Adguard Home Installation

Browse Without Limits: The Ultimate Guide to Self-Hosting AdGuard Home on a VPS

Applications, Self Hosted Applications, Server Management, Server Security

The modern internet is broken.

You click on a recipe, and you are bombarded with pop-ups. You try to read news, and the video player follows you down the screen. Worse than the annoyance is the surveillance; hundreds of invisible trackers are logging your behavior, slowing down your connection, and eating up your mobile data.

Browser extensions are good, but they are limited. They only protect your browser, leaving your phone apps, smart TV, and IoT devices vulnerable.

The solution? AdGuard Home.

AdGuard Home is a network-wide software for blocking ads and tracking. By installing it on a cloud server, you can sanitize your internet traffic at the DNS level before it even reaches your device.

In this guide, we will show you how to deploy AdGuard Home on a high-speed VPSPioneer server, giving you a faster, cleaner, and safer internet experience anywhere in the world.

Why Run AdGuard Home on a VPS?

You might ask, “Why not just install it on a Raspberry Pi at home?” While that works for your home Wi-Fi, it stops working the moment you leave your house.

Hosting AdGuard Home on a VPSPioneer VPS unlocks the true potential:

  1. Protection Everywhere: Whether you are on 4G/5G, public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop, or traveling abroad, your devices can use your VPS as their DNS server.
  2. Better Performance: VPSPioneer’s VPS Hosting utilizes enterprise-grade networks with low latency. This often resolves DNS queries faster than your local ISP.
  3. Parental Control: Enforce “Safe Search” and block adult content on all family devices, no matter where they are.

Step-by-Step Installation Guide

We will use Docker to install AdGuard Home. This ensures a clean installation that doesn’t mess up your system files and is easy to update.

Prerequisites

  1. A VPSPioneer VPS (The entry-level plan is more than enough for this).
  2. A Domain Name (optional but recommended for encryption) or just your Server IP.
  3. SSH Access to your server.

Step 1: Prepare the System

Log in to your server. As always, start with a clean slate by updating your repositories.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Crucial Step: Freeing up Port 53 AdGuard Home acts as a DNS server, which listens on port 53. On Ubuntu systems, a local service called systemd-resolved often occupies this port. We need to disable it to let AdGuard Home take over.

# Disable the default DNS resolver
sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved
sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved

# Remove the symlink
sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf

# Set a temporary DNS so we can download Docker (using Google DNS)
echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" | sudo tee /etc/resolv.conf

Step 2: Install Docker

If you haven’t installed Docker yet, run this standard command:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

Step 3: Deploy AdGuard Home

We will create a dedicated directory and a docker-compose.yml file to manage the service.

mkdir -p ~/adguard-home
cd ~/adguard-home
nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the following configuration. This sets up the container and exposes the necessary ports for the DNS server and the Web Interface.

version: '3'

services:
  adguardhome:
    image: adguard/adguardhome
    container_name: adguardhome
    restart: unless-stopped
    # Use the host network for best performance and to capture real client IPs
    network_mode: host
    volumes:
      - ./workdir:/opt/adguardhome/work
      - ./confdir:/opt/adguardhome/conf

Save and exit (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X).

Now, start the “Ad blocker” engine:

sudo docker compose up -d

Step 4: Configuration Wizard

  1. Open your web browser and navigate to http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:3000.
  2. Click “Get Started”.
  3. Admin Web Interface: Listen on interface All interfaces, Port 80 (or 8080 if you are running a web server on the same machine).
  4. DNS Server: Listen on interface All interfaces, Port 53.
  5. Create your username and password.

Congratulations! Your AdGuard Home dashboard is live.

Tuning for Maximum Privacy

Now that it is running, let’s make it powerful.

  1. Blocklists: Go to Filters -> DNS Blocklists. AdGuard comes with a default list, but you can add more to block specific annoyances like “Cookie Consent” pop-ups or mobile app trackers.
  2. Upstream DNS: Go to Settings -> DNS Settings. By default, it might use Cloudflare. You can change this to “Quad9” (9.9.9.9) for better privacy or “Google” (8.8.8.8) for speed.
  3. Encryption (Advanced): If you have a domain name, go to Settings -> Encryption Settings. You can enable HTTPS (DoH) so that not even your mobile carrier knows which websites you are visiting.

How to Connect Your Devices

To start blocking ads, you need to tell your device to use your VPSPioneer server for DNS.

  • On iPhone/Android: Use the “Private DNS” feature (Android) or install a DNS profile (iOS) pointing to your server IP or domain.
  • On Windows/Mac: Go to Network Settings and change the DNS server IP to your VPSPioneer VPS IP address.
  • On your Router: Change the DNS settings in your router’s admin panel to cover every device in your house instantly.

Why Hardware Matters

AdGuard Home is efficient, but processing thousands of DNS requests per second requires a stable network stack.

VPSPioneer servers are optimized for high throughput. Unlike shared hosting or budget providers that throttle your connection, VPSPioneer ensures your DNS queries are resolved instantly. A slow DNS server means a slow website, no matter how fast your internet is.

Don’t compromise on speed. Get a VPS that keeps up with you.

👉 Start your Ad-Free Journey with VPSPioneer VPS

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Will this block YouTube ads? A: Blocking YouTube ads via DNS is notoriously difficult because the ads are served from the same domains as the videos. While AdGuard Home blocks some, you may still see ads on the YouTube app. However, it effectively blocks ads in browsers and most other apps.

Q: Is it safe to expose a DNS server to the internet? A: Generally, yes, but you should prevent your server from being used in “DNS Amplification Attacks.” AdGuard Home has built-in rate limiting features (in DNS Settings) to prevent abuse. Ensure you enable these.

Q: Can I run this alongside my website? A: Yes! Since we used Docker, you can run AdGuard Home, a WordPress site, and a database all on the same VPSPioneer VPS, provided you manage your ports correctly (e.g., run AdGuard’s web interface on port 3000 or 8080 instead of 80).

Q: Does this save mobile data? A: Yes. Ads and trackers are heavy. By blocking them at the server level, they are never downloaded to your phone, saving you significant amounts of data on your mobile plan.