#raspberry Pi

[unbfacts]

In 2016, a Comcast user frustrated with slow internet used a Raspberry Pi to tweet Comcast every hour. The bot checked speeds, and if they dropped below what was promised, it sent an automated tweet showing the results directly to Comcast.

[talos-stims]

the computer blade | source

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[internetc00kie]

Clockwork uConsole CM4

[dragonfly7022003]

DNS Raspberry Pi hole

The amount of traffic on a network has always fascinated me. I know when you set up a new Windows PC on of the first things it dose is send out a message looking for anything out their. Looking to connect and discover what kind of network its on and where it can go.

This is neat and all, but it leads to a few other things. Watching my network, using Wireshark I cant but help and see all the things trying to get into my network. This is normal, but what got me was the amount trying to get out of my network.

Now I am not talking about the normal request, like when you use Youtube, or any website. I am taking about my smart TV sending messages out. My kids tablet, sending packets out when its in sleep mode. Worst of all my ISP keeps sending packets back and forth, that have nothing to do with my internet.

Inside all of these packets is nothing but information on me and my family. Our watching habits, things we like. All being sent to advertisers. Well I needed to put a stop to this.

So I did some looking around and found out about Pihole. Its a DNS server set up by a group of people who had the same problem I had. So they set up this DNS server that runs on a Raspberry Pi.

Well after some research, I had to have this and I found a very good guide to set things up.

After following along. Soon everything was set up and I was already seeing results. All those pesky packets stopped, in the GUI I can see everything that was being blocked and everything that was getting through. The only thing I wish it would do is block the adds on Youtube, but that would mean blocking all of Youtube as they send the adds through there domain.

So yes I would recommend this, if you have a raspberry pi laying around.

[coredumpproject]

"The next time I design something, I'll leave extra room for wiring.", I lied to myself the last time I designed something.

Just a few more components to jam into my new handheld computer before I can wire it!

I call it the 'Grenade', because it looks a bit like a Grenade when you're holding it.

[blazehedgehog]

This is really impressive. Dude basically built an entire retro-style cable TV network into a raspberry pi. It handles everything: proper scheduling, channel guides, ad breaks, station IDs, the whole shebang.

Not only that, but he built it with such specificity that you can have not only seasonal programming (sports at certain times of years, or holiday movies), but even content-appropriate ads: beer commercials during football, or 1-900 numbers during late night programming. He also mentions setting up several cartoon channels that either switch to retro syndicated TV (Nick at Nite) or adult oriented cartoons (Adult Swim) after 6pm.

A RetroPi for emulators is interesting but I feel like if I ever get a Raspberry Pi, I'd want to do something like this with it. I'm just left wondering:

Are all channels simultaneously active all the time? I suppose if you're stringent about everything being a specific length (for scheduling) it wouldn't be that hard to just calculate how far past the hour you were and join a program already in progress, I'm mainly just worried about how often this thing is hitting the SD card and whether too many channels could overload the Pi.

I feel like adbreaks are going to be the biggest problem. Going by the video, it looks like ad breaks are evenly spaced out and probably completely automated. That's not always how TV was structured, and I worry it could splice in an ad break in the middle of dialog or an important scene. If it were me, I'd probably set a "we need a commercial break" flag and look for when a show goes quiet and fades to black for longer than, I dunno, half a second.

The github page implies that it does kind of pick shows at random. I'm sure if he built in specific times of day and seasonal content you could just build out detailed programming blocks (X-Files on Friday night at 8pm, every Friday) but I wonder how much randomness is built into this system. From a structure standpoint it feels like it would be easy to throw an entire series at this thing and have it build out specific time slots and rotate through programming, in order, automatically. Maybe it does, if he has a guide channel, since it would have to know what's coming up next. I just don't want things playing out of order.

It's stressed that this is still early yet, and not exactly user friendly to set up, but man. I am fascinated and want one really badly now.

[sucka99]

[unbenchthekench]

Got any good resources on setting up pihole? (competence level: generally high, but unfamiliar with raspberry pi)

So this won’t be a comprehensive guide because I am dumb as fuck. But if a smoothbrain like me can figure it out and have a pihole ready to go, then any one can.

My main resource I used were these guides from Tom’s Hardware and Privacy international. The offical Pi-Hole site also has a damn good guide to help you get set up from what you need to what to do.

What you need first is a Raspberry Pi with at least 512 MB of RAM, which all of them have. You can buy one from here or you can check out Raspberrypi.com for where to buy the different Pi’s.

Then you need an SD Card that is at least 2GB large to hold the OS, make sure you have all the cords and cables as well. And personally I like having my Pi in a case just so it looks nice. Whatever Pi you get make sure you check what cables it needs to work. Like the Raspberry Pi 4 I linked needs Microsoft HDMI to output video.

Once you have those basics set up and you have your pihole up and running, you can set up your blacklists. You can use the default one, but personally I like the one provided by the guys at Firebog. They have a LOT of amazing blacklists. From blocking purely ads. To ads and trackers. To even going as far as blocking Adult sites and such. There is a lot of customization you can do with your blacklists it’s amazing. Just, don’t expect it to block ads on youtube as those are hosted on the site itself.

Piholes are very set it and forget it, but make sure you are very thorough when setting one up. Because missing one step is such a headache to deal with. I also highly recommend, when it asks if you want to set up the web server, that you do. It allows you to see the traffic of what was blocked what was allowed, and update your lists and such from your web browser on your computer or phone.

Oh also, when you are setting up your pi-hole. Make sure you select to EITHER have it use Ethernet OR Wifi, NOT BOTH. That was a mistake I made. It used both, and got stuck and confused and wasn’t able to work at all. Once I deactivated the wifi and let it use only Ethernet, then it was good to go. And when you are selecting which PiHole OS you want to run, I HIGHLY recommend going with the Lite version. It’s purely Commandline OS, so it is super light and can run on anything. The GUI OS also works well but if you’re running it off of a weaker Raspberry Pi, it will be very laggy and an absolute bitch to do anything on.

So yeah, pi holes are a bit of a pain to set up, but once you are good, you are GOOD.

Good luck, and report back if you had success or need any help. My dms are open and I will do the best I can to help however I can.

[oldguydoesstuff]

Abandoned project to create a little mini theater using an old HP plotter and electromagnet connected to a raspberry pi. (Old Guy does stuff but doesn't always finish them.)

[arctic-hands]

[Video Description: hands typing on a rainbow-lit clicky clacky keyboard, resting on the bottom half of an open black faux-leather clutch, the top half of which has a 4 inch-ish white e-paper screen and a Raspberry Pi module plugged into it. The keys clack and flash as they're typed, and the camera zooms in on the screen where it says "hello happy pi day!!! :D", as an excited and silly-deep voice offscreen says "It works!" End V.D]

I finally have q new-fangled typing machine! A ZeroWriter RasPi compiled together in a freebie handbag that one could say...came thru in a clutch...?

[weirdchristmas]

I think I finally found a solution to a lot of my problems with posting the cards each year. Raspberry Pi might be coming to the rescue if I can get two APIs set up exactly like I want. Can't find a service that does what you want? Make your own!

[smashorpassobjects2]

[opendirectories]

[internetc00kie]

Clockwork uConsole CM4