What AdGuard Home is
AdGuard Home is a network-wide DNS sinkhole that blocks ads, trackers, malware domains and phishing sites at the DNS level before they ever reach any device on your network. It works like Pi-hole but with a more modern interface, built-in DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS support, per-client filtering rules and a powerful query log.
Screenshot evidence
Because it operates at DNS level, it blocks ads and trackers across every device on the network — phones, tablets, smart TVs, IoT devices — without installing anything on each individual device.
Why I run it
I run AdGuard Home as the primary DNS resolver for the entire lab and household network. pfSense is configured to direct all DNS queries through AdGuard Home, so every device — including ones I cannot install an ad blocker on (smart TVs, IoT devices, game consoles) — gets filtered DNS automatically.
It also serves as a key component of the family policy controls: I use per-client rules to apply different filtering levels for different users, and combined with pfSense DNS redirection, devices cannot bypass it by hardcoding an external DNS server like 8.8.8.8.
What I have done with it
- Deployed AdGuard Home as an LXC container on Proxmox
- Configured pfSense to redirect all DNS traffic (port 53) through AdGuard Home
- Blocked DNS bypass attempts where devices hardcode Google or Cloudflare DNS
- Set up per-client filtering rules for different household members
- Enabled DNS-over-HTTPS upstream to prevent ISP DNS snooping
- Integrated with the family Linux policy controls for child-appropriate browsing
What this gives you
Network-wide privacy and ad blocking that works on every device without per-device configuration, combined with granular per-user controls and DNS security — all running locally with no external service dependency.