FAQ

What is AdHole Project?

AdHole is NOT a VPN. It is proudly using PiHole to enable ad blocking wherever you go. Wireguard is used to ensure your privacy and to enable us to have the least amount of information possible on you as a user. We can only see if you are connected to our server, or not. That’s it.

AdHole Project was created as a alternative to other free/paid DNS blockers that couldn’t provide the level of control that we wanted. Firstly it was a hobby project to remove ads in our home network using PiHole, but the problem was that ads would still show up when not connected to home network. That triggered a search for a solution that would offer same level of control and functionality, but on the go. First setup was rather cumbersome, but it quickly evolved to much more streamlined experience. It’s an endless game of cat and mouse with ad servers and ad blockers.

Can AdHole see what I browse?

No, it can’t. To be fully transparent, only your DNS request is routed through our servers, nothing else. You wish to go to youtube.com, your device will ask our server for IP address of youtube.com, and after our server responds, that’s it. What you watch is never routed trough our servers. Additionally, PiHole is setup as level 3 privacy protection, meaning we can only see if you are connected to our server, or not. No queries are logged or stored.

Quickly on DNS blocking

DNS (Domain Name System) ad blockers work like a “bouncer” for your internet connection. Instead of waiting for an ad to load in your browser and then hiding it, they prevent your device from even finding the address of the ad server in the first place.

Here is a FAQ to help you understand how they work and why you might use one.

1. How does a DNS ad blocker actually work?

Think of DNS as the internet’s phonebook. When you visit a site, your device asks a DNS server for the site’s “phone number” (IP address). A DNS ad blocker uses a massive “blacklist” of known ad and tracker domains. If your device tries to call an ad server, the DNS blocker simply says “number not found” or points it to a dead end. Because your device never gets the address, the ad never starts downloading.

2. Can it block ads inside apps and on Smart TVs?

Yes. This is the biggest advantage over traditional browser extensions. Since the blocking happens at the network level, it works for:

3. Will it block YouTube or Facebook ads?

Usually not. This is a common point of confusion. Services like YouTube and Facebook serve their ads from the same domain as their videos and posts (e.g., youtube.com). If a DNS blocker blocked the “ad” domain, it would break the entire website. To block these, you still need a browser-based extension (like uBlock Origin) that can “see” inside the webpage’s code.

4. Does it make my internet faster or save data?

Yes. Because the ads are blocked before they even begin to download, your device saves the bandwidth it would have spent fetching those images and videos. This can lead to: