Can't seem to change router's DNS settings

Apologies for the thread, I know this must be a simple solution but I've searched for hours on various sites and was unable to find a working solution. I'm running a NVG468MQ router and seem to be unable to force it to use pihole for DNS stuff. The pihole admin console shows quieres as being blocked and it is working on the pi browser but not on my network.

Here's my debug stuff, let me know if you need any more info
https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/f2oh1mnan8

If your router does not allow you to customise your DNS settings in any way, you can still try to have Pi-hole distribute your local DNS settings by configuring Pi-hole as DHCP server.

For that to work, you have to either disable (preferred) your router's DHCP server.completely or limit (second best) your router's DHCP range to just accomodate Pi-hole.

As this is highly device-specific, you'd have to consult alternative superior sources of knowlegde like your router's manual or forums for advice on how to achieve this.

Also, a perfunctory search here on the forums brought up How to set pihole as DNS on Arris TG1682G router (Comcast)?, which is not exactly your model, but might still be relevant - have a look, and feel also encouraged to start your own search :wink:

There is an option in my router settings for "DHCP Server Enable" which I have set to "disable". I then enabled the DHCP server on pihole and rebooted the router. I see a list of DHCP leases in pihole and it is still blocking queries but I am still seeing ads on all my devices?

Your devices may still use the information handed out by your router - DHCP leases only expire once their lease time runs out. Lease time can be configured: While Pi-hole uses a reasonable 24-hour lease, there are routers using a 10-day lease time by default.

You may force DHCP renewal by dis- and reconnecting a device to your network, e.g. by turning WiFi off and back on or by restarting a device.

Hello Bucking_Horn, I did word for word what general catfish did and getting the same results. But i don't understand the lease part of the conversation. So you are saying to get the device off of the router lease that could be 10 days, to disconnect the device from wifi, then reconnect it and that will get it on the lease of the Pi hole?

Renewing the lease can vary by client. For most IOT devices, a power cycle should do it. For a PC, you can run ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew. IOS devices renew when you cycle them in/out of airplane mode, etc.

From a connected PC (if you have one), what are the outputs of the following commands from the command prompt:

nslookup pi.hole

ipconfig /all

Right on cool thanks! Is that something we should do often? Like on the PC release and renew command, is that a daily, weekly thing or only when network stuff is being messed with?

Generally only used when you make network changes and you want to force the client to renew the information. Once it has a lease, the lease will renew within the lease duration period, with no action required.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18362.657]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\User>nslookup pi.hole
Server: raspberrypi
Address: 192.168.254.142

Name: pi.hole
Address: 192.168.254.142

C:\Users\User>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Dave-New-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lan

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : lan
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-D8-61-10-24-80
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5939:2c10:44a1:4629%8(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.254.204(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, February 23, 2020 8:28:53 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, February 25, 2020 12:46:59 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.254.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.254.142
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 335599713
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-24-5F-77-5A-00-D8-61-10-24-80
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.254.142
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Those outputs show that the client is using Pi-Hole for DNS service.

What is an example of a web page where you see ads? URL please and a screen capture showing the ads you see (you can paste the capture directly into a reply).

This topic was automatically closed 21 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.