1.1
Start with an incident: choose your route
8 min
1.2
Before setup: permission, managed devices and privacy
8 min
Course · Beginner · Raspberry Pi
Pi-hole for your home office: decide, test and recover
Start with a failed sign-in and decide what the evidence supports. Take a short no-hardware route, or continue with a reversible personal-device deployment. Optional build lessons and advanced workshops preserve the full technical reference without making every topic a prerequisite.
62 lessons
⏱ 14 h 17 min total
🏆 19 chapters
Updated about 21 hours ago
PriceFree · part of Little Bird
LevelBeginner
PaceUnderstand and decide: approximately 50–60 minutes, with optional foundations. Practical work: several sessions plus the build branch if needed. Advanced workshops are selected individually.
HardwareRaspberry Pi
Course outline
What you'll learn
✓
Decide whether a Pi-hole trial is appropriate, given device ownership, privacy and evidence limits
✓
Explain DNS, caching and DHCP using a request-and-response trace
✓
Prepare or verify a Pi-hole service and demonstrate one authorised client DNS path
✓
Apply and troubleshoot a narrowly scoped domain or client policy
✓
Verify local names and justify IPv4, IPv6 or DHCP changes when needed
✓
Back up, update, recover and diagnose a Pi-hole installation
✓
Demonstrate and hand over a reversible home-office test; extend to shared networks only with authority
Course content
2.1
Networking from zero: devices, addresses and routers
15 min
2.2
What is DNS? Names, addresses and answers
15 min
2.3
What is DHCP? Settings, leases and reservations
15 min
3.1
Follow a DNS request
8 min
3.2
Watch a DNS cache age
8 min
3.3
Decide from a DNS evidence pack
12 min
4.1
Read a real DNS answer
12 min
4.2
Point one test device at Pi-hole
15 min
4.3
Make a narrow rule and undo it
15 min
4.4
Use logs as evidence, not a browsing history
10 min
5.1
Find the failing layer
8 min
5.2
Diagnose the failing layer
15 min
5.3
Restore a broken service with a narrow exception
12 min
6.1
Choose what logs reveal
8 min
6.2
Choose logging deliberately
12 min
6.3
Create a backup you can explain
15 min
6.4
Update with a baseline and a recovery plan
15 min
6.5
Design DNS resilience
8 min
6.6
Recover from an outage and retire cleanly
12 min
7.1
Home-office challenge: trace, test and recover
30 min
7.2
Hand over a maintainable service
10 min
8.1
Find and use the official instructions
8 min
8.2
Prepare the card and boot your Pi
20 min
8.3
Use the terminal: navigate, read and recover
25 min
8.4
Give the DNS server a stable address
15 min
8.5
Check readiness before installation
15 min
9.1
Download and run the official installer
20 min
9.2
Make each installer choice with confidence
20 min
9.3
Open the dashboard and find your bearings
12 min
10.1
Explain a blocking decision
8 min
10.2
Maintain lists without collecting problems
12 min
10.3
Give clients different policies
8 min
10.4
Apply different policies to different devices
15 min
11.1
Give a local device a name
8 min
11.2
Name a local printer or service
15 min
11.3
Build a DHCP lease
8 min
11.4
Hand DHCP to Pi-hole only when needed
20 min
12.1
Move from one client to a controlled rollout
15 min
12.2
Find paths that bypass your DNS policy
12 min
12.3
Advanced challenge: administer a shared workspace
30 min
13.1
Validation is not encryption
8 min
13.2
Validate answers without confusing encryption
12 min
13.3
Plan a local recursive resolver
20 min
13.4
Choose an upstream and understand encrypted DNS
15 min
14.1
Understand FTL and make one controlled change
15 min
14.2
Read blocking answers and cache behaviour
15 min
14.3
Keep time and secure the web interface
15 min
15.1
Build a regex rule with a counterexample
15 min
15.2
Understand query data, policy data and recovery
15 min
16.1
Design a persistent container deployment
15 min
16.2
Rehearse a container upgrade and v5 migration
15 min
17.1
Extend administration without exposing it publicly
15 min
17.2
Automate one action with a clear recovery path
15 min
17.3
Plan Pi-hole access through WireGuard
15 min
18.1
Collect the smallest useful diagnostic evidence
15 min
18.2
Evaluate performance and specialist privacy claims
15 min
19.1
Find an advanced workshop by topic or symptom
5 min
19.2
Use the right guide for your router
15 min
19.3
Get help and contribute a useful improvement
15 min
19.4
Find every official documentation topic
15 min
Before you start
A browser and a question you want to answer
The Understand and decide route needs no Raspberry Pi, account with network privileges, or changes to your devices.
Required
For the practical route: a personal test device and explicit permission
Use a Pi-hole installation you may administer. For a new build, add a Raspberry Pi computer, suitable power, spare microSD and a computer to prepare it. Keep managed work-device controls unchanged.
Optional
For shared-network workshops: authority and a recovery plan
Agree client scope, privacy, reachability, ownership and rollback before changing services used by other people.
Optional
Questions people ask
Can I benefit without a Raspberry Pi?
Yes. The Understand and decide route uses supplied evidence and interactive models. It establishes reasoning, not a deployed service. Hardware is needed only for the practical build and real-device tests.
Will this remove every advert?
No. DNS filtering works at domain level. Shared content/ad domains, cached answers and devices using other DNS resolvers limit what it can block.
Must Pi-hole provide DHCP?
No. Keep DHCP on your router for the core course. Pi-hole DHCP is an optional extension with a planned handover.
Are the network models controlling my Pi?
No. They explain behaviour. Your terminal and dashboard checks provide evidence from your own network.