Home network
Finished September 2026I set up Pi-hole and Tailscale so my phone uses the same DNS filter at home and away. I also used ADB to clean up a carrier-issued Android TV box.
Four Meta and X tracking domains kept showing up in my phone's DNS requests. My smart TV needed a few exceptions to keep its app store working. The Android TV box had a slow launcher and preinstalled apps I couldn't remove through Settings.
I run Pi-hole in Docker on an Ubuntu mini PC. I gave the TV its own group, so its app store exceptions don't apply to my phone. Tailscale points my phone to Pi-hole on cellular and other Wi-Fi networks. I use Tailscale Serve for HTTPS access to an internal service without opening router ports. On the TV box, I used network ADB to disable unwanted apps, shorten animations, and change the launcher.
The Pi-hole query log showed all four target domains blocked for my phone. The launcher took more digging: Android accepted the new home setting, but the old screen kept returning. In logcat, I found a uid 0 process starting the old launcher by component name. Disabling that package stopped the override.
Some of the box stayed out of reach without root, like its protected system overlays. I also wanted a remote shortcut that jumps straight to a channel, but the vendor's player has no public way to tune by intent. I decompiled it to confirm, and that one's still open.
PI-HOLE / PHONE QUERY LOG
connect.facebook.net → BLOCKEDan.facebook.com → BLOCKEDstatic.ads-twitter.com → BLOCKEDanalytics.twitter.com → BLOCKEDPhone DNS: Pi-hole over TailscaleDetails
Configs available on request.