AdGuard Home Deployment Guide on RamNode VPS | DNS Filtering & Ad Blocking

What Is AdGuard Home?

AdGuard Home is an open-source, network-wide software for blocking ads and tracking. It operates as a DNS server that re-routes tracking and ad-serving domains to a "black hole," preventing your devices from connecting to them. Unlike browser extensions, AdGuard Home protects every device on your network — phones, smart TVs, IoT devices, and more — without installing anything on each device.

Why Run AdGuard Home on a VPS?

Access from anywhere — Use your private DNS server from home, work, mobile, or while traveling.
Always-on reliability — RamNode's 99.99% uptime SLA ensures your DNS filtering never goes down.
Low latency — Choose from multiple data center locations closest to you.
No home network dependency — DNS filtering continues even if your home internet goes down.
DoH/DoT support — Encrypt your DNS queries over HTTPS or TLS for full privacy.

Prerequisites

A RamNode VPS — the 1 GB RAM / 1 vCPU plan at $5/month is more than sufficient
Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS (recommended)
A registered domain name (required for DNS-over-HTTPS/TLS; optional for basic setup)
Root or sudo access to your VPS
Basic familiarity with the Linux command line

Provision Your RamNode VPS

Log in to your RamNode account and deploy a new VPS.
Select Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS as your operating system.
Choose the data center geographically closest to you for lowest DNS latency.
The 1 GB RAM plan is ideal — AdGuard Home typically uses under 100 MB at idle.

SSH into your server

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Initial Server Setup

Update and install essentials

# Update packages
apt update && apt upgrade -y

# Set the hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname adguard

# Install essential utilities
apt install -y curl wget nano ufw

Configure the Firewall

Configure UFW

# Allow SSH
ufw allow 22/tcp

# AdGuard Home web interface (initial setup)
ufw allow 3000/tcp

# DNS (standard)
ufw allow 53/tcp
ufw allow 53/udp

# DNS-over-HTTPS (optional)
ufw allow 443/tcp

# DNS-over-TLS (optional)
ufw allow 853/tcp

# Enable the firewall
ufw enable

Port 3000 is only needed during initial setup. After configuration, the web UI moves to port 80 or a custom port. Update your firewall rules accordingly.

Resolve Port 53 Conflict

Ubuntu's systemd-resolved service listens on port 53 by default, which conflicts with AdGuard Home. Disable it:

Disable systemd-resolved

# Stop and disable systemd-resolved
systemctl stop systemd-resolved
systemctl disable systemd-resolved

# Remove the symlink and create a static resolv.conf
rm /etc/resolv.conf
echo "nameserver 1.1.1.1" > /etc/resolv.conf
echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" >> /etc/resolv.conf

Verify port 53 is free

ss -tulnp | grep ':53'

If there's no output, you're clear to proceed.

Install AdGuard Home

Run the official installer

curl -s -S -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/master/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- -v

This downloads the latest binary, installs it as a systemd service, and starts it automatically.

Verify the service

systemctl status AdGuardHome

You should see active (running) in the output.

Run the Setup Wizard

Open your browser and navigate to http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:3000

Admin Interface — Set the listen address to 0.0.0.0 and choose your port (default: 80).
DNS Server — Set the listen address to 0.0.0.0 on port 53.
Create Admin Credentials — Choose a strong username and password.
Configure Your Devices — The wizard shows instructions for pointing devices to the new DNS server.

Update Firewall for the Web UI

Switch from port 3000 to 80

ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw delete allow 3000/tcp
ufw reload

Configure Upstream DNS Servers

In the dashboard, go to Settings → DNS settings and configure upstream DNS servers:

Recommended upstream servers (DoH)

# Cloudflare DNS-over-HTTPS
https://dns.cloudflare.com/dns-query

# Quad9 DNS-over-HTTPS (malware blocking)
https://dns.quad9.net/dns-query

# Google DNS-over-HTTPS
https://dns.google/dns-query

Bootstrap DNS Servers

Add under Bootstrap DNS servers

1.1.1.1
9.9.9.9
8.8.8.8

These resolve the hostnames of your DoH upstream servers on initial startup.

