Cheapest DietPiHole Solution

General Discussion
1

Hi,

AdBlockers have been disappointing me recently :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

And now where the list of DietPi supported devices has grown significantly, i would like to know what is the cheapest SBC to buy which has DietPi and PiHole support and has an Ethernet Port.

The Community of that SBC is irrelevant to me as the SBC’s sole purpose will be to block ads using PiHole. No other application will be installed on it and it won’t be used for anything else!

Another thing that needs to be taken into consideration is that it will run 24/7 so it should be “durable”.

Thank You

Regards

2

I’ve not done a full comparison but I have a nano pi neo on order for exactly the same reason (ad blocking).

The board, a heatsink and postage came in at ÂŁ20

There are some small orange pi boards too but they look more heavily specced so I’m assuming will cost more?

Edit: Orange Pi might be cheaper: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Orange-Pi-Zero-H2-Quad-Core-Open-source-512MB-development-board-beyond-Raspberry-Pi/1553371_32761500374.html?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.HDGTzR $13 with postage but the catch is the power supply isn’t on micro USB so you might have to spring extra for a PS with a pin out put on it.

3

I’ve thought about raspi zero with ethernet adapter + PoE should be fine but, a bit difficult for those are not able to solder

check this out :sunglasses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RpNAul9S0E

I think Orange pi zero could be the best option for beginners

4

PiHole works on all DietPi devices.

I’d personally avoid the RPi Zero, due to latency with USB. Will delay website load times (dns resolves).

The NanoPi Neo is a good budget choice, but ideally, if your on a 1gbit network, you should aim for a device that has 1Gbit ethernet for maximum throughput and reduced latency.
Problem with 1Gbit is it brings price upto Odroid C1/OPi plus level.

5

NanoPi M2 is a great board with 1Gbit eth, but it does need a heatsink:
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=107
$25

6

Aside from the DNS request and lookup, how much data goes through pi-hole? (I appreciate that better is better and there are probably other reasons why a faster ethernet socket provides benefits but just got me wondering).

7

As far as i’am aware, it receives and sends DNS requests. So actual size of data should be really small, probably sent as a char with 1 byte for each character, minus any additional vars for confirmation and overheads from network packet.
eg (really cut back version lol):

  • client = I want to access google.com
  • dnsmasq = Here it is 123.111.231.123
  • client = ta

At a guess, each dns request = 16bytes for address, maybe a few int’s for confirmation (lets say 2x int = 4bytes). 20 bytes, not including network packet.

PiHole (dnsmasq) also caches DNS requests as they are recieved, so it can actually reduce DNS request times and improve overall browsing speed for connected clients.

The main issue is adding latency to this. A RPi (due to USB <> Ethernet bus) or a USB network dongle will increase latency by 8ms (125hz polling rate), possibly in both receive and send. So, minus any CPU process, +16ms additional delay for each dns request. Depending on the USB dongle used, latency can actually be much worse than +16ms.

EDIT: was miles off with latency.

8

Thanx a lot for your Input guys!

I am only on a mere 10 MBit connection :blush:

I didn’t know about the latency Problem with Raspbery Pi Zero. Thanks for the clarification.

I will decide between NanoPi Neo and NanoPi M1. need to look further into the specs.

Regards

9

Banana Pi M1 is an older device now but has GB LAN and SATA - I have just started using it for pihole and it works fine.

10

My Nano Pi Neo turned up today, it’s about the cutest thing this side of kitten land. :ugeek:

I got it with the (required) heatsink and the dinky little case for it, a very straightforward install - just loaded the image, plugged it all in, fixed its IP from the router and stuck Pi Hole on it away we go. The only tweak I did was to fix the ethernet setting in dietpi.txt to 100 as that’s the rate of the socket, not sure if it makes any difference but hey :wink:

I’m not noticing any slowdown from the regular router only setup so big thumbs up from me!

11

Yep, their cute alright lol :slight_smile:. Just wish it had a 1GBit eth, then it would be more awesome :slight_smile:

Yep, no need to set that value, its only to force a specific “down speed”. Mainly used for some Pine A64 boards that have a hardware failure under 1GBit.