi hole running as a docker container inside open media vault , works great just use the raspberry pie ip and port that specified to access the web gui, the reason i like this is one pi 4 runs a mini nas, pi-hole and is my torrent box :P

[@MichaelKlements]

Great idea Lorenzo! Docker is great for creating multi-function Pi's, especially for network applications.

[@krishnakanthcake]

thanks man

[@Ice_2192]

Setting a static ip is SUPER IMPORTANT. I didn't do that first time and my router thought my mac mini and pi were the same person and immediately took down my access to the internet.

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes you really need to set a fixed IP address for a Pi-hole.

[@lrellim7269]

@@MichaelKlements and how do you do that? Can you set up a static even if your internet provider doesnt allow

[@alexandernewman331]

just wanted to say thanks and give a heads up on an issue I had for others. some provided gateways from ISPs will not let you change the DNS server in their settings and the DNS server is actually hardcoded in the gateway. you can get around this by changing the preferred DNS server in each of your device's settings or I have read you can also use the raspberry pi built-in DHCP server to get around it(haven't tried this).

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks for the tip!

[@cobra646]

This is correct. I have used a Huawei B593 4G modem/router with a firmware that did not allow for changing the DNS. So I did it manually on the devices used in the network and it worked fine. Just meant going around and finding all the phones/tablets/laptops around the house.

[@SpaceMarshalGyorni]

Fantastic video, thanks a lot! Neat and to the point. Small side note: There's plain text credentials visible at 7:06, you might want to blur that or something.

[@MichaelKlements]

Thank you! The credentials were all just generated for this tutorial video, I don't use this setup on my netowrk.

[@fotografm]

That was very helpful. Thank you !!! One thing I may have missed and needed to look up elsewhere was how to change the passord supplied for the pihole. This is done via the ssh command line and "pihole -a -p (password)".

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks for the tip, I'll add this to the blog post.

[@hanac5586]

awesome

[@ShyneflowLC]

My Pi zero w is on the way!

[@ShyneflowLC]

Ended up doing it with a different pi zero w case that was clear and made it look cool

[@ckmoore101]

My next project, but currently evaluating whether Pi-hole, or Adguard Home is the best choice. So many opinions on which is better. So far the edge seems to be for Adguard...

[@acorchia]

Thanks Michael! This was a great vid to follow up on! I think if I leave some secondary dns it should be a good backup in the rare case the pi doesn't come up, right?

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes if your router allows for it that'll be good. Just be aware that some routers just use the two interchangeably, so it doesn't try the primary and if that fails it tries the secondary, it just sends some requests to the primary and some to the secondary.

[@acorchia]

@@MichaelKlements Thanks for the extra info!

[@valeriopampanoni3573]

Thanks, I set everything up in roughly half an hour following your guide. I used an old 8GB microSD, and I can confirm that it's enough for the purpose.

[@MichaelKlements]

That’s great!

[@einhalbesbrot]

Thank you so much i was wondering since i heard 4 should also be enough and in the video he says 16. Im gonna buy a bunch of 8 GBs now

[@itsjfam]

Can confirm this will work on a pi 1, and I used a ethernet cable and just skipped the wireless.txt part. also have it plugged into the modem, everything seems to be working just fine.

[@DJDashzn]

Fantastic tutorial. Do you know where we can get South Africa black list or regex

[@MikeWeids]

Thanks for the tutorial! The only problem now is actually finding a Zero W to use for it :) Any reason you opted for wireless vs wired (with an ethernet attachment)? Have you experienced any notable decrease in speeds or WiFi connectivity issues after installing?

[@MichaelKlements]

I don't have an USB Ethernet dongle, so tried with the WiFi connection and it has worked really well. I haven't had any issues with it or noticed any decrease in internet speed since installing it. The DNS lookup portion of a page load is miiliseconds, so even if the wireless connection is half as fast as wired, you likely won't notice the extra 50-100 or so milliseconds added to the load speed.

[@DD8842]

The best part is that they named it "pi hole" god I hope that never changes.

[@winandd8649]

No problem to use a smaller SD card than 16Gb. Rpi OS lite and PiHole only takes up 3 Gb..

[@carokann1802]

I heard you have to think about the log files that will be created. ofc you can define how long logs are kept and whether you want to log in the first place. if you accept recommended options during the configuration the pi will log ... a lot ...

[@ianwilsonT00x]

I've literally done this exact thing like 4 times and no matter what pi image i put on my cd card, when i ssh in it doesn't like the password.

[@Nykzom]

same here. Do you got it working without setting it up on a keyboard, mouse and desktop. I think thats the only way to reset the pw..sadly

[@kazte]

Hi man, ty for the tutorial. I have a question, does the DNS only work for WiFi connections or, for example, does it also work for my desktop computer that is connected via Ethernet cable?

