# 🔍 Why DNS Blockers Can't Block Specific Pages If you are using **Pi-hole**, **AdGuard Home**, **Blocky**, or **No Track**, you may notice you can't block a specific sub-page or "path" on a website. Here is the technical breakdown of why that happens. --- ## 🏗️ The DNS Standard: How it Works When you type a URL into your browser, your device performs a **DNS Lookup** to find the IP address of the server. However, the DNS protocol only cares about the **Domain Name**, not the full address. ### 🛑 What the DNS Blocker Sees: When you visit `example.com/garbage-ads`, your DNS blocker only sees: > **`example.com`** ### 🙈 What the DNS Blocker CANNOT See: The part after the slash—the path—is never sent to your DNS server: > **` /garbage-ads `** --- ## 📊 Visual Breakdown | Component | Example | Visible to DNS Blocker? | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | **Domain** | `example.com` | ✅ **YES** | | **Subdomain** | `ads.example.com` | ✅ **YES** | | **Path** | `/malicious-page` | ❌ **NO** | | **Query** | `?click=ad_tracker` | ❌ **NO** | --- ## 💡 The Bottom Line Since the DNS standard only transmits the **Domain** or **Subdomain**, your blocker can only make a "Yes" or "No" decision on the entire site. * **To block a path:** You need a browser-based extension (like uBlock Origin) or an HTTP Proxy that can inspect the full URL. * **DNS Blocking:** Acts like a gatekeeper for the entire building—it can stop you from entering the front door, but it can't stop you from going into a specific room once you're inside. ---