Pi-Hole Summary
The Pi 5-50-5 Vault | Obsidian Garden
Role: Primary Network Resolver, DHCP Authority, and Security Perimeter.
"The Network Sentinel node (Pi-hole) is not just an ad-blocker; it is the logic-layer of my infrastructure. It bridges the gap between public DDNS hostnames and my internal Nginx security gateway, so that every service—from the 5-50-5 RAID to the NVR system—is accessible through a single, encrypted entry point.".
Core Functions
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Recursive DNS Resolver: Acts as the "phonebook" for the network, resolving all internal and external queries.
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DHCP IPAM: Manages dynamic IP assignments and maintains static reservations for core infrastructure (RAID, NVR, Proxy).
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Telemetry Blackhole: Network-wide advertisement and tracker blocking at the DNS level, improving privacy and bandwidth efficiency.
Hardening & Protocols
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DNSSEC: Cryptographic validation of DNS responses to prevent "Man-in-the-Middle" attacks.
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Split-Horizon Architecture: Uses
dnsmasqto intercept requests for public DDNS domains, keeping traffic on the local high-speed LAN. -
Privacy Hardening: Configured to exclude Extended Client Subnet (ECS) data, preventing internal network leakage to upstream providers like Quad9 and Cloudflare.
Performance Impact
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Latency Reduction: Local DNS caching allows for near-instant resolution for frequently visited domains.
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Zero Overhead: Native installation on Raspberry Pi hardware to maximize CPU and RAM efficiency for networking tasks.