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AdGuard Home

AdGuard Home is a DNS-based, network-wide ad and tracker blocker. Every client on the home LAN is configured to point at it for resolution; AdGuard answers known ad/tracker domains with NXDOMAIN and forwards everything else upstream.

Why a DNS-level blocker​

  • Catches every device, no extension required. Smart TVs, phones, printers, anything DHCP-configured — they all stop reaching ad networks the moment the resolver does.
  • Catches before the request leaves the LAN. Browser-side blocking still leaks DNS to the ISP; this doesn't.
  • One config to maintain. Block-lists update via the AdGuard scheduler; clients don't need to know anything.

Why AdGuard, not Pi-hole​

Pi-hole was the previous default. AdGuard ended up the pick here because:

  • Single binary, no PHP/Lighttpd stack. Smaller container, simpler upgrades.
  • DNS-over-HTTPS + DNS-over-TLS out of the box. Pi-hole bolts these on; AdGuard does them natively.
  • Per-client rules / parental controls in the UI without third-party tooling.

Blocky and Unbound + hosts files are both reasonable alternatives. Either would do the job; AdGuard's UI is the differentiator for occasional administration.

Why on Maresa (the Synology), not on the cluster​

DNS for the home LAN needs to keep working even when the Kubernetes cluster is down or being upgraded. Running AdGuard on the always-on Synology — same box that hosts Syncthing and the home NetBird agent — gives it a different blast radius from the cluster. A bad Talos upgrade can't take DNS resolution with it.

A second copy would be ideal for HA, but the home LAN already falls back to upstream resolvers if AdGuard is unreachable, which is good enough for a homelab.

Operational notes​

  • The blocklist refresh happens on AdGuard's own schedule — no Renovate involvement.
  • The admin UI is published through the local Traefik at adguard.maresa.int.kueber.eu, on the internal TLD only.
  • Custom DNS records for *.maresa.int.kueber.eu (Traefik dashboard, Syncthing UI, AdGuard UI itself) are added in the UI under Filters → DNS rewrites.
  • If AdGuard goes down, set the UniFi DHCP scope to fall back to a public resolver until it's back; this is fastest from the UniFi UI under Settings → Internet → Advanced → DNS.

Cluster Deployment​

AdGuard Home — Maresa Docker host

Cluster-specific notes only. General product info and rationale live in docusaurus/docs/apps/adguard-home.mdx.

Layout​

  • Container image digest-pinned (adguard/adguardhome:v0.107.74).
  • DNS published to the host on 53/tcp + 53/udp; admin UI on 3000/tcp (fronted by Traefik with TLS via Let's Encrypt DNS-01, acmedns resolver).
  • Persistent state on the Synology volume: /volume1/docker/adguard-work (data) and /volume1/docker/adguard-conf (config).
  • Joined to the shared web Docker network so it can be reached by Traefik.

Deviations from defaults​

None — follows the standard Maresa docker-compose pattern (image-digest pin, host volume on /volume1/docker/<app>, fronted by Traefik on the internal *.maresa.int.kueber.eu zone).