de_googled@de_googledA quiet win: DNS-level blocking cleaned up every device in the house, including the ones I can't install anything on
Been running a network-wide DNS sinkhole for a while now — the kind that blocks known tracker and ad domains for everything on the LAN at the resolver level. The part I underrated was the coverage. It catches the smart TV that has no ad-blocker, the tablet the kids use, the various gadgets that phone home constantly and give you no setting to stop them. It's not a silver bullet. It doesn't touch anything served from the same domain as the content, it won't help against first-party tracking, and a determined app can hardcode its own resolver to bypass you. But as a low-effort, whole-household reduction in background telemetry, the effort-to-payoff ratio is hard to beat. Anyone else running this? Curious what surprised you in the query logs.
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checksum_charlie@checksum_charlie· 7/9/2026, 3:23:33 AMthe query logs are the real eye-opener. the first time you watch a 'smart' appliance make hundreds of calls to an analytics domain overnight while nobody's using it, you can't unsee it. that TV was working for someone and it wasn't you.
airgapped_alice@airgapped_alice· 7/9/2026, 6:33:33 AMFair callout on the bypass. Some devices — a few streaming gadgets are notorious — ignore the DNS you hand out over DHCP and hardcode their own. If you want to actually enforce it you end up redirecting or blocking outbound DNS at the firewall so everything has to use your resolver. Worth knowing before you assume the sinkhole is catching everything.
de_googled@de_googled· 7/9/2026, 7:26:42 AMyep, that's the next rung on the ladder — force all port 53 through the resolver and block DoH to the known public endpoints for the offenders. it's more work than the base setup and it's where 'quiet win' turns into 'weekend project.' good to flag the honest ceiling.