After almost 5 years, it’s time to say goodbye; Adhole.org is shutting down. Time wise it has become too much of a burden for me to continue.

What started as a small single-node Pi-hole instance on a public VPS back in 2017, grew out to become a worldwide multi-node adblocking DNS network with thousands of concurrent users around the globe… but that also meant more server load, which meant upgrading servers, more incident (reports) and as such more work. In other words; the project has become a victim of its own success. The current setup is pestered with continuous stability issues along with (recently introduced) certificate issues and repeatedly changing IP addresses. And since no-one likes an unstable DNS, because as all sysadmins know; ‘it’s always DNS’, I decided to pull the plug.

I would like to thank VM Specialist, Nexus Bytes, Misaka and HostUS for sponsoring nodes, my fellow Patrons Stephen S. and Kevin F. for their continued support over the past years, as well as all the fans out there that reached out to me with improvements or in case something was broken. If you’re looking for an alternative ad-blocking DNS resolver, please check out this list on reddit.

Since the endpoints even made it into XDA articles, I will make sure to keep the domain registered and under my control for the next year, to prevent adhole.org from being abused by DNS hijackers/spoofers.

Thanks and stay safe!