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

[JP Vossen via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On 10/21/26 12:44 PM, jeffv via plug 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?

We dropped Comcrap a long time ago when the started illegally encrypting PBS (~2013, I think).  We switched to:
1. A LEAF Antenna.
2. Connected to a 2 channel Ethernet tuner.
3. Talking to MythTV (set up in 2008 with much help from PLUG folks).
4. Using SchedulesDirect.org (now $35 per YEAR) for the program guide.

You need a lot of storage for the MythTV back-end.  I have some old hardware we could throw at it, but it's a tad power hungry.  Then you need 1+ front-end to watch.  An rPi4 works, but just barely.  An rPi5 is better.  (I am using and can demo both.).  Or any modern PC can run an FE.

I can dig up more details, for on or off list, if/when needed.  There are old details somewhere in the PLUG email archives too.

> 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 run my pi-hole in a VM on my 24x7 Proxmox, but as everyone else has said, any 24x7 node or container will work.  I love it, it's not 100% perfect, and it can cause "problems" with things you want that use evil tracking crap.  In particular, a few years ago it would cause the Roku PBS app to crash with no errors, because it couldn't connect to something (evil).  I haven't trued that in a long time, so now...?

I'm sure it would run fine on an rPi4, it would probably run on an rPi3, maybe there are cheap used ones floating around?  I'm running my Debian-13 stratum-0 NTP server on an rPi3 (was originally an rPi1), and that works great.

Good luck,
JP
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