March 4, 2020

From Gerald R. Lucas

Pi-hole!

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I did it! I ordered a Raspberry Pi for a new installation of Pi-hole, and I’m pretty excited. It’s that school-boy giddiness that I get whenever I’m about to have new hardware to play with. And the best thing about this: the CanaKit kit I ordered (Amazon affiliate[1]) only costs sightly over $100. Of course I had to have the MAX.

I’m pretty amazed with this golden age of hardware. I remember the huge boxes and monitors we used to play with, like a SPARC 20—my all-time favorite—and its huge monitor. This was a cool machine, but I bet the Raspberry Pi I just ordered is better in every way—the least of which is its diminutive size.

My first project—probably for tomorrow, or this weekend at the latest—will be to get Pi-hole working. I forgot to bring home my USB keyboard and mouse, but it looks as if I can install Raspbian headless, then access and configure via SSH.

I’m psyched to have a Linux box again—something that I can access and configure via the command line. Yes, I like my Synology NAS, but I think I prefer to be able to use my server however I want, and the Synology has always seemed a bit limiting. I’ll probably put SyncThing on my new Raspberry Pi, too. In fact, it might replace NextCloud—something that just seems glitchy compared to SyncThing. Can you tell I can’t wait to play?

Note

  1. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases; links to Amazon contain my associate ID. All revenue earned goes to support the costs associated with maintaining this web site.