Re: [PLUG] [o/t] Pi-hole

On Wed, Oct 21, 2026 at 12:44 PM jeffv via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:

The cable box that feeds my dumb tv failed and they gave me a streaming
box. Is it true they (Xfinity) are no longer using direct wire
connections for cable box input?

I’m on a different cable system but that’s what we have here. They got rid of all copper RF and now their box hooks to Wi-Fi or wired networking and…it works ok. It’s better than the worst cable box I’ve had but not as good as the best ones.

Pi-hole looks good. Is it worth buying a PI to run it? Or put it on a
very old power-sucking pc? Has anybody had any problems using Pi-hole
with their setup/does it interfere with normal tv operations?

I’m not sure what your plan is here so maybe I’m missing the point, but I do not think Pi-hole will help with your cable/streaming TV at all. Those TV ads are probably not inserted in a way that Pi-hole will be able to reduce or block.

I may be wrong but that’s my understanding.

I do use Pi-hole and it’s mostly transparent except for every now and then when something we are trying to use is blocked (mostly because the school or the doctor office or whatever uses some annoying tracking mail service instead of just simple direct links). Fixing that is easy. It greatly reduces the number of annoying inline ads we see.

I would not personally buy a new Raspberry Pi for that now; they’re too expensive and straying from the original project goals. An older (but power efficient) NUC is pretty cheap and what I would do if I were starting over. I also have a storage server that’s always on and could host it there, any system that’s never turned off should be suitable.

I also use a HOSTS file.
https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts?tab=readme-ov-file
There are different 'flavors' allowing you to block different things.

I suspect the end result is going to be quite similar, but with the Pi-hole solution you don’t have to distribute the hosts file to every machine on your network. For one or two devices, hosts may be easier.

Isaac

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