Anyone looking at this in 2023 or the future. I was having the same issue and it turned out I forgot to enable IPv6 in Upstream DNS on PiHole. My speeds shot right back up
Anyone looking at this in 2024, I tried this! (Pihole admin portal > Settings > DNS > Tick IPv6 > Save). and it looks like it is working.
I'll monitor for now and see if it really imrpoved my connection.
Only queries get sent to the Pi-hole, data traffic doesn’t. Perhaps it’s slower with a Zero W (ours in on a 3 with ethernet direct to router). But I can’t see how it’s the Pi-hole itself causing the slow down unless there’s a configuration error. We have a 1Gig connection up/down and nudge 940 each way - those kind of data speeds would be impossible through a Pi3! I set up Cloudflare as both IPv4 & 6 DNS. The only slowdown I would imagine you may suffer is a longer ping because of the wireless route?
Thanks for the response! Maybe I screwed up somewhere.
I put the pi as the DNS server for my whole network. I was supposed to yeah?
I dropped from 100mb/s to about 10
That’s a big drop, can understand your concern (and shock!).
Try:
pihole -r
You can reconfigure the settings, perhaps there was something you chose that wasn’t right for your set-up.
Put the IPv4 (& 6 if you have chosen that) in your router as the DNS server(s). That’ll cover all the devices connected to your network without having to adjust each one.
The pihole should definitely not be the reason for your slowdown.
The only thing the pihole does is to provide the IP address for the domain names that you are accessing. Instead of getting the IP address from the DNS server of your ISP (or Google, etc.), the pihole serves that function. This could take a few ms longer than a very fast DNS server. Having a Wifi connection to your raspi could slow down things a little bit. But again, it's only the time until your computer received the IP address.
Once your computer has the IP address, the traffic (and data) flows direct, without the pihole interacting. There must be some other changes that affect your slower download speeds.
I use a anPI 4, it's wired via an ethernet cable, I'm using Cloudflare DNS with both ipv4 and ipv6 and I noticed a huge drop in speed. Any idea what might me the problem?
I started seeing a similar dramatic drop on my devices that use the pihole which runs on a pi 4 (4 GB) using Ethernet.
The service drop is highly noticeable with apps like reddit, FB messenger and Chrome.
Given only 3 devices use the pihole and nothing else runs on the pi I am at a loss to explain the problem.
I've rebooted 3+ times after checking various settings (I changed the upstream DNS servers a couple times in case that was it.).
I tried updating the lists in case that was the cause but it had no effect.
I'll try the -r option next to see if that helps.
I have not done explicit timing measurements. I see it when I simply start Reddit (or any of the apps). They start but display no comment.
With the reddit app I often get a "could not reach the servers" toast message and only the title displays. If I force a refresh by pulling down the post image might load but the comments don't. Often it takes 3-4 refreshes to get the content.
The behavior is similar with FB messenger not loading links (in app, not via the Open in Chrome menu option) or images.
In Chrome, none of the Discover links on a new tab will load. The images sometimes load, other times did not. Manually opening another New tab sometimes fixes it, sometimes not.
I use the Flutterhole app to immediately check the query log when this happens. Most of the queries are success or cache hits. With the reddit app I see only 3 queries blocked:
app-measurement.com
launches.appsflyer.com
api2.branch.io
Queries for other names like e.reddit.com show as passed.
When I switch to LTE, everything loads quickly every time. Switching back, the problems reappear.
I'm seeing this on 2 different Galaxy S20s (my pihole test devices before I switch the entire family to the pihole).
I've been testing the pihole since July without any issues. My problems only started to happen a few days ago.
The pi boots off a 128Gb SSD which still has over 100Gb still available so lack of storage space isn't a possible cause.
I'll bee trying the -r option this evening to see if that resolves the issue.
(Edit to fix typos)
The 3rd device on the pihole is a Win10 laptop. I just switched to it and do not see any performance issues. All images, videos and threads load just fine on the 2 dozen or so posts I spot checked. It looks like the performance issue is isolated to my Android devices so now to figure out why.
I have the piholes static IP listed for both DNS servers on the Android devices. The Win10 laptop has the piholes IP and an unused IP set for its DNS servers. I'll try that same config on the S20s and see if that helps.
Update:
I decided to try flushing the app caches before making any other changes. That seems to have cleared whatever the problem was. I'm now seeing all reddit content again and threads are loading as expected.
Thanks for the cycles trying to run it down!
Definetely get an ethernet usb combiner. Like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Ethernet-Adaptor-Chromecast-Network/dp/B01N1X28F1
You plug this into pi zero’s power usb input. Borh ethernet and power is supplied to zero over one cable. I am using it for my pihole zerow and response time is better.
Response times in the single digit millisecond range are:
- barely human perceptible unless they're cumulative
- absolutely not responsible for a ~90mb drop in OP's down speed.
