Design and Deployment of a Hardware Based Multi Layered Global DNS Filtering System for Secure Internet Access

Abstract

The increase in online ads, user tracking scripts, advertisements, malicious domains, adult content and bad actors via the internet has created many challenges with respect to the amount of bandwidth used by a network, how much privacy users have while using a network, and the types of content that are safe to use on a network. This project will describe the design, implementation, and analysis of an economical network security appliance built around a Raspberry Pi 2 W platform. Because of this project where the AdGuard Home was deployed as a DNS sinkhole filtering system, it has successfully reduced unapproved data traffic and allowed for parental controls to be put in place for an otherwise mixed Local Area Network (LAN). Additionally, as a result of this project, there were statistically significant reductions in the time it took to load web pages, a vast reduction in the amount of tracker data collected from web sites and full enforcement of the content filtering policies in place. Furthermore, the integration of Tailscale creates a secure, encrypted tunnel that extends these protective features to remote clients, allowing for consistent DNS filtering regardless of geographical location. The resulting architecture provides a low-power, high-efficiency solution for unified threat management and privacy preservation across both local and Wide Area Networks (WAN)