AT&T / DHCP "times out" every 2 - 5 minutes

Help
1

Totally new to this so sorry if this is basic.

Expected Behaviour:

Installed Pihole FTL v 5.23 on a raspberry pi zero W, powered by the usb port on my router. (Even saw the thread on here about the Raspbian 12 version - I skipped the OS check and it appeared to install without issues...)

Actual Behaviour:

The problem is that the router is an AT&T BGW320 - so it's not allowing me to set a static IP nor change DNS servers. Per online advice, I turned off the DHCP server on my router and turned on DHCP in the Pihole admin page. I was able to setup some adlists initially, but I stopped being able to talk to my Pihole. The IP address/admin page becomes unresponsive, page not found, and I even stop being able to ping the pihole via command prompt. I check my router and I am no longer even able to find an IP address for the Pihole. Just a MAC address.

My workaround is to turn on the DHCP server on the router again. This lets me get back to the pihole admin page and use that same IP address originally. But when I go back to turn off the DHCP on my router, 5 minutes later, the same issue happens again. Do the same troubleshoot, then it's 2 minutes later when it times out. Another time, it lasts 10 minutes.

I'm only able to run the debug script when the DHCP server on my router is on, so I don't know if the actual debug log will be helpful, but I included anyway.

Love the idea of the Pihole, blown away by all the support that's out there, but I don't know how to search for support for this specific problem. Appreciate any help if available. Thanks!

Debug Token:

(https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/6eXwnArs/)

2

Did you set a static IP on the Pi using Network Manager?

If not, do so and this will ensure the Pi boots to the same IP each time, regardless of any DHCP server.

You also have multiple DHCP servers on your network, and only the second one (the Pi-hole) is passing out the IP of Pi-hole for DNS (192.168.1.101). They are also passing out conflicting domain names. Your router DHCP appears to be active and appears to be the first one.

*** [ DIAGNOSING ]: Discovering active DHCP servers (takes 10 seconds)
   Scanning all your interfaces for DHCP servers
   Timeout: 10 seconds
   
   * Received 349 bytes from wlan0:192.168.1.254
     Offered IP address: 192.168.1.101
     Server IP address: N/A
     Relay-agent IP address: N/A
     BOOTP server: (empty)
     BOOTP file: (empty)
     DHCP options:
      Message type: DHCPOFFER (2)
      server-identifier: 192.168.1.254
      lease-time: 86400 ( 1d )
      renewal-time: 43200 ( 12h )
      rebinding-time: 75600 ( 21h )
      netmask: 255.255.255.0
      router: 192.168.1.254
      dns-server: 192.168.1.254
         domain-name: "attlocal.net"
         --- end of options ---
   
   
   * Received 300 bytes from wlan0:192.168.1.101
     Offered IP address: 192.168.1.208
     Server IP address: 192.168.1.101
     Relay-agent IP address: N/A
     BOOTP server: (empty)
     BOOTP file: (empty)
     DHCP options:
      Message type: DHCPOFFER (2)
      server-identifier: 192.168.1.101
      lease-time: 86400 ( 1d )
      renewal-time: 43200 ( 12h )
      rebinding-time: 75600 ( 21h )
      netmask: 255.255.255.0
      broadcast: 192.168.1.255
      dns-server: 192.168.1.101
      domain-name: "lan"
      router: 192.168.1.254
      --- end of options ---
   
   DHCP packets received on interface wlan0: 2

Of note in your debug log (and not related to your problem), you have this entry in your adlists:

ads.servenobid.com

This is not the URL of an adlist. It is a domain, and it should be entered in your domains tab, not the adlists tab.

1 Like
3

Are you a saint?

  • Installed Network Manager on my Pi, and hopefully setup a static IP correctly. Just used the same IP address.
  • I went back and checked my router settings and saw a hidden option showing a DHCPv6 - so turned that off too.
  • Never read a debug log in my life, so don't know if it was super trivial to catch that domain in the adlist; regardless, I'm still amazed.

Thank you so much! Fingers crossed, this keeps the Pihole up and running without issues

1 Like
4

Hmm... now it appears I'm having issues similar to this post:

After applying the above from yesterday, two updates.

  1. My wife tried connecting her laptop to our wifi, but found that the router wasn't assigning her laptop an IP. She eventually figured a workaround using her work IT group (I have no idea how they managed this since I was away at work... not that I would understand). I figured it was the fact that I turned off the DHCP on the router, so I turned DHCP on my router back on again.

  2. I connected a Roku TV to our wifi, but it doesn't appear to be a client using the pihole. The only DHCP lease I see in my settings is my own laptop.

Because of this, I tried turning off the DHCP on my router again - but then ran into the same problem: stopped being able to access the pihole admin page. =(

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