Blocking Ads With a 15 Year Old Computer 

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Dude straight up plugged an ad on a ad blocking video. Im impressed.

I still break out my 2009 mac mini like once a year to mess around with projects like this. Trying to give an old computer a new purpose is always super fun for some reason, I guess it's just cool to see how useful they can be even after 10+ years. I'd love to see some more mac mini content! Your breakdown of the power consumption/cost was very helpful. That was one concern I had with leaving mine on for extended periods of time, but that's really not too bad at all.

I genuinely get excited whenever I see you uploaded a new video

Thank you for the PiHole reminder! I used to run it on an original Raspberry Pi a few years back... Completely forgot about it! I just reinstalled, during your video, and now have my own running! Thank you for another great video!

Thanks for the video! Pi-Hole is really a great tool, I have donated multiple times, usually when they come out with major release updates. I figure it is so worth donating to the project since it saves you on bandwidth that would have been wasted on ads. All open source projects rely on donations to keep going so I'd hate to see Pi-Hole go away for a lack of support.

Thanks for the video!! I'm hoping to get pi-hole set up soon! I'm either going to get it set up on my TrueNAS Scale server, or repurpose my old laptop that was acting as my starter server to just handle pi-hole and Home Assistant. I'm still very new to this stuff, so your videos have been a major help in inspiration, installation, and troubleshooting! Thanks for all your hard work!

glad I found your channel today! been watching all your videos for the past two hours!

colt, i love to see you grow in your RU-vid career. i loved the Linux Minecraft server (i actually runned that for a while) and have watched since. I'd love to see you growing to a higher level. keep up the good work man greetings, slither in her

That was a well made video ! I did not know about his local dns thing and this is going to be more than useful for me. Thanks !

Loved the price over time comparison. Thank you for the chapters in your vid. Would you consider turning an old laptop into an all-in-one or repurpose the screen as a second monitor and the motherboard as some server? And as always this was another great video, keep up the good work.

The good old macmini 1,1 from 2006. I still use mine as a little file server with a bunch of drives plugged in. Its maxed out with a core 2 duo and 4gb of ram. Still runs great for my needs.

Awesome video! It's cool seeing an old Mac mini still getting used today! You should also look into cheap slightly outdated thin clients, I've been getting dell wise 3040s when I can find them for cheap, the bench similarly to a 2GB pi 4, and you can find them used for cheap, same with various other thin clients

I use two Raspberry Pi's using PiHole to ensure if one is slow or doing an update/down the other one takes over, so I can still surf the web. I did this with a Pi 1 and 2, so don't really need a 3 or 4 to run it. I'm happy that you go over the cost of the item along with power consumption and cost, it is something I look at too.

Nice video. You could also show in a video a setup with a cheap old server running docker with pihole, Unbound and watchtower in containers, that would be awesome

I have pihole running on one of the micro Optiplex's along with Plex. Works great and if I remember correctly the Optiplex is like 10-15W at idle.

Ah damn, I thought this was for the older PowerPC Mac Minis. Got one kicking around that I only use to sync my older Firewire iPods and thought I could give it another purpose 😂 Great video!

Mac Minis are cool, versatile little things! I just set a 2006 model up as a dedicated, headless MIDI synth emulator. I run commands from my retro DOS gaming rig to switch between Roland MT-32 and SC-55 emulation, etc., and use the Apple Remote to adjust its volume. It's not networked in any way, either, so it's essentially an appliance device now, like a Roku or a router running Linux under the hood.

Great video man I knew about pinhole but not the local DNS this that's really freaking cool, I have an old Toshiba satellite laptop and I'll set it up like this

Thank you for these ideas! I just did something similar with a 2007 Mac mini that i had laying around, I installed Mint (it took several tries and a moded ISO) mostly because I like having a desktop interface, but I'm only running my ubiquity console. I didn't know what else to do with it, but now you gave me some ideas. Also, I upgraded to the top supported CPU and removed the CD drive for extra cooling.

