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Expected Behaviour:
It should be working 100%; I think I am at 85%.
Actual Behaviour:
First time Pi-Hole user here - so far I've figured most of it out, but I'm stumped at two places (using SmartHome's guide linked here). I'm not technically savvy, so forgive me.
I believe I have the setup correct, as I can use the IP address from the SSH connection to login to the pi hole admin page with the password I received through the MobaXTerm setup, so I think it is "working". I see 434 queries and 14 blocked since 3:30pm/1530 EST -- all of which appear to be a hardwired XBOX live update.
Now that I login to my TP LINK router, I don't see the raspberry pi on there any longer, when I did before as I had to get it to work through the SSH. Is that important that it still show on the DHCP Clients List?
Static IP Difficulties
Equipment: TP LINK Archer C7 (AC1750)
I don't think I did this step, and I can't figure out how to set the static IP address with this router, and I've watched YouTube videos, read PiHole's official guide, etc. I'm just stumped. I tried DHCP > Address Reservation > and setting a new MAC Address and Reserved IP Address, but I don't think that was correct. I also ended up going to "Network > LAN" and changing the IP Address there (before I realized it was for the router itself), so I changed it back. I then tried to go straight into the Network Settings via Network Connections>Properties and changing the INnternet Protocol Version 4 to "Use the following DNS server addresses" using the raspberry pi's IP address -- I haven't tried this since setting up the pihole completely but when I did it prior, it didn't allow my internet connection to work any longer. Basically, I don't know what to do at all here.
Manually changing/adding your DNS server IPs on your router
Haven't done this yet and don't know where, either. Is using "Tomato" just the easiest way to do this?
Thanks for any suggestions or assistance you can provide.
You are correct to assume that Pi-hole needs a fixed IP address to work reliably.
Note that setting a static IP on device or configuring a DHCP lease reservation are both equivalently appropriate means to do so, and that a router's manufacturer may label that latter DHCP option in a mutitude of ways, like IP address assignment, assign fixed IP for device, set static IP etc.
From your debug log, it seems your Pi-hole machine has been able to preserve its IP address 192.168.0.105 as used during initial installation (which is good). Also, your Pi-hole is already positively receiving, blocking and forwarding DNS queries.
If you actively chose to set a static IP for your Pi-hole during installation, your Pi-hole would have already configured that at device level, and you're good to go.
If you still have to configure your TP LINK Archer to use DHCP lease reservation, it seems you were already in the right place (click for more):
If you do have to add Pi-hole there, note that the MAC address must indeed match the MAC address of your Pi-hole's network interface connector. Depending on your Pi-hole device, it might have more than one of them (e.g. one for Ethernet and one for WiFi).
You could run the following command from a terminal / console on your Pi-hole to find out about your devices MAC addresses:
ip address show
and look for a line starting with link/ like this:
I think this is where I messed up...I did not choose to set a static IP for the Pi-hole during installation - at least I don't think. I think I should try restarting setup completely. Is there an easy way to do this?
Thanks, JFB. I don't know what happened, but I unplugged the raspberry pi from power/network last night and when I plugged it back in, the IP address for the pi was no longer functioning as an address for Pi-hole admin. Additionally, the raspberry pi's IP address no longer appears in my DHCP Client List.
I just reflashed the micro SD and the pi shows on the client list now under a new IP. Guess I'll be doing this again! Is there an easier guide to setup besides the smart home or crypto australia blogs that I've found?
The Pi-Hole software needs a static IP for clients to find it. In your router, assign either the IP it currently has or IP of your choice to that MAC address, locking in the Pi to that address.
I think is what stumped me before. My new pi IP address is 192.168.0.113. Is this the IP address that I need to configure my router to for the "static IP" element? I think this link (How to change the DNS settings on a TP-Link Archer C7 router) shows how to set a static IP, but I just want to make sure I do the appropriate thing before I move much further.
The IP of the Pi will become static with Pi-hole setup. You can verify the details in file /etc/dhcpcd.conf
Your router does not assign a static IP, but you have the option of reserving this IP for the Pi, so the router does not try to assign it to another device.
Hi there! I think I figured it out - thank you! I will be making a donation to Pi-hole on your behalf.
Follow-up: as I mentioned, I'm not very techy, but I've learned during this process that I really enjoy it! I'm going to start figuring out how to whitelist certain domains, but in the meantime (my wife will kill me), the default Cloudflare block list seems to have broken the TV channel Bravo's streaming app. Any idea how to go into the admin interface and unblock it, specifically?
EDIT upon further research, it looks like this isn't possible. I guess now I need to know how to unblock streaming apps. Still working on that one - if you see this before I edit with an update, would you mind sharing any thoughts you have? I'll edit if I figure it out. Thank you!
I think one last question. I can't find the domain of the service of my XBOX ONE that's blocking a few of the streaming apps in order to whitelist it.
In my router, if I see the client name, mac address, and assigned IP for "XBOXONE", can I reserve that device to that mac/IP and then whitelist that entire IP address as a workaround to whitelist the XBOX ONE and anything that comes through it?
