Hello -
I've got pihole up and running as my ad blocker + local network DNS server. I am using my PFsense router as firewall+dhcp. Things are mostly working fine - I have a couple questions. One is more of a generality - the other is a specific behaviour I believe is broken.
What is the best way to configure everything optimally? Such that:
I can statically assign IP addresses for internal network devices, and give them local dns names like "host1.internal.lan"
I can refer to their shortnames when connecting to them ie "host1" rather than "host1.internal.lan"
nslookup works: I can query the dns entry and get a response, and ip and get a response.
Anything else I might be missing? Not thinking of?
Right now things are mostly working. I saw mostly, because I am getting a few issues I am not sure about and wanted to check here. For one, nslookups for host1.internal.lan resolve, but they are much slower than I think. Doing an nslookup I get a response but it takes 3 seconds or so to return.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Name: host1.valhalla.lan
Address: 192.168.1.1
Which makes me wonder if these query's are going upstream to my DNS servers I have set for external lookups (ex: 8.8.8.8). If I goto the dns entry for my pihole servers (ex ph.internal.lan) takes again, 2-3 seconds to load versus immediately if I visit the ip.
Under Advanced DNS settings do I need to check the boxes for 'never forward non-fqdns' and 'never forward reverse lookups for private ip ranges'.
Currently, these are unchecked. I thought I had them checked at one point, and things broke.
I do have conditional forwarding checked with my routers IP and local domain (internal.lan) set. I think this is helpful since I use PFSense for dhcp.
Lastly, on the pihole - I've gone to Local DNS and entered in the Domain to IP mappings under DNS Records. My understanding is this will provide the forward/reverse lookup records.
Am I making things to complicated? Would it make better sense to use the PiHole to do DNS and DHCP on top of the ad blocking? I rather like my PFsense box, and am happy using it for firewall + dhcp.
Thanks