[@Backedone-ss5vw]

Hi man , much appreciated Any new updates March 2024 on the topic?

[@johnhusband924]

Hi Michael great video and thank you for sharing. My network consists of a virgin hub 3 modem and a Archer A7 router connected by ethernet cable. I am assuming I need to change my DNS settings on the Virgin router and Archer router A7. I am assuming I do not need to change any setting on devices connecting to the Wi Fi from the Archer router A7.

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks John! You'd most likely need to update the DNS settings in your virgin hub 3 modem - but this depends on how your network is set up. Yes, if you modify the DNS settings in your modem then this will be applied to all devices accessing the internet through this modem, you don't need to do it on the devices as well.

[@madeautonomous]

Great short video and gets to the point. I was successful in setting up my pi-hole, but after few days I was not able to login to my pi zero...(reinstalled the OS again and setup for SSH...then my Putty just shows inactive of pi zero and aborts...)

[@madeautonomous]

Also, some internet company who provides 2.4 and 5 GHz...may actually be more troublesome because you can't block both...and pi zero does not work on 5 GHz...

[@MichaelKlements]

What SD card are you using? I've seen a couple of people say that their Pi-holes ran for a few days or weeks and then froze or crashed due to failure of the SD card.

[@WakeUpAmerican000s]

@@madeautonomous - I would personally not use a wireless connection to do this. Spend an extra $10 to get a Pi 3 or 4 and connect a CAT 6 cable from your router to the Pi-hole device. It'll cut your latency for every (of thousands) of DNS queries by two-thirds or more.

[@savourymilkman8147]

@@WakeUpAmerican000s you know, or a dongle....

[@joeschmo622]

Noice! I saw a few tutorials to make a PiHole out of a 3, etc., but wondered if I could just do it on a 0W. You answered that question, thanks!

[@MichaelKlements]

Definitely give it a try!

[@YXHYX]

Why it don't block KZbin ads on Android and laptop even after I set up the DNS Configuration but it works on speed test

[@maman89]

Thanks man. Was thinking about getting the pi 4 but the pricing is stupid in my country. Around 120USD for 4GB and almost 200USD for the 8GB version

[@MichaelKlements]

They've become really expensive around the world, unfortunately re-sellers are capitalizing on the shortage by selling them way over their recommended price

[@WakeUpAmerican000s]

Great video, thank-you. What is the process to enhance and update the block lists? The Pi is only as effective as the currency and completeness of the block lists used and there doesn't seem to be a lot of info on where to get block lists to beef up one's Pi-hole.

[@MichaelKlements]

You just need to go to settings in the UI and you can add and remove lists there. It's as simple as pasting the web address for the new list and clicking save. Lists are auto-updated every Sunday morning by default. There are loads of forums which provide resources for additional lists and recommendations, the Pi-hole Reddit group is a good place to start.

[@WakeUpAmerican000s]

@@MichaelKlements - Thank you for your reply. I've seen references to installing a database on the Pi to handle the blacklists etc. so wasn't sure how complex it is. Waiting for my hardware to arrive now and I'm sure it'll all come clear once I actually start playing with it. Thank you again for your efforts.

[@timothyvo3749]

Great helpful video! Really easy to follow, but I found out my Xfinity modem/router won't let me change DNS, is there a work around besides using my own modem?

[@MichaelKlements]

You can set the DNS at device level. It’s a lot more effort but is a work-around in this case. So point each device (iPhone, computer etc) to the Pi for its DNS

[@VagabondGFG]

Thanks for the clear tutorial. Will an 8 GB SD card be enough?

[@MichaelKlements]

16GB is usually recommended by you might be able to use an 8GB with an install of Raspberry Pi OS Lite

[@fender_fan]

Thanks for this video, very easy to follow! Seems to be blocking ads embedded on websites, I'm still getting ads in mobile aps and video ads in KZbin and Twitch. Did I miss a step?

[@MichaelKlements]

The ad blocker can only block dns requests to ad serving domains. So if a website serves its own ads from its own domain (like KZbin does) or the ad server is not on your blocked list then it won’t block ads on the site.

[@aelecx9083]

You can manually get rid of the ads like I did for KZbin. But it’s pretty tedious and with each and every ad my soul burned until I was a husk of once I once was.

[@shilankalhor2072]

How manually? You mean you bought the subscription?

[@ahtzee9078]

The irony of the mid rolls in this tutorial...

[@Lazerscythe]

It is so you can check if your Pi Hole works ;)

[@realcartoongirl]

but pihole doesn't block video youtube ads since its from same domain

[@YouTubeDave-tp7ij]

Any hints on getting ads blocked better on IOS and MacOS devices? I've set my Pihole as the DNS server, but doesn't block very well. Seems like there's something about IOS and MacOS that makes Pihole less efficient. I've got mine installed on my Pi 4. It's a waste of a Pi, but I do like Pihole a lot.

