Visualize Ads Blocked In Real Time Using Pi-hole And Logstalgia

The only thing better than blocking advertisements is visualizing them in real time.  There are a few different visualization tools like glTail.rb or goaccess, but my personal favorite is Logstalgia, which is the perfect supplement to the ad-blocking Pi-hole.

The Pi-hole will block ads and also generate a log file for each request.  When a request is made, a “pong ball” gets shot out from the left side of the screen and then the “pong paddle” bounces it back.  When it hits the paddle, it shows the path that was requested by the client and lights up in beautiful colors.

How To Set This Up

Just install Pi-hole and then run the command below.  You just need to use ssh to view the log file.  The computer needs to be OpenGL-capable (i.e. you can’t run it directly from the Pi since it is not graphically-powerful enough).

ssh pi@192.168.1.200 "tail -f /var/log/lighttpd/access.log" | logstalgia

You can also optionally use SSH keys for password-less access.