Amazon Firestick works when it shouldn't

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1

Amazon Firestick works both when it should and when it shouldn't.

Normally, I run Amazon Firestick on an Internet of Things VLAN by itself with Pihole enabled on that VLAN. I use my router, a Pepwave Surf SOHO, as DHCP, and set Pihole's static IP on the router. It works and appears to be filtering properly.

Recently, however, I discovered that the Firestick was functioning properly even when Pihole was inactive. The Firestick works even when Raspberry Pi/Pihole was shut down - the static IP address on the router was unchanged but the Pihole device not available. Wondering if that hinted that the Firestick had a hidden DNS address in case of thumb-fingered router changes, I tested the VLAN with my MacBook Pro (MBP) against the Rasperry Pi/Pihole.

My MBP worked normally with Pihole functioning - I could reach the internet and there were filtering records for it. More importantly, MBP could not reach the internet when Raspberry Pi/Pihole was shut down.

Unless I'm missing something that indicates to me that this Firestick has a separate DNS available other than the one I assign to it. If this is true, I would appreciate learning if anyone can tell me how to test what DNS it might be using.

My device:
Firestick TV Home Verision: 6311085.1
Fire OS: 6.2.8.0(NS6280/3233)

2

It likely has a hard coded DNS server

https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/d96cck/amazon_firestick_still_has_internet_access/

Configure your router to block outgoing DNS requests at port 53 except from Pi-hole. See if your router can provide logs of failed/blocked outgoing requests.

3

Thanks. I'll do that and post results - may be a few days, though.

4

The last I checked the Fire TV stick uses Google DNS 8.8.8.8 by default. You should be able to change it in the advanced network settings on the Fire TV.

5

It seems to me the Fire TV settings are more restricted than they were when I last checked on them. Now, instructions say to "forget" a network to change it, and I don't want to do that right now. There's nothing I see in "Advanced" to determine a hidden DNS, however.

6

You probably need to forget the network so you can set it up again. Right after you enter the wifi password you can select advanced to set a static IP, gateway and custom DNS address.

** When you enter the wifi password don't connect but instead select advanced to setup IP, DNS etc.

7

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