No Local Names in Dashboard - An Inconvience

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Seems that posting issues helps me resolving it faster than just searching alone. So let's try it again.
And, yes, I have searched for a solution, and will continue to do so - as well as post updates on my progress, or lack thereof as I go.

So:
I cannot seem to get Local Names to appear in the Dashboard of Pi-Hole in either of the 'Top Clients' lists.

My router is pfSense and Everything on my network is named through its DHCP and Local DNS services. And I can access everything via it's name and local domain of 'asgard', eg: Sonoff-3.asgard/

My Pi is on the .3.x network running OpenVPN client, CloudFlare DoH, DNSMasq, and Pi-Hole.
My router has two local Interfaces: 2.x and 3.x, so DNSMasq and OpenVPN both know that when either 2.x, 3.x or *.agard' is requested, it forwards those to the router at 3.1, otherwise it goes out through the VPN.

Expected Behaviour:

I'm hoping to see local names in the 'Top Clients' lists instead of their IP addresses so I can more easily identify the device - especially if there are issues like tons of requests, etc.

Actual Behaviour:

'Top Clients' lists just have IP addresses of all the local devices. Same with the Query Log.

Debug Token:

No Debug Tokens, not a failure, just not working as expected.

In Settings -> DNS: I have 'IP of your router' set to 172.27.3.1 and 'Local domain name' set to 'asgard'

In the /etc/dnsmasq.d folder, I have two conf files, one for Pi-Hole and one for CloudFlare:

Pi-Hole config has: server=/asgard/172.27.3.1
CloudFlare config has:

server=/local/172.27.3.1
server=/asgard/172.27.3.1

Pi-hole Version v4.3 Web Interface Version v4.3 FTL Version v4.3.1

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks!

2

Map the IP addresses to client names in the /etc/hosts file on the Pi.

3

Yipes.
So I have to duplicate all those entries from my router and keep them in sync manually all the time?
Na, I don't think so. Maybe there's another way.
I mean, what's the point of having a centralized Local DNS naming service if you have to replicate it?
Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

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Should only need to be set in the hosts file of you pi as all devices using the pi-hole as DNS will then also use the hosts file

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My pfSense is the local DNS, not the Pi-Hole. The Upstream DNS, CloudFlare, is for OpenVPN client.
Maybe this is not possible with my setup. Hmmm....
Thanks

6

Perhaps I don't understand your setup. If pfSense is your local DNS, what role does Pi-Hole play in your network?

7

Pi-Hole blocks Ads. That's its main purpose, right?
From the pi-hole.net website: A black hole for Internet advertisements

In addition, I don't see any configuration function in Pi-Hole to make it a Local DNS resolver. So filling the hosts file with a bunch of DNS entries seems not only redundant, but silly, as again, I thought Pi-Hole was supposed to be a Internet Ad Blocker, not a Local DNS Resolver, or even a DHCP server.

If it's an Internet Ad Blocker, why is it:
Counting "Local Only" traffic?
Why does it want to be a DHCP server?
Why do I need to set up a sudo Local DNS resolver using a Hosts file?
Why is it not using my Local DNS Resolver to find local host names for local IP addresses when I have It set to do that in the Setttings -> DNS page at the bottom?

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Something is not right here, IMO. Maybe my setup is not compatible with this ideal. Maybe there are issues in Pi-Hole, or this functionality is just not available yet. I dunno. Or maybe I just don't understand why this straightforward appearing product wants to be the kitchen-sink to all things on a Local Network.

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Let's work through your questions and comments.

This is because your network is providing only IP's to Pi-Hole and Pi-Hole has no way of knowing the client names to match these IP's. Pi-Hole is just receiving a steady stream of DNS requests from IP addresses. If the IP's of those clients are static, then mapping the client ID's to names in the /etc/hosts file of the Pi is one solution. Another is to have the Pi-Hole act as the DHCP server, and then it will directly obtain the names of the clients. Depending on your network configuration, neither of these may be suitable solutions.

Pi-Hole by definition is a DNS resolver running dnsmasq. It depends on upstream resolvers to provide the IP for any domain request that is not blocked by Pi-Hole or in cache. The path is as follows: Pi-Hole receives DNS request from client, checks to see if the domain is blocked. If yes, returns the NULL IP. If no, check the cache. If not there, then Pi-Hole sends the domain name to its configured upstream resolver to obtain the IP. Most commonly the upstream resolver is a third party DNS (Cloudflare, google, etc.), but this can be configured to send the DNS requests to a local DNS resolver already on your network, or to a local resolver running on the Pi itself. A popular option for a recursive resolver is unbound, installed on the Pi and configured for Pi-Hole use per this guide.

https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/unbound/

It is an ad blocker, and acts as a DNS resolver via dnsmasq. It can be configured as a DHCP server, again using dnsmasq embedded in pihole-FTL.

This does not work with all network configurations and routers.

What upstream DNS resolver do you have configured in Pi-Hole? Have you considered routing all DNS traffic first to Pi-Hole, and have Pi-hole use your existing network DNS resolver as an upstream resolver? This may provide the results you want.

Perhaps if you can provide a sketch of your network configuration with resolvers, etc, we can help you find a setup that meets your needs.

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