Thanks - great video. Recently picked up an orange pi Zero 2 - for pi-hole and wireguard. Works very well and stable since 2 months on armbian. Will you do a video on Nextcloud? Your budget home lab videos are great!

For a bit of extra control you could install unbound as a local DNS server. Works like a charm with pihole.

I managed to snag a pi zero kit for pihole for around 30€ with shipping. It had the pi, a case, a power adaptor, microsd card(16gb), ethernet, mini hdmi adaptor and a 10/100 ethernet adaptor , which unfortunatelly runs at 6 mbps due to the usb 1.1 interface and it's bad... So I added a gigabit adaptor for 12€... Runs great since the start of the year and I use it also for Wireguard, so I can remote at my home computer. BTW, Another Great Video!

I got docker running on Alpine Linux on a 2011 mac mini. Great little machine for pihole and a few other services.

In addition to the savings of using an existing PC you already own, you're keeping hardware out of the waste stream and taking advantage of processing power that is still viable. The newest PC I own is from 2014, I have a Mac Mini from 2009 and another PC from 2008. For some folks, modest processing power is plenty of power indeed.

Man I wish I could get my hands on some pc from the recycle bin to make all those super funny projects like you.

Came here to find out if my 2010 mac mini will be capable of this. Perfect!

This Video ist Just perfect in Time for me!

Old Wyse or HP thin clients can also work really well for projects like this too!

This is a better video for the little Mac. Good job

This is useful for smart tv, chromecasts, and any limited internet manipulating capability device.

Good video ! Thanks !

Love the video and Pi (have 2). I am glad you and I hope others are finding work aronuds for the fake over inflated price of current pi modles

For emulating on the stock macOS, try using an old version of open emu

I use a pi zero w. I bought a ethernet hat for it rather than use the wifi for my pihole. Works great. Using pihole for DHCP instead of the router gives you better logging of what device is doing what, rather than only seeing the gateway in the log. I have a chatty client (I still havent found it yet lol) that sometimes randomly goes over the 60 second query limit and kills the whole internet connection if I leave DHCP in the router on instead of using the pihole. I also recommend if using a raspberry pi, use dietpi. Works better than raspberry pi OS. Ive tested them all and its the best IMHO

Not something I need, but watched and enjoyed none the less. Keep this stuff coming. I love seeing old hardware repurposed. I have an old 3rd gen i5 system running a server for file backups, plex sonarr etc. I have a modified clock speed so it consumes a lot less power. Not sure if you can do the same with a mac, but I would be interested to know.

8:40 counterargument to using either one, if you can't find or afford a RBpi then just get a clone, they cost as little as $10 and the main argument to avoid them has been software support especially for things that require GPIO pins, but for use cases like this it doesn't matter as long as you have a working OS. Counterargument #2, once you get to the $50+ range you can find old laptops that are roughly 3x faster than a Pi 4, can use proper storage types like m.2 sata/nvme and 2.5mm hdd drives and only use 5-15W of power.

I have a first gen Pi model B running Pi-Hole. Works very well. And those don't cost a whole lot (paid €15 for 2 of them) either.

Firewalla and NextDNS are great alternatives also.

The Mac mini is a cool way to do this. Another thing for many people to consider is using an old laptop. Since Pi-hole can run fine on 32-bit machines, even something as old as 2002 or so could handle this job. I'd say a bare minimum of 512MB RAM would be good. Also, you don't *need* an SSD, but even if you have an old laptop that only uses IDE drives, there's cheap adapters that will convert mSATA or small m.2 sata drives to IDE, and you can usually find a 16GB mSATA SSD pulled from a Chromebook or something on eBay for

I use an orange pi PC it's by far the cheapest option and it works like a charm for pi hole

Yeah the "Take a raspberry pi" comes obviously from people, that currently don't even try to get a new rapi :D at least not for the recommended prices, whoever buys them for the scam prices that go around rn is a different kind of lost. Your video provides a good example that you don't need a rapi to run it :3 i'm also currently searching for a good pi replacement, but i'm not willing to spend more than 100 bucks on it

I bought a used lenovo thinkcentre m92p tiny and that consumes 13w on idle which is nice. I need to use another outlet voltage tester, I just used a tp-link kasa smart plug with energy monitoring.

