Yes, you need to set it up in the DHCP settings on the modem, rather than the router. The settings should look something like this:
Ah! Let me try to logon to my Motorola Docsis 3.0 modem.
Will let you know.
Thanks.
Let my throw my 2 cents into this (as I have the R8000 and I've been down this rabbit hole myself).
It won't work.
The way circle is embedded within the netgear firmware, prevents you from using it, combined with Pi-hole.
Why ?
Because, at it's root, it's tied to the Netgear DHCP server.
So, If you use the router's DHCP server, you can only use Circle and no Pi-hole as the Disney DNS servers get broadcasted at DHCP level, for the connecting clients.
A logical way would be a setup like this:
Router gets the DHCP ip from the ISP. When Circle is enabled, it uses the DISNEY DNS' as it's UPSTREAM, and leaves the LAN DHCp server untouched.
It doesn't happen quite like that ...
It's actually:
Router gets IP from ISP and doesn't touch/bypass the ISP DNS servers. Instead, it forces all the :LAN traffic via the Disney DNS servers (intercepting and taking over everything that's on port 53).
So long story short, you can't do it as everything is handled/managed by the router.
If you disable the DHCP within the Netgear, well... Circle disables itself too ...
So no circle BUT, you can use OpenDNS' parental controls ... And they are pretty powerful too ...
Give them a look at:
Here are some of the options:
With some more options:
I personally gave up on the Circle path as this was a lot easier for me to set-up, assign and manage the OpenDNS option.
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@RamSet - thanks for your detailed explanation.
But, now I'm more confused. @michaeldavie has his setup working with Circle. So, what is different in his configuration than yours?
My setup has the Netgear receiving the IP straight from the ISP on the WAN port.
His setup seems to have a DHCP server in front of it (I think that's the router with the main internet pipe).
My setup is like this:
ISP DHCP-NETGEAR-rest of the network
his is ISP DHCP--> ISP LAN DHCP --> Netgear --> rest of the network
in my case Netgear is the core of the network and i could install another device in front of it that would enable a more complex setup in which the Circle setup would be possible.
I decided to opt out of as many as possible failure/management points as possible and even so, sometimes i feel like my busy home network (>40 devices) is sometime tedious to manage ...
One thing to keep in mind, regardless whether you use Circle or OpenDNS .. unless you do selective DNS assignment, where adults devices get only Pi-hole and surf unrestricted and kids devices get Circle, everything will fall under the parental controls of Circle ...
@RamSet, what you've described is accurate; if you are using a modem in bridge mode rather than as an IP router it won't work. However, that's not the standard configuration for most ISP modems, which typically do NAT themselves, and in @Sam_K's case it should work fine.
I've complicated things further in my case by adding an additional router between the modem and the Netgear, but that's because I wanted a box that I trust more than either of them to be exposed to the internet (and to handle some other stuff).
The Circle filtering is per-device, so I'm not sure what you mean by your last point. I currently have Circle enabled, but with no filters set for any devices and everything is running fine.
Ah yes .. I stand corrected ...
I remember not getting that far into my attempt/setup.
On top of the network Layout (that i have), which din't quite allow it to work as intended, the $4.99/mo for the good stuff, threw me off 
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I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.
So my current setup:
Cable modem (Motorola) > Router (R7000 with Circle Parental controls) > Devices (via wifi)
Now, per @michaeldavie, I should login to my modem and set DNS entry to Raspberry Pi's static IP assigned by router. And, leave everything intact in my router.
Is this a correct course of path?
Thanks.
Pretty much. The router should be fine as is, you just need to:
- Connect the Pi to the modem's LAN
- Set the DNS address for the modem's LAN DHCP server to the Pi's IP address
- Reboot the router to refresh it's DHCP settings
It will look like this:
LAN <---> Netgear R7000 <---> ISP Modem <---> Internet
(with Circle) |
|
Pi-Hole
Connect the Pi to the modem’s LAN
My Pi-Hole is connected to internet by wifi as provided by router.
Is this ok?
No, unfortunately not.
I see from your screenshot above that your router is getting a public IP straight from your modem, just like @RamSet described. If that's the case, and it's not possible to put your modem into router rather than bridge mode, it won't work. If you can put the modem into router mode and connect the Pi to its LAN side, it will.
My SB6141 doesn't have any option to configure DNS manually.
Yup, it looks like your modem can only operate as a bridge, and not as a router. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll be able to get the Circle and Pi-Hole to be able to work together in your network, unless you add another router between the modem and the R7000. It wouldn't need to be anything fancy, it would just need to support NAT and Wifi to connect the Pi Zero W.
So, that new router (R2) would have DNS and DHCP pointed to PI. Any device connected via R2 would be leveraging ad blocking capabilities while kids devices would stick with R1 WiFi and use Circle?
Correct ...
The R7000 is fairly robust and i would not trade it's power for a lower/sub par router in front of it.
Why not ebay for a Netgear N900, (~$15) and use THAT as the second, kid only WiFi router (still Circle compatible) ?
Ok, I disabled parental controls and pointed DNS to PI ip. Looks like it's working. However, the query log in admin panel of pi-Hole, shows router IP as client. Is this expected? Can I configure it to display actual IP?
Thanks.
There are two DNS settings on the router. It sounds like you've set the upstream one to point to the Pi-Hole, and that the downstream one that gets pushed to the clients over DHCP is still the router's LAN address. If you change the second one, the clients will point to the Pi-Hole directly, once they renew their DHCP lease.
Yup, it looks like the R7000 won't let you configure its DHCP server to use anything other than itself as the DNS server. In that case, you could enable DHCP on the Pi-Hole instead, as @Mcat12 suggested here:
Got it. Will give a shot.
Thanks much for your time and help. Appreciated.