Similarly, I've seen several daily instances of Connection error (192.168.x.x#53): TCP connection failed (Connection refused) from my upstream DNS server, SmartDNS, and no-0x20-encode has (so far) eliminated this error.
Core v6.0.5 | FTL v6.0.4 | Web interface v6.0.2
(I have separated your pots into a topic of its own, as Connection refused is different from Operation in progress.)
Please upload a debug log and post just the token URL that is generated after the log is uploaded by running the following command from the Pi-hole host terminal:
pihole -d
or if you run your Pi-hole as a Docker container:
docker exec -it <pihole-container-name-or-id> pihole -d
where you substitute <pihole-container-name-or-id> as required.
What DNS server is the machine at 192.168.7.8 running?
Your debug log shows your Pi-hole to be configured to use 192.168.7.8 as its single upstream DNS server:
-rw-r--r-- 1 pihole pihole 54K Mar 16 18:29 /etc/pihole/pihole.toml
[dns]
upstreams = [
"192.168.7.8"
] ### CHANGED, default = []
That machine is refusing to accept your Pi-hole's DNS requests:
*** [ DIAGNOSING ]: contents of /var/log/pihole
-rw-r----- 1 pihole pihole 46K Mar 18 03:22 /var/log/pihole/FTL.log
-----head of FTL.log------
2025-03-18 01:25:02.591 MST [12739/F752] WARNING: Connection error (192.168.7.8#53): TCP connection failed (Connection refused)
See the OP: The DNS server is SmartDNS, and the error is "(Connection refused)."
Why do you think that I should see them?
OP was using a public DNS server (OpenDNS), not another DNS server on their private network, and their message details were (Operation in progress), not (Connection refused).
You'd have to investigate why your SmartDNS server is refusing Pi-hole's DNS requests, e.g. because a firewall on that 192.168.7.8 is blocking access.
No, my OP. The error is intermittent, and neither the DNS server nor any client indicates an error or a discernible issue when it occurs.
If it's neither a firewall nor SmartDNS actively refusing those requests, then your SmartDNS server may have been unresponsive when those messages were logged.
Would your SmartDNS or at least the machine it runs on register Pi-hole's requests?
In the event of the error, the machine running SmartDNS, an AP, does not indicate that requests are not registered.
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