Add DNS Blocklists

Go to Filters → DNS blocklists and add these recommended lists:

List	Purpose
AdGuard DNS filter	Default — ads and trackers
OISD (Full)	Comprehensive ad/tracker/malware blocking
Steven Black's Unified Hosts	Ads, fakenews, gambling, social trackers
HaGeZi Multi Pro	Multi-purpose protection list
Phishing Army	Phishing domain protection

Start with 2–3 lists and add more as needed. Too many overlapping lists has minimal benefit but increases memory usage slightly.

Enable DNS-over-HTTPS / DNS-over-TLS

Encrypting your DNS queries prevents ISPs and network operators from seeing your DNS traffic. This requires a domain name.

Point Your Domain to the VPS

Create an A record for your domain (e.g., dns.yourdomain.com) pointing to your VPS IP.

Obtain an SSL Certificate

Install Certbot and get certificate

apt install -y certbot

# Obtain certificate (stop any service on port 80 temporarily if needed)
certbot certonly --standalone -d dns.yourdomain.com --agree-tos --email your@email.com

Configure AdGuard Home for Encryption

In the dashboard, go to Settings → Encryption settings.
Enable encryption and enter your domain: dns.yourdomain.com
Set HTTPS port to 443.
Set DNS-over-TLS port to 853.
Certificate path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/dns.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
Private key path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/dns.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem
Click Save.

Set Up Auto-Renewal

Add post-renewal hook

cat > /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/post/restart-adguard.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
systemctl restart AdGuardHome
EOF

chmod +x /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/post/restart-adguard.sh

Test renewal

certbot renew --dry-run

Configure Your Devices

Standard DNS (All Devices)

Set your device's DNS server to your RamNode VPS IP address.

DNS-over-HTTPS (Browsers & Modern OS)

DoH URL

https://dns.yourdomain.com/dns-query

Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → DNS over HTTPS → Custom
Chrome/Edge: Settings → Security → Use secure DNS → Custom
Android 9+: Settings → Network → Private DNS → enter dns.yourdomain.com
iOS/macOS: Use an Apple configuration profile (available in AdGuard Home UI under Setup Guide)

DNS-over-TLS (Android / Linux)

/etc/systemd/resolved.conf

[Resolve]
DNS=YOUR_SERVER_IP#dns.yourdomain.com
DNSOverTLS=yes

Harden and Optimize

Verify Everything Works

Test DNS resolution

nslookup google.com YOUR_SERVER_IP

Test ad blocking

nslookup ads.google.com YOUR_SERVER_IP

If working, this should return 0.0.0.0 or NXDOMAIN.

Test DNS-over-HTTPS

curl -s "https://dns.yourdomain.com/dns-query?name=google.com&type=A" \
  -H "Accept: application/dns-json" | python3 -m json.tool

Performance Expectations on RamNode

Metric	Value
RAM usage (idle)	~50–80 MB
RAM usage (under load)	~100–200 MB
CPU usage	Minimal (< 1% typical)
Disk usage	~50 MB + logs
DNS query latency	< 5 ms (same datacenter)
Recommended plan	1 GB RAM / $5/month

Troubleshooting

What's Next?

Set up a WireGuard VPN alongside AdGuard Home to route all device traffic through your VPS for full encryption + ad blocking.
Add custom filtering rules to block or allow specific domains for your use case.
Configure client-specific settings to apply different filtering policies per device.
Monitor with the built-in dashboard to gain insights into your DNS traffic patterns.

AdGuard Home Deployed Successfully!

Your private DNS filtering server is now running. With encrypted DNS support (DoH/DoT), comprehensive blocklists, and RamNode's 99.99% uptime SLA, you get enterprise-grade ad and tracker blocking that protects all your devices — no matter where you are.

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Deploying AdGuard Home