Pi-hole Local DNS Records not Working Properly in Dashboard Total Queries

Expected Behaviour:

Show Hostnames instead of IP addresses in the Dashboard
( How do I show hostnames instead of IP addresses in the dashboard?)

Entered Pi-hole's DNS settings in Negear Router. I have two Pi-hole instances on two different Unraid servers hence two DNS entries in my router. Netgear Router handles static IP's for every device on my network. DHCP enabled with each device listed in the router with a static IP, MAC and hostname.

Edited the /etc/hosts on my Pi-hole. Instructed that this can be done through Local DNS Records > List of local DNS Records. Added entries for several devices including my Windows 11 PC and Cell Phone

Both Pi-hole instances have the same settings.

Expect each device in the DNS Records of Pi-hole to show up under the Dashboard via the Network Overview by Hostname not just IP. This is so I can observe each individual device's stats on my network.

Actual Behaviour:

Windows PC and Cell phone do not show up under their hostname OR their IP. Instead, their activity is showing up under the Netgear Router's IP. I know this because I can do a web search on my Windows PC and the Dashboard Total Queries will increment up and those stats show up under the IP of the router.

However, any of my devices where the DNS settings are manually set on the device themselves show up via the Dashboard under Network overview by hostname.

I want to avoid having to touch every device on my network and enter the DNS settings manually.

Debug Token:

Where do you run the Pi-hole -d command? From the docker instance on my Unraid server?

Please upload a debug log and post just the token URL that is generated after the log is uploaded by running the following command from the Pi-hole host terminal:

sudo pihole -d

or if