What Is AdGuard Home?

AdGuard Home is a free, open-source network-wide DNS filtering server. Once installed on a device inside your home network — a Raspberry Pi, an old PC, a NAS, or even a VPS — it intercepts every DNS query made by every device on your network and blocks requests to known ad-serving, tracking, and malware domains.

Unlike browser extensions that only block ads in one browser, AdGuard Home works at the network level, protecting every device: phones, smart TVs, game consoles, and IoT gadgets included.

What You'll Need

  • A device to run AdGuard Home (Raspberry Pi 3/4, Linux PC, Windows PC, Docker container, or NAS)
  • A local IP address reserved for that device (via your router's DHCP settings)
  • About 30 minutes

Step 1: Download and Install AdGuard Home

Visit the official AdGuard Home GitHub releases page and download the appropriate binary for your operating system. For Linux (e.g., Raspberry Pi):

  1. Download the AdGuardHome_linux_arm.tar.gz archive.
  2. Extract it: tar -xvzf AdGuardHome_linux_arm.tar.gz
  3. Navigate into the folder: cd AdGuardHome
  4. Run the installer: sudo ./AdGuardHome -s install

AdGuard Home will install itself as a system service and start automatically on boot.

Step 2: Run the Initial Setup Wizard

Open a browser and navigate to http://<your-device-IP>:3000. You'll be greeted by a friendly setup wizard that walks you through:

  • Choosing the network interface to listen on
  • Setting the DNS and web interface ports (defaults: 53 and 80)
  • Creating an admin username and password

After the wizard completes, the web dashboard will be available at http://<your-device-IP>.

Step 3: Point Your Router to AdGuard Home

This is the key step that makes AdGuard Home network-wide. Log into your router's admin panel and find the DHCP settings. Set the Primary DNS to your AdGuard Home device's local IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.10). Set the secondary to a fallback like 1.1.1.1.

All devices that receive their IP via DHCP will now use AdGuard Home for DNS resolution.

Step 4: Add Blocklists

Out of the box, AdGuard Home includes a default blocklist, but you can add more. Navigate to Filters → DNS Blocklists → Add Blocklist. Popular choices include:

  • AdGuard DNS filter — general ads and trackers
  • EasyList — widely-used ad filter
  • Steven Black Hosts — ads, malware, social trackers
  • OISD — comprehensive, low false-positive list

Step 5: Configure Upstream DNS

In Settings → DNS Settings, choose your upstream DNS provider — the server AdGuard Home forwards non-blocked queries to. Good privacy-respecting options include:

  • Cloudflare: https://dns.cloudflare.com/dns-query (DoH)
  • Quad9: https://dns.quad9.net/dns-query (DoH)
  • NextDNS: your personal DoH endpoint

Verifying It Works

Visit adguard.com/adguard-home's built-in query log or go to a site like ads-blocker.com/testing to confirm ads are being blocked. You should see blocked queries appearing in the AdGuard Home dashboard in real time.

Summary

AdGuard Home is one of the most capable self-hosted DNS filtering solutions available. With a one-time setup, you get network-wide ad blocking, tracker protection, and malware domain filtering for every device in your home — all controlled from a clean web dashboard.