[@summerbee80]

can i use the new RISC-V mango as an addblocker?

[@chubbyelf5094]

Hey, thanks for the video, but you are missing a direct link to the wpa_supplicant text file in the video description. Had to jump through some hoops to find it on your personal website, it would be better in the description!

[@JungleIsMassiv]

good tutorial... did all this just to find my internet supplier (optus) blocks the DNS customise feature. otherwise would work perfectly!

[@MichaelKlements]

That's frustrating!

[@philipperino7094]

i think this was the best tutorial on this. so now i got everyhting setup BESIDES, that my provider does not allow custom DNS Servers... does anybody know a workaround?

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks Philipperino. You can set your DNS server at device level (on each phone or laptop). It's a lot more work to set up, but you still get a similar result in the end.

[@casey7223]

Towards the end you mentioned the USB from the router may/may not power the pi. Do I not need the supplied power cord?

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes, you'll need to run a USB cable between the router and the Pi to power it. Some router's supply enough power through this port to power a Pi and some don't. So it doesn't always work.

[@ChrisPavlides]

is there any difference on latency btw the wired and the Wireless Pi-Zero ?

[@MichaelKlements]

There is definitely a difference, but you're talking about 5 milliseconds or so on the WiFi and maybe 0.5 milliseconds on Ethernet. I doubt that a couple of thousandths of a second would make much difference for most people who would be using Pi-hole for web browsing, streaming etc.

[@jacktherabbit2238]

This work with the pi-zero w 2?

[@dannythomas1100]

Hi Michael, really good and informative video! But isn't it dangerous to store your network password (or any password for that matter) in plain text in a .txt file and not have it encrypted? Thank you for the vod!

[@MichaelKlements]

The Pi deletes this file after first boot, so it's not actually left in the boot directory as a .txt file afterwards

[@dannythomas1100]

@@MichaelKlements Ahhhhhhhh smart! Thank you!

[@eRflol]

@@MichaelKlements Pressing Ctrl+Shift+X while in the raspberry pi imager gives you advanced options to configure ssh access and wireless access without having to create/edit the image files. Save you a few steps

[@klarname]

Thanks for your work. Do you know if your instruction can also be used for a Rasperry Pi 1?

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes you can run Pihole on the original Raspberry Pi as well

[@klarname]

@@MichaelKlements , you are right thats what i also found out but thanks for for answering!

[@TheCorpsegrinder21]

does it works the same with the classic raspberry pi 0 with a wifi adapter?

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes it will, although if you're adding an adapter then you should try get an Ethernet one rather, its just a bit more robust and reliable.

[@fallingxshadow]

Does anyone know if you can modify this to block ads on mobile apps?

[@pivot9965]

If you put your secondary dns with out the raspberry pi ip. when the raspeberry gets offline will it still run on the web just with ads?

[@MichaelKlements]

That's the intention. It depends on your router though as some seem to split traffic between primary and secondary rather than use secondary as a fallback.

[@inigomontoya8599]

Hey Man great Tutorial! However, I am getting stuck at the DHCP Table. the Pi is not showing up, I have reimaged the pi several times and verified the network address and name everytime but the pi never shows on the network. Do you know if there is some setting or file that may need to be installed for it?

[@MichaelKlements]

Can you connect to your network if you use a desktop version of the OS and do it through the WiFi settings?

[@luisoquendo4488]

How do these instruction change when working on a Mac? I am having trouble with the wpa_supplicant part and changing it to .conf

[@MichaelKlements]

It shouldn't change. You'll just need to make sure that your computer settings as such that it is not hiding the file extension.

[@jackalzombiie282]

So if you can't change the DNS provider from the Modem/Router to the Pi Zero you have to select it manually in every device you want to use Pi hole?

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes that’s correct

[@ekka1790]

Hi, will my internet get slower if I route my modem dns from the raspberry pi trough wifi?

[@MichaelKlements]

In theory it's a bit slower, in practice you probably wouldn't notice any difference unless you have lots of devices (15+) all making requests on your network at the same time.

[@toblerone3202]

Im having trouble finding my pi's IP address, i use xfinity and have netgear as my modem, where can I find this info?

[@clit24eugen]

I did flow all steps however my pi won't connect to the wifi with the light os version only with the full os version ... is this a known issue ?!

[@shresthishigwcivpadt9713]

Can you set cloudfare or google as the secondary DNS provider to still have access in case the pi is turned off?

[@MichaelKlements]

This would depend on your router, but is usually possible.

[@savourymilkman8147]

theres alwayus the chance that the router will redirect straight to secondary and not even consider the pi as the primary dns. you are alwyas conneceted to your router, theres no reason to do it otherwise as theres always the ability to logi n and change it again

[@expt22]

What happens to internet connectivity if the SD card or device fails?

