Written 3 Sep 2026. This is a how-to, not a product card.

When ads come back

Ads are back, sites won't load, or a phone still shows banners after you pointed the house at Pi-hole. Check the computer, the ad block, the router DNS, then the phone.

Haven't installed Pi-hole yet? Start with the first useful thing. Need the computer's address first? Find it on the house network. This note is the short walk when something that used to work stopped.

Skip until you have a computer that stays on

If you don't have an old PC or laptop left on for the house yet, that is your first weekend. This note assumes you already have a computer answering on the house network, with Pi-hole as the house name lookup.

What this is

A short checklist. Ads coming back usually means the house stopped asking the computer for names, Pi-hole stopped answering, or one phone kept the old DNS. You don't need a new router for this. You don't need a Raspberry Pi.

Is the computer still on?

From a laptop on the house Wi-Fi, ping the computer's address. Or open SSH the way you usually do. If ping fails and SSH hangs, start with is the computer still on? Plug it in. Wake it. Don't buy anything yet.

From your laptop:

ping -c 3 192.168.1.50

Swap in the real address. If you don't know it, find it on the house network.

Is Pi-hole still running?

SSH into the computer, then:

pihole status

Or if that command is missing:

sudo systemctl is-active pihole-FTL

You want active / listening. If it is not, restart it:

sudo systemctl restart pihole-FTL

Then open the admin page in a browser, usually http://pi.hole/admin, or the computer's address plus /admin. Sites should load. A lot of the banners should not. A deeper pass is when ads come back, check the ad block.

Does the router still use the computer as DNS?

Router reboots often forget custom DNS. Log into the house router. Check LAN or DHCP DNS. Primary DNS should still be this computer's address. If it went back to automatic or the ISP, set it again: point the house at the ad block.

If names fail only on the computer itself, see which name server it is asking: see which name server the computer is using.

Did one phone keep the old DNS?

Phones sometimes keep a lease from before you changed the router. On that phone, forget the house Wi-Fi, then join again. Or toggle airplane mode. Or renew the DHCP lease in the Wi-Fi details if the phone shows that. Then browse a site that used to show ads.

What this is not

This is not a reason to buy a mesh kit, a new router, or a Raspberry Pi. It is not a reason to open Pi-hole to the internet. It is a look at four common failure points: power, the ad block process, router DNS, and a sticky phone lease.

What next

If the computer just rebooted, walk the three house jobs in after a reboot, check the computer still does its jobs. If you want a file share on this same computer later, that is a file share. Leave the ad block alone for a week when it works again.

Skip

• Skip buying a new router for this.
• Skip buying a Raspberry Pi “because Pi-hole.”
• Skip a mesh kit for ad block.
• Skip exposing Pi-hole to the internet.
• Skip Unbound on day one.