This old Raspberry Pi in my closet does more for my Wi-Fi than any expensive router

Published Oct 3, 2026, 7:30 AM EDT Nick Lewis is an editor at How-To Geek. He has been using computers for 20 years --- tinkering with everything from the UI to the Windows registry to device firmware. Before How-To Geek, he used Python and C++ as a freelance programmer. In college, Nick made extensive use of Fortran while pursuing a physics degree. Nick's love of tinkering with computers extends beyond work. He has been running video game servers from home for more than 10 years using Windows, Ubuntu, or Raspberry Pi OS. He also uses Proxmox to self-host a variety of services, including a Jellyfin Media Server, an Airsonic music server, a handful of game servers, NextCloud, and two Windows virtual machines. He enjoys DIY projects, especially if they involve technology. He regularly repairs and repurposes old computers and hardware for whatever new project is at hand. He has designed crossovers for homemade speakers all the way from the basic design to the PCB. Nick enjoys the outdoors. When he isn't working on a computer or DIY project, he is most likely to be found camping, backpacking, or canoeing. Most consumer routers are designed to be user-friendly, often at the expense of more powerful and interesting controls. If you have a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 sitting around not doing anything, you're wasting its potential. A Pi running Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, or Technitium can do more for your home network than most consumer routers ever allow. What can a Pi do for a network? Devices have to talk to the Pi before they connect Whether you run Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, or Technitium, the role of the Pi is the same: it becomes the DNS server for your home network. Under normal circumstances, when a device on your network needs to connect to a website like Google.com, that lookup is forwarded to a DNS server that provides an IP address in return. Putting a Pi with the right software in the middle of that process gives it a lot of control. You could use the Pi to selectively block specific domains so that devices on your network can't connect to them. The Pi also sees almost every site, server, and ad domain your devices try to reach, so you can know which devices are phoning home constantly. And because the Pi replaces the DNS server for the entire network, any device not using a hard-coded DNS is protected. Network-wide filtering that routers don't offer Block ads, trackers, phishing sites, and malware with one device Credit: Nick Lewis / How-To GeekCredit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek If you want to block ads or improve your security on a PC or phone, there are multiple things you can do: you can add antivirus software, install browser extensions, or tighten up your default settings. Most smart devices, like TVs, streaming sticks, and consoles, don't have that same flexibility. When running the right software, a Pi acting as a DNS server on your network can protect all of your devices at once. Community blocklists update continuously, and your Pi pulls those updated lists automatically. That filter adds a security layer for the devices on your network that almost never get patched, such as cheap cameras or printers. Just be prepared for a bit of tweaking in the first few days after you set it up; aggressive blocklists will inevitably break some sites, and you'll need to manually add them to an allowlist. Better visibility and control than most routers Stop devices from snooping and phoning home When used as a DNS sinkhole, a Pi is also perfectly positioned to catch your smart devices phoning home. Pi-hole, Technitium, and AdGuard Home all have dashboards that show you exactly which devices are connecting to the internet by themselves. Smart devices, especially things like smart TVs, can sometimes phone home thousands of times per day. In my case, my robotic vacuum was the worst offender. Many commercial routers offer the same service behind a paywall, but you really only need a Pi with some open-source software. Additionally, you can create local DNS records to give your NAS, printer, or other self-hosted services friendly names without having to mess with the router's limited settings. The Pi can't fix some network issues Signal integrity is beyond a Pi Credit: Nick Lewis / How-To Geek A Pi with the right software can meaningfully improve your home network's performance and security, but it is a companion to your router, not a replacement. Issues relating to your network performance that stem from poor Wi-Fi coverage, poorly terminated cables, and other physical connectivity problems are beyond what you can fix with a Pi running any of these tools. If you want to use a Pi as an access point in a network, or even as a Wi-Fi router, that is a separate, more complex project. OpenWrt does make it possible if you want to try it, though. The Pi becomes a single point of failure Regardless of the software you use, once your Pi is acting as a DNS server on your network, it is required for you to connect to the internet normally. If it stops working, all your devices will act like your internet service is out. Be sure to assign your Pi a static IP address using your router so it doesn't get assigned a new one unexpectedly. I'd also recommend booting the Pi from an SSD rather than a microSD card if you have one available. Don't skip security updates—any device that sees all of your DNS lookups needs to be kept up to date. A Pi can do multiple things for your network A spare Pi running Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, or Technitium can do more for your network and privacy than most built-in router software, and it does it for free. You can use wg-easy to set up a WireGuard server in about ten minutes. That allows your phone to use your home filter and DNS from anywhere in the world. If you can, I'd recommend setting up a second Pi on your network as an emergency fallback so that a single outage doesn't take out your entire network. It'll make sure that one faulty power supply doesn't take your entire network offline.