pi-hole - awful name, great product!

Advertised as "A Black Hole for Internet Advertisements" pi-hole (https://pi-hole.net/) goes a long way to living up to this reputation.

What is it?

pi-hole is a domain name server that can be installed with one command onto a Linux box or Raspberry Pi running Raspbian or similar. Once this is done, an update to your site's DNS records and all queries get pushed through the pi-hole, blocked as appropriate and then sent out to the world.

We are running it on an Ubuntu 14.04LTS virtual server, with 1GB of RAM and a single vCPU - and the DNS response time is quite acceptable. A tiny server will run this software quite easily.

Why use it?

If I'm looking at websites and browsing around, typically I'm not just getting my content that I want - there's a bit more sneaking through. Ads! Most sites will use advertisements to make money and I have no problem with this. My issue usually stems from having too many of the damn things popping up and chewing up resources like bandwidth and screen space. That's where pi-hole fits into the picture. Currently it's blocking over 100,000 different sites. We've noticed an improvement in web page speed and in testing - by going to www.news.com.au , we found that there was quite a few domains blocked.

Here is an example of our office's information from this morning (midnight to noon)

5% of our queries blocked! That's a reasonable amount of traffic in a 5 person (at the moment) office. Imagine if it were 100 people or more?! The amount of DNS requests and the traffic would drop considerably.

Additionally, pi-hole has provided some protection from malicious attacks via dodgy websites - these seem to get blocked as well and the additional safety is great to have - particularly when the cost is virtually nil. Combine it with OpenDNS as the relay (the next step in the DNS resolution trail) and the possibilities for controlling your DNS with a high degree become more realised.

We've been happy with our little pi-hole (oh that name is dodgy). Try it out :-)

Why I won't use MelbourneIT for domains any more

Recently I have had three new clients come to our company for IT support. Each one uses MelbourneIT's domain name services - MelbourneIT hosts the domain name, the registry of that name and the web sites. In all three cases I've needed to make changes to DNS records and have been unable to get usernames and passwords for the managed services from MelbourneIT, despite having the authorised users available and requesting the changes themselves. Emails with reset account details have never arrived and after an estimated 3.5 hours on the phone I've given up. We'll set the DNS records up somewhere else and migrate the domain to a new registrar.

Poor customer service like this is not unusual in the IT world. Often a client will ask who to use for the domain names, where to host their DNS etc. I've always had very good experiences with Westnet and now with iiNET, reasonable experiences with Telstra on the Business Broadband and associated services and good experiences with Netregistry. While my company is a Telstra Fixed and Data dealer, I'm not personally involved in that part of the business and we don't resell any of the other companies services. I've used Netregistry personally for some years now, and I have my DNS hosted with Westnet still. Both organisations have been great to work with and I'm very pleased with the experiences I've had. I recommend them both to people I have as clients and friends. Contrast that with MelbourneIT's apparently poor customer service and I won't recommend them to anyone - not until I see a real improvement there.

I don't quite understand why so many companies - some with great products - skimp on customer service. Most of the time, the client is buying the sales chap or the customer service rep as much or more than the product in question. I always keep this in mind with my own clients - great customer service makes for sticky clients - they won't leave. Admitting mistakes can be seen as very detrimental, but I've always found that the admission, an apology and a plan for reparation have always been very positive. I've read too that in medical circles, some hospitals and doctors are apologising if things go wrong and people forgive them enough to drop law suits. That's a bit off topic, so I'll drag it back. The technical support staff I spoke to at MelbourneIT offered support but have failed to follow through and this is something that is now impacting on my relationship with the clients - they've started seeking a scapegoat for the things that aren't happening in a timely manner and unfortunately we IT people all get tarred with the same brush to a greater or lesser degree. It's been frustrating enough I'll take my business elsewhere and my clients too. Unfortunate for MelbourneIT but good for others.