Great video 😊

This is very interesting, and I might give it a try, but I usually prefer to do things old school. If I wanted a DHCP-level ad blocker I think I would probably just use my file server, or else blacklist the ad servers at my firewall. As I said, old school.

Wow the price of RPi's is crazy,, guess supply and demand. Luckily I already have a bunch of Pi's, some originals, some Pi 3B's and some Pi 4B's. I have 2 RPi 4B's running Ubuntu Server and Docker w Portainer. I then have Pihole + Cloudflared (for DoH) setup (amongst other apps like my UniFi controller) on both of them and use gravity-sync to keep the adlists, rules, dns entries, etc...updated between them.

Some ads are so intrusive they take up a quarter or third of the screen. To me that is even worse than those ones that float by. Then there is the occasional fake error message that tells you to dial some sketchy phone number. I never ever in my life fell for that one!!! I know some people need money but one way they *WILL NOT* get any from me is with ads that take up large parts of my screen. It is not just because they are almost never for something I really need. If they think they are going to annoy me with overly intrusive ads they have another thing coming! I will not sit here and let them do it!! I will block those ads in any way I can. I don't mind small ads as long as they are not animated or have sound. I just don't need the top half of my display devoted to displaying ads.

Very good video Does anybody know how to change the default ip port of pihole? It's installed in a docker container

Can you “under clock” a PC to make it run cheaper? Or maybe disable unused ports/hardware? Thank

A core 2 machine would be the oldest I'd try for most projects. Older P4's are capable, but burn too much energy.

curious project. could the pihole get installed on a vm and traffic routed to it through there?

loved the idea, but I have one question, can I have a base linux distro on the mac mini and have pihole running in a vm? maybe a couple of vms, one for pihole and the other for something else?

while i acknowledge that having something that physically blocks the ad data to even enter my pc is a clean way to get rid of ads, its too much of a hassle to set up a second mini pc when adblock plus does the same thing just for the cost of a bit of cpu% and ram. i dont wanna jinx it but im so happy that adblock exists. i havent experienced the internet or youtube without adblock since lik 2009 or so until a few months ago when i set up a new pc for a friend. what an actual nightmare browsing the web has become. i hope the way ads work will never change so it can always be caught by adblock

Use unbound too 👍

I've been wondering what to do with my old Mini and old white Intel iMac. Both PiHole and the Emulator sound like good ideas.

I've read about someone who managed to use a debían distribution into a $20 wifi modem stick with similar specs to a pi zero, I wonder if this can be done with it

You could even run pi-hole on a raspberry pi zero.

I started using pihole for some months and it dosnt block my youtube ads. I tried blocking a lot of dns and i add to blacklist a list of bunch of dns. It always seems to have a new dns from google add

does uBlock Origin do the same thing but simpler to make?

Interesting! I would like a video about Home Assistant.

Mac mini could be more powerful than a raspberry pi and has more ram and storage. But it depends on usage as you might just get a pi. set it and forget it. Or you’d want a Mac mini and use it like you do and do multiple different things at the same time

I liked everything except the Vpn ad spot

Done this with a small USFF Dell WYSE I got for £19 off Ebay, it works perfectly and works for my needs

hi Kyle i just found and watched this ad idea and it looks awesome. Is it possible too do this on a pc?.. (i got lots laying around..) And can you make a tut on that?.. or maybe give me some help or direction too where i can find the info for doing something like that. ?.. thanks for a cool video loved watching it.

7:50 No, it is not smart! Secondary DNS is NOT a backup DNS, it is a 2nd DNS - when your device makes a DNS query, it will just pick one of the two randomly. Unless you have two Pi-holes, it's better to just have no Secondary DNS (because if you do, some ads will get through) edit: Also, DON'T use one one one one as your upstream DNS! It does wacky stuff and in some cases doesn't give you the correct response/IP

I have a few older pc's but I also have a rpi 3 and 4 so I guess I will use my rpi 3 so I can continue to tinker with my rpi 4.

