Domain being blocked and it's not on any list

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1

Hello! I use start.me to store and organize my bookmarks and I'm having an odd issue today.

The issue I am facing:
Domain start.me is resolved fine and I'm able to see my bookmarks. But when I click on any of them, the service uses redirect2.start.me to execute the redirect, and this one isn't working.

When I run dig tests, I get the following.

testing redirect2.start.me against pihole
0.0.0.0

testing redirect2.start.me against router 192.168.49.1
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.227.111.251
3.209.172.201

testing redirect2.start.me against OpenDNS 208.67.222.222
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.209.172.201
3.227.111.251

testing redirect2.start.me against Google 8.8.8.8
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.227.111.251
3.209.172.201

testing redirect2.start.me against local setting
0.0.0.0

When I disable pihole in its WebUI, it works.

testing redirect2.start.me against pihole
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.209.172.201
3.227.111.251

testing redirect2.start.me against router 192.168.49.1
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.209.172.201
3.227.111.251

testing redirect2.start.me against OpenDNS 208.67.222.222
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.227.111.251
3.209.172.201

testing redirect2.start.me against Google 8.8.8.8
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.209.172.201
3.227.111.251

testing redirect2.start.me against local setting
redirect.viglink.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
3.227.111.251
3.209.172.201

Odd thing is that queryads.php reports neither redirect2.start.me nor start.me are on any blocklist.

Details about my system:
Ubuntu 20.04

What I have changed since installing Pi-hole:
Increased dashboard lists sizes.

2

I added redirect2.start.me to white list and it's been working since. queryads.php reports it on whitelist only. Very odd.

3

You are likely seeing blocking caused by a CNAME path. Here is what I see on my logs and terminal. Check your query log.

pi@Pi-3B-DEV:~ $ dig redirect2.start.me

; <<>> DiG 9.11.5-P4-5.1+deb10u2-Raspbian <<>> redirect2.start.me
...
;; ANSWER SECTION:
redirect2.start.me. 2 IN A 0.0.0.0

pi@Pi-3B-DEV:~ $ dig redirect2.start.me @1.1.1.1
...
;; ANSWER SECTION:
redirect2.start.me. 300 IN CNAME redirect.viglink.com.
redirect.viglink.com. 7200 IN CNAME redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com. 60 IN A 3.81.176.177
redirect-1618329656.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com. 60 IN A 3.210.105.60

image
image3664×336 72 KB

1 Like
4

Indeed, redirect.viglink.com is on 3 blocklists! lol

So, when I add redirect2.start.me to whitelist, it surpasses all CNAME domains that may be on blacklists?

5

Yes. Exact whitelist takes precedence over all else.

1 Like
6

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