Pi-hole

Pi-hole works by becoming your network's DNS server. When any device asks for the address of a known ad or tracking domain, Pi-hole simply refuses to answer, so the ad never loads. Because this happens at the DNS level, it protects every device on your network automatically — phones, smart TVs, laptops and IoT gadgets — with no client software to install on each one.

Beyond blocking, Pi-hole gives you a genuinely useful window into your network: a dashboard showing exactly which domains your devices contact and how often, which is eye-opening the first time you see how chatty a smart TV really is. You can maintain custom blocklists and allowlists, and use it to serve local DNS records so your services get friendly names like nas.home instead of IP addresses.

To get network-wide coverage, point your router's DHCP settings at the Pi-hole so every device uses it. It is famously light — a Raspberry Pi or a small container is plenty. It cannot block ads baked into video streams (like YouTube's), and aggressive lists can occasionally break a site, so keep the allowlist handy. For encrypted upstream DNS and a more modern UI, compare it with AdGuard Home.