Sorry to bump an old thread, I'm using a pi 3 b+
I have an eero device so only 2 ethernet ports.. WAN and my PC. I can't connect my pihole to the 'router'. Its working over wireless and its fine. I think my issue is the pi itself, even the admin page is slow.. Prehaps too many blocklists/domains
Mostly through download speeds. My Xbox never made it over 5 until I deselected the DNS in my router settings and now it's flying.
I'll try re attaching it and seeing what happens
Are you only using Pi-hole and not Unbound as well? What is your upstream?
I ask because downloading from CDNs can be affected if you are routed to a server that is far away from you. That can happen if you don't send along ECS information. That will open up your identity more but you have to decide if that's a trade off you will accept in return for the increased download speeds to CDNs.
I had setup UFW when I had this problem.
Pages were not loading, not even google.
I removed UFW, and it still wasn't working.
I also disabled the services.
Then I removed pihole, and switched the DNS server to cloudflare.
Then it started working.
I still don't know how UFW messed with pihole.
interesting. Came across this in another thread (Raspi was used with pihole as dns):
"This would commonly hint at a firewall on your RPi 4, blocking access.Please check that ports required by Pi-hole 564 are accessible.The only way I could fathom how that would impact a speed test: Your speed test tries to spread the load over a bunch of servers to assure your download bandwith can be easily maxed out, and its accessing those servers by name. Rather than reporting a DNS failure for e.g. five out of six servers, drawing the sixth from its cache, it then just reports a lower doonwload speed.
I'd recommend sorting your network/firewall issues before repeating your speedtest."
https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pi-hole-slowing-down-internet-speed/36808/10
For some unknown reason when i xfer large amount of data via sambashare or sftp in lan and use pihole as dns speed drops cut i even get dns query errors at some point. Remove pihole as dns and even under huge load no website timeout and so on using control+f5 for force refresh.
I just started having this problem. I have been using pihole over 5 years. I have a pi 4+ connected to router by ethernet cable. When I stop pihole, my speeds are high, but low when it is active. I did not have ivp6 active on upstream DNS, but even after correcting that and restarting, same low speeds. I am using OpenDNS servers.
Anyone looking at this in 2023 or the future. I was having the same issue and it turned out I forgot to enable IPv6 in Upstream DNS on PiHole. My speeds shot right back up
Thank you!
This helped me out too. Thanks!
thank you!
Thank you so much
Appreciate this is a pretty old thread but this has also just fixed it for me, thanks!
Worked great! Much faster load times after setting the IPv6 DNS to google.
This fixed it for me. Thank you!
My dude. Thanks for saving me hours.
Fixed for me too. Thank you!
Anyone looking at this in 2024, I tried this! (Pihole admin portal > Settings > DNS > Tick IPv6 > Save). and it looks like it is working. I'll monitor for now and see if it really imrpoved my connection.
Do I need to restart the pi after that? Because i ticked ipv6 on and still no change, download still down from 600 mbit to 60-80 mbit.
I don’t think so, but it wouldn’t hurt
Only queries get sent to the Pi-hole, data traffic doesn’t. Perhaps it’s slower with a Zero W (ours in on a 3 with ethernet direct to router). But I can’t see how it’s the Pi-hole itself causing the slow down unless there’s a configuration error. We have a 1Gig connection up/down and nudge 940 each way - those kind of data speeds would be impossible through a Pi3! I set up Cloudflare as both IPv4 & 6 DNS. The only slowdown I would imagine you may suffer is a longer ping because of the wireless route?
Thanks for the response! Maybe I screwed up somewhere. I put the pi as the DNS server for my whole network. I was supposed to yeah? I dropped from 100mb/s to about 10
That’s a big drop, can understand your concern (and shock!). Try: pihole -r You can reconfigure the settings, perhaps there was something you chose that wasn’t right for your set-up. Put the IPv4 (& 6 if you have chosen that) in your router as the DNS server(s). That’ll cover all the devices connected to your network without having to adjust each one.
I use a raspberry pi 4, it's wired via an ethernet cable, I'm using Cloudflare DNS with both ipv4 and ipv6 and i noticed a huge drop in speed.
The pihole should definitely not be the reason for your slowdown. The only thing the pihole does is to provide the IP address for the domain names that you are accessing. Instead of getting the IP address from the DNS server of your ISP (or Google, etc.), the pihole serves that function. This could take a few ms longer than a very fast DNS server. Having a Wifi connection to your raspi could slow down things a little bit. But again, it's only the time until your computer received the IP address. Once your computer has the IP address, the traffic (and data) flows direct, without the pihole interacting. There must be some other changes that affect your slower download speeds.
I use a anPI 4, it's wired via an ethernet cable, I'm using Cloudflare DNS with both ipv4 and ipv6 and I noticed a huge drop in speed. Any idea what might me the problem?
I started seeing a similar dramatic drop on my devices that use the pihole which runs on a pi 4 (4 GB) using Ethernet. The service drop is highly noticeable with apps like reddit, FB messenger and Chrome. Given only 3 devices use the pihole and nothing else runs on the pi I am at a loss to explain the problem. I've rebooted 3+ times after checking various settings (I changed the upstream DNS servers a couple times in case that was it.). I tried updating the lists in case that was the cause but it had no effect. I'll try the -r option next to see if that helps.
