Building a network-wide ad blocker with a Raspberry Pi
Australian households now run dozens of connected devices, from smart TVs and gaming consoles to voice assistants and tablets. A small Raspberry Pi can quietly sit on your network and strip advertisements from every screen at once. A network-wide solution filters requests at the DNS layer, so even streaming boxes and smart appliances benefit from cleaner pages and faster load times.
The principle is straightforward: every time a device tries to reach a domain known to serve ads, the request is rerouted to nowhere. For families juggling NBN connections on fibre-to-the-premises or hybrid fibre-coaxial lines, this approach reduces the bandwidth wasted on banners and trackers, which is meaningful during peak evening hours when everyone is streaming Kayo or Binge at once.
Australia has a long tradition of home network tinkering, stretching back to the ADSL era. Running a Raspberry Pi as a dedicated DNS blocker fits into that culture. It costs roughly the price of two takeaway coffees in Sydney or Melbourne, draws less power than a bedside lamp, and hums quietly beside the NBN box.
Choosing the right Raspberry Pi model
Most modern boards will handle this task comfortably. The Raspberry Pi 5 offers more processing headroom than strictly necessary for ad blocking, which becomes useful if you plan to run a VPN server, a home automation hub, or a backup service alongside it. The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B remains the sweet spot for most Australians. It is widely available from retailers such as Core Electronics, PiAustralia, and Jaycar, and its gigabit Ethernet pairs well with NBN speeds up to 1000/400 Mbps.
Older boards like the Raspberry Pi 3B+ still work, but their 100-megabit interfaces become a bottleneck on faster plans. The Pi Zero 2 W is appealing for its tiny size and low price, though it lacks wired Ethernet and struggles once query rates climb during busy evenings.
| Raspberry Pi model | Ethernet | RAM | Price (AUD) | Best use case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 5 | Gigabit | 4-8 GB | 95-145 | All-in-one home server |
| Raspberry Pi 4 Model B | Gigabit | 2-8 GB | 75-110 | Dedicated ad blocker |
| Raspberry Pi 3B+ | 100 Mbps | 1 GB | 55-70 | Light filtering |
| Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W | USB only | 512 MB | 25-35 | Travel or simple setups |
Preparing the operating system
Before any ad-blocking software lands on the device, the Pi needs a clean operating system. The official Raspberry Pi Imager makes this painless: download it on a Windows, macOS, or Linux computer, plug in a microSD card of at least 16 GB, and flash Raspberry Pi OS Lite. The Lite edition has no desktop, which keeps memory free for the services you actually want.
Configuration begins before the first boot. The Imager's Advanced menu lets you pre-set the hostname, enable SSH, configure Wi-Fi credentials, and choose a locale. Setting the timezone to Australia/Sydney, or Australia/Perth on the west coast, prevents time-based logs from confusing you later. Once the card is written, slide it into the Pi, connect an Ethernet cable to your router, and power it up.
SSH access from a laptop allows headless setup without a monitor. A quick ssh username@hostname.local from a terminal usually works, though some routers hide mDNS responses. If that fails, check the connected devices list in the router's admin page to find the IP assigned by the NBN box.
Installing the ad-blocking software
Pi-hole is the most recognisable name in this space. It has been refined over many years, integrates with most consumer routers, and offers a clear web dashboard. Installation is a single command piped into bash, after which a wizard asks for upstream DNS providers. Quad9, Cloudflare, and Google Public DNS all have Australian anycast presence, so response times stay low from Brisbane to Hobart.
Alternatives such as AdGuard Home have grown popular because they include features Pi-hole handles only through extra packages, such as DNS-over-HTTPS support and per-client filtering. Either way, both block ads at the DNS layer rather than inspecting HTTPS payloads, which keeps them compliant with Australia's Privacy Act and avoids breaking secure banking sessions.
Wiring the Pi into your network
With the software installed, the Pi needs to become the DNS server for every device. The simplest path is to log into your router, whether it is the white box supplied by Telstra or Optus, or a third-party unit from ASUS, TP-Link, or Fritz!Box, and change the DHCP DNS settings to point at the Pi's static IP. Some routers expose this clearly; others hide it under advanced menus, and a few ISP-locked devices refuse to change.
Where routers resist, setting the Pi as the only DNS server and disabling DHCP on the router, then enabling it on the Pi, is a reliable workaround. This works particularly well on NBN setups using a router in bridge mode behind the supplied modem, a configuration already popular in tech-savvy suburbs like Fitzroy, Newtown, and Fremantle.
Whitelisting essential services
Even a well-tuned blocklist occasionally catches legitimate domains. Australian banking apps such as CommBank, ANZ, and Westpac often rely on analytics endpoints that look identical to ad networks, and breaking login flows is a common complaint among first-time users. Pi-hole's query log makes it straightforward to spot the culprit and add it to the whitelist.
Streaming services behave similarly. Stan, Binge, Kayo, and the catch-up services from national broadcasters serve ads themselves but pull telemetry that gets flagged. Whitelisting relevant domains after a few days keeps playback smooth while stripping third-party tracking. Local news sites, myGov, and university portals sometimes fall into the same trap.
Maintaining and monitoring the setup
Once running, the system largely looks after itself. Updates to Pi-hole and Raspberry Pi OS are released regularly, and a weekly cron job can automate patching. Reboots are rare, and the Pi draws under five watts, so leaving it on costs less than running an espresso machine for a few hours each week.
The web dashboard surfaces useful insights over time. Parents often appreciate seeing how many requests were blocked during a school night, particularly when homework time coincides with peak streaming hours. The ACCC's Measuring Broadband Australia program has highlighted how background traffic from ads and trackers can slow perceived performance, so watching those numbers drop feels tangible.
A practical next step is to bookmark the dashboard, schedule a weekly glance at the query log, and whitelist any misclassified domain. Readers wanting to push further can start with the contact page on WeWEAT, which links to advanced guides on pairing the Pi-hole setup with a VPN or a home automation controller.