[@Devildude281]

Can anyone confirm if this blocks youtube ads on Smart TVs? Just heard they are bumping it up to 5 ads...

[@MichaelKlements]

This won't block KZbin ads as they're served from their own servers.

[@akshayaradjou8508]

would i be able to do this using a raspberry pi pico ?? for a small network with 5 users and under 20 devices

[@MichaelKlements]

The Pico is a microcontroller, it doesn't run an operating system and so can't run something like Pi-hole

[@BL1TZED101]

Dose this work with a windows 10 pc for set up I live in Australia

[@MichaelKlements]

If you set this up through your router then it'll block ads across all devices on the network regardless of the OS.

[@saifty2007]

If the SSID is A apple 1, should it be just that inside the quotes or should it be "A_apple_1" ????

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes it should be US. The Pi only has 2.4Ghz WiFi, that may be something to check. Also check that the SSID and password are correct, they're also case and space sensitive.

[@ezras8889]

Can I make a pi hole on a wireless network such as a Verizon jet pack using a pi zero or will I need a pi with Wi-Fi capabilities

[@MichaelKlements]

You can set one up on any network that allows you to manage the DNS settings. The Pi doesn't have to have WiFi, it just needs to be on the same network.

[@Ivan-kh4kh]

Thanks for the video! I have connected it to the router and found the network address but cant connect through putty. The connection times out. Any ideas how to fix this?

[@MichaelKlements]

Are you sure SSH has been turned on on your Pi?

[@Ivan-kh4kh]

@@MichaelKlements I figured it out! My laptop was on the 5G band and the Pi was on the 2.4G band. Once I changed my laptop to the matching band it worked just as you described. Thanks again!

[@MichaelKlements]

Ah yes, glad you've managed to find the issue. It's a pity the Pi 4 doesn't support 5G WiFi, hopefully the next generation will!

[@Beatfreax]

Do we need to set firewall rules to make it more secure?

[@MichaelKlements]

This doesn't change or enhance your network security at all, if you were using a firewall before then you should continue after installing this.

[@erlendtk85]

Protip: After choosing image and storage in the imager, press ctrl+shift+x to set up ssh and wlan.

[@MichaelKlements]

I'll definitely give that a try, thank you!

[@jeffamsbaugh6018]

yea i think thats the issue that im running in to because i cant ssh from putty

[@ahmetaydin9692]

My ssh connection is extremely slow. I have got a pi zero 2 w, can anyone help me?

[@MrMan-sy4ev]

So the PuTTY emulator is meant to access the pi’s terminal from your own computer? Is that right?

[@MichaelKlements]

Yes that's correct. You only need this to set it up initially though, once Pi-hole is loaded and running then you just access the Pi through a browser on your network.

[@leryeo]

Can you make a video or instruct me as to how to unpair and remove pihole from my router as I no longer use it to block domains?

[@MichaelKlements]

Just change the DNS on your router back to what is was originally e.g. Cloudfare - 1.1.1.1

[@patricklomasney]

If I am connecting it with an Ethernet cable will I need to add the extra config file and SSH file?

[@MichaelKlements]

You'll still need to add the SSH file, but won't need the config file.

[@patricklomasney]

@@MichaelKlements okay, thanks

[@GreenSwede]

You mention a Micro SD card with at least 16 GB. How much storage space do you have left after a lite install of Raspberry Pi OS and Pi-Hole?

[@JordanII.]

I just did this and it says 12GB

[@winandd8649]

I used a 8GB card, i have 5.1 Gb free space left..

[@ArchPendragon]

how did I get here?? I searched... Thanksgiving Pecan Pie and I got this video.... j/k thanks for the video :D

[@MichaelKlements]

Haha - the rabbit hole that is KZbin

[@gaby19971029]

Goed zo

[@sc0or]

It would be great to add couple of words to this video about setting a static IP with using OS only. 'cause some time user has no access to a router.

[@MichaelKlements]

The problem is that almost every platform has a different process to configure the DNS. It’s usually a quick google search though.

[@sc0or]

​@@MichaelKlements well.. not so many OSes are able to install on Pi Zero and pi-hole after that ) In fact, only Raspian is a good choice (and some old ubuntu servers) imho. But I've got your point

[@MichaelKlements]

The OS I’m referring to is on your device which you’re using to access your wifi (like your phone or iPad). The dns server is set on each of these, not on the Pi-hole. If you can access your router then changing anything in Pi-hole isn’t going to help.

[@bkkorner]

I want to install Pihole on my Octopi. How do I go about it?

[@MichaelKlements]

You'll need to use something like Docker to install both on a single Pi

[@aaron.1985]

what connection does this use., via WIFI or LAN CABLE?

[@MichaelKlements]

WiFi