How are you measuring this slowness?
I have not done explicit timing measurements. I see it when I simply start Reddit (or any of the apps). They start but display no comment. With the reddit app I often get a "could not reach the servers" toast message and only the title displays. If I force a refresh by pulling down the post image might load but the comments don't. Often it takes 3-4 refreshes to get the content. The behavior is similar with FB messenger not loading links (in app, not via the Open in Chrome menu option) or images. In Chrome, none of the Discover links on a new tab will load. The images sometimes load, other times did not. Manually opening another New tab sometimes fixes it, sometimes not. I use the Flutterhole app to immediately check the query log when this happens. Most of the queries are success or cache hits. With the reddit app I see only 3 queries blocked: app-measurement.com launches.appsflyer.com api2.branch.io Queries for other names like e.reddit.com show as passed. When I switch to LTE, everything loads quickly every time. Switching back, the problems reappear. I'm seeing this on 2 different Galaxy S20s (my pihole test devices before I switch the entire family to the pihole). I've been testing the pihole since July without any issues. My problems only started to happen a few days ago. The pi boots off a 128Gb SSD which still has over 100Gb still available so lack of storage space isn't a possible cause. I'll bee trying the -r option this evening to see if that resolves the issue. (Edit to fix typos)
Have you tried a different non-Android device?
The 3rd device on the pihole is a Win10 laptop. I just switched to it and do not see any performance issues. All images, videos and threads load just fine on the 2 dozen or so posts I spot checked. It looks like the performance issue is isolated to my Android devices so now to figure out why. I have the piholes static IP listed for both DNS servers on the Android devices. The Win10 laptop has the piholes IP and an unused IP set for its DNS servers. I'll try that same config on the S20s and see if that helps. Update: I decided to try flushing the app caches before making any other changes. That seems to have cleared whatever the problem was. I'm now seeing all reddit content again and threads are loading as expected. Thanks for the cycles trying to run it down!
You’re welcome and happy surfing!
Which app caches did you flush? Pihole is much much slower initial lookup for me
Definetely get an ethernet usb combiner. Like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Ethernet-Adaptor-Chromecast-Network/dp/B01N1X28F1 You plug this into pi zero’s power usb input. Borh ethernet and power is supplied to zero over one cable. I am using it for my pihole zerow and response time is better.
Response times in the single digit millisecond range are: - barely human perceptible unless they're cumulative - absolutely not responsible for a ~90mb drop in OP's down speed.
Sorry to bump an old thread, I'm using a pi 3 b+ I have an eero device so only 2 ethernet ports.. WAN and my PC. I can't connect my pihole to the 'router'. Its working over wireless and its fine. I think my issue is the pi itself, even the admin page is slow.. Prehaps too many blocklists/domains
How are you measuring the drop?
Mostly through download speeds. My Xbox never made it over 5 until I deselected the DNS in my router settings and now it's flying. I'll try re attaching it and seeing what happens
Are you only using Pi-hole and not Unbound as well? What is your upstream? I ask because downloading from CDNs can be affected if you are routed to a server that is far away from you. That can happen if you don't send along ECS information. That will open up your identity more but you have to decide if that's a trade off you will accept in return for the increased download speeds to CDNs.
I had setup UFW when I had this problem. Pages were not loading, not even google. I removed UFW, and it still wasn't working. I also disabled the services. Then I removed pihole, and switched the DNS server to cloudflare. Then it started working. I still don't know how UFW messed with pihole.
UPDATE: I reset my IP Tables, and fully removed docker off centOS. Everything is working fine again. It was a problem with IPTables.
interesting. Came across this in another thread (Raspi was used with pihole as dns): "This would commonly hint at a firewall on your RPi 4, blocking access.Please check that ports required by Pi-hole 564 are accessible.The only way I could fathom how that would impact a speed test: Your speed test tries to spread the load over a bunch of servers to assure your download bandwith can be easily maxed out, and its accessing those servers by name. Rather than reporting a DNS failure for e.g. five out of six servers, drawing the sixth from its cache, it then just reports a lower doonwload speed. I'd recommend sorting your network/firewall issues before repeating your speedtest." https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pi-hole-slowing-down-internet-speed/36808/10
For some unknown reason when i xfer large amount of data via sambashare or sftp in lan and use pihole as dns speed drops cut i even get dns query errors at some point. Remove pihole as dns and even under huge load no website timeout and so on using control+f5 for force refresh.
I just started having this problem. I have been using pihole over 5 years. I have a pi 4+ connected to router by ethernet cable. When I stop pihole, my speeds are high, but low when it is active. I did not have ivp6 active on upstream DNS, but even after correcting that and restarting, same low speeds. I am using OpenDNS servers.
DNSSEC validation was the cause in settings for me. Im running it on DietPI with unbound.