Block ALL ads with this…(and speed up your internet)

NetworkChuck Technology Careers Career & Money

About this video

Chuck explains and installs AdGuard Home, a free self-hosted DNS server that blocks ads for an entire network rather than per browser. Using Wireshark, he shows that loading one page triggers DNS lookups not just for the site but for many ad servers; AdGuard Home acts as a DNS sinkhole, answering ad-domain queries with 0.0.0.0 so the ads never load. Beyond ads, he pitches privacy and control: by default your ISP’s DNS lets the provider see every site you visit, while running your own resolver — with encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS queries to upstream providers — takes that visibility back, and lets you block categories or services for kids. The install is a one-command script on a Raspberry Pi (set up headless via the Raspberry Pi Imager with SSH enabled), in the cloud, or via Docker; the web setup runs on port 3000. The critical step is making devices use it: set the AdGuard server’s address as the DNS handed out by your router’s DHCP settings, and pin the server’s own IP with a DHCP reservation so it never changes — noting leases can take about 24 hours to roll over. He then tours upgrades: extending statistics retention to 90 days, choosing upstream resolvers that support DNSSEC (which verifies responses against poisoning) such as Quad9, Google, and Cloudflare, enabling DNSSEC, adding extra blocklists beyond the built-in filter’s roughly 48,000 rules, per-client policies, DNS rewrites for friendly local names, service blocking, and the query log. (The video also carries sponsor reads for ITProTV.)

Key takeaways

AdGuard Home blocks ads network-wide at the DNS level: ad domains resolve to 0.0.0.0 (a sinkhole), so every device on the network benefits without extensions
Running your own DNS is also a privacy move — otherwise your ISP sees every lookup; AdGuard encrypts upstream queries with DNS-over-HTTPS
Install takes one script command on a Pi, a cloud VM, or Docker; setup is via a web UI on port 3000
Deployment details that matter: point your router’s DHCP DNS setting at the AdGuard box and give that box a reserved/static IP, or clients will lose it
Power features: add blocklists beyond the built-in ~48,000-rule filter, enable DNSSEC with resolvers like Quad9/Google/Cloudflare, set per-client rules, DNS rewrites, and service blocking

Episode details: published November 7, 2022 · 13:12 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are NetworkChuck’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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