Hi, is there a document file, that I can use to calculate the cost myself?

I was today years old when I found out that PowerShell has SSH functionality.

I might try something like that

could i install this to y old netbook to allow my desktop, laptop, phone, and otheer ways to watch things online to not get any ads that could impact CPU or the RAM

Its fine if you want to pay for blocking ads. A computer like this one draw allot of juice. Everything above 1 watt is not worth doing. So a better choice would be getting a raspberry pi zero. If its youtube ads then you are out of luck. This cant block youtube ads. I have this app on my smart TV called smart tube. This app is brilliant. It not only block ads but also totally skip all the sponsorship part of any video. I dont know how its blockin sponsorship parts nor how it fonds that, but it really works.

Can i install pi hole on my u untu server that already have jellyfin and media server in there ?

Damn. Was hoping this would be PowerPC based

I have pihole running in a docker container on a windows computer that doubles as a computer I use the browse the internet while sitting in my recliner.

i dont have "packs" folder at the right side x) help

I bought a 30$ lenovo yoga laptop from 2013 and plan on turning it into a small home server with debian as the OS. Can I run PiHole on it along with something like a minecraft server and a file server too? Or does PiHole have to be separate from everything else?

Bro i have an spare laptop, without ethernet jack and I want to install true nas on it please guide me what can I do, p.s i will run an portable server with 1 128gb ssd and 1tb hhd

Why not just add ip of dns in router or local area network 1.1.1.1 ?

nice video. I have a USFF Dell Optiplex 780, core 2 duo that I use as my RaspberryPI subtitute. It isn't a fast unit but does the job and boots every time I turn it on. I use Raspberry PI OS rather than Debian but either will work. Do you have any words of wisdom to revive the BIOS in a HP p7-1203? I tried to do a BIOS upgrade and the software crashed during the upgrade = dead desktop! Great video..

Got a link for the energy calculator?

every 9 year old rn: i'm gonna find ur adress

1:48 what's the point applying fresh thermal paste in b/w 2 layers of old thermal paste 🤣😭🥲

In order to not have to deal with having to install sudo on Debian, leave the root password blank. The root account will then be automatically (and only) accessible with sudo. Great video btw, subbed!!

a like just for the picture at 01:40

Running an ad-blocker on your browser seems a lot easier, even if you have to set it up on a few computers. It might make sense for a large network but I can't see it being worthwhile for home use.

I wonder if I can use my rg351m for this

9:45 The column heading in column C appears to be incorrect. If those numerical figures are "watts" (as they appear to be, based on the numbers), then the column heading of column C (cell C1) should be "watts", not "Wh (24hr)" [which makes no sense]. Cheers.

Does this help with internet speeds? i.e. does it save bandwidth that is usable by other requests from your machine?

Over .50cent a kWh here in the UK soon...

Can we use this setup in a small school with under 1000 people?

do you have static ip???

Does this block youtube ads?

Does this also block adds on Twitch?

I got “Su Authentication Failure” when trying to get root credentials. For anyone having the same problem, debian by default has the root account disabled, so to enable it you need to run the "sudo passwd root" command and then insert the desirable password. After that you should be able to use "su -" insert your pass and then run the other commands from the video just regularly.

ty sir, subs 😁😁😁😄

real reason for this complex build: - because he could. 😎😎

Question. I have a micro pc that I no longer use but I did install debian x86 on it. Can I still install pihole and go through your walk through?

I would love to see something made with older xeon cpus ddr3 area 4c8t

Hi cool video but you culd go more powerful with the mac Mini I have the same but i have a Intel Core 2 Duo Prozessor T9300 with 2.50 GHz 64Bit and I have 2 of them

Old mac mini’s are great!! Cheap and small. Install Linux and they make great servers