Pi-Hole installed, no ads blocked on network or local machine

Help
1

Expected Behaviour:

Ads should be blocked on network devices

Actual Behaviour:

No ads blocked

Debug Token:

6whl255GX

Additional Information:

I have Pi-Hole installed on Ubuntu running on a virtual machine via VMWare with Windows 10 host. I believe I have everything installed correctly, and I'm able to access the web admin panel for Pi-Hole with no problem. Below is the configuration of my router. The IP address for Pi-Hole is 192.168.189.128.

upload.png795×562 33.2 KB

I should also note that I also use a VPN for this machine (it's a media server). I have tested everything with the VPN disabled and enabled and I see no difference.

I've searched for hours trying to find a solution but I cannot find anything that works, so I hope someone here may have some insight! Please let me know if I can provide any more information that may be helpful.

2

You appear to have systemd-resolve running on port 53 instead of dnsmasq. However, the test queries work as expect. Check what DNS servers your clients are actually getting (ipconfig /all on Windows).

3

Mcat, thanks for the quick response. I'm not sure what to do about the issue you brought up regarding systemd-resolve. If that's a problem, can you tell me how to adjust it?

It looks like all of my devices are still using DNS 192.168.1.1, which I assume is the default option from the router. I attempted to manually change the DNS on a Windows computer and several Apple devices to 192.168.189.128 but then I do not have internet connection.

I have tried these steps on the Windows computer:

  • Added *.msftncsi.com to the whitelist and ran gravity.sh
  • Flushed DNS and rebooted the Win10
  • Manually set the DNS server in Win10.
  • Verified with ipconfig that the Pi is set as my DNS server.

Thanks for the help.

4

What's the output of these commands on the Windows machine when you have Pi-hole as your only DNS server?

nslookup pi.hole
nslookup google.com
5

In both cases, I get DNS request timed out.

Here are the results of the ipconfig /all and the two commands you asked that I try.

C:\Users\name>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : -PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 8C-89-A5-16-C2-92
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.130(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, August 09, 2017 9:34:00 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, August 10, 2017 9:47:43 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.189.128
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 44-85-00-7A-0D-41
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 4:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 44-85-00-7A-0D-42
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\name>nslookup pi.hole
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.189.128

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out

C:\Users\name>nslookup google.com
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.189.128

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out
6

Can your device access the Pi-hole's web interface via pi.hole or IP?
Edit: It looks like you have Pi-hole on a different subnet than your clients.

7

Thank you for noticing this, Mcat12!

I forgot to bridge the network connection between the virtual machine that's running Pi-Hole and the host. Now I have everything on the same subnet and it's working great.