Pressed into service

I've used a number of Raspberry Pi's of different specs for a number of things over recent years. A security camera system with three cameras, A Plex audio player for my dad. A VPN server to allow me to monitor stuff at their place including a camera they use to watch the bird table and other mini projects too.

Have had a Pi 4 B that No 2  son was using for some development and control of a 144 LED strip, but, he hasn't used that since he blew up the LED strip power supply. Actually, massively over-specified for the purpose. It did look good though. 

My eldest son told me about a Pi based DNS server and Ad-Blocker that he uses. It blocks the inordinate number of Ads served by many websites. So, that was todays project. The first step was to recover and then change the password. Thankfully, the Pi was running a desktop that ran at startup with auto login. 
Next, load the ad-blocker software - somewhat unfortunately called Pi-Hole. That went fine, but the system wouldn't start. That was traced to an Apache server that my son had loaded and which loaded at start-up. Stopped that service and started Pi-Hole. 
Still didn't work!
A number of exchanges with No 1 son and decided to remove and reload the software. It started immediately on reboot. 
Next is to reconfigure a couple of devices to point their DNS at the Pi and test. That immediately showed how much Ad related stuff is embedded in many websites, especially News websites. Ads now removed (amounting t 25% of requests issued), so it's now switch the router over to the Pi DNS server for everything to use it by default. All good. 

The downside is that one of Apples new services (Private Relay) for iPhones/iPads and MacBooks no longer works in conjunction with the Ad blocking service. That is quite a useful service as it hides your IP address from any sites that you use, so preventing your IP address from being 'sold' on to other less than scrupulous people out there, or even Apple. Apples Private Relay service is quite complex but still needs some reliance on some 'trusted' agency to provide the DNS resolution and IP obfuscation. Thankfully, it seems to recognise the incompatibility and switch itself off.

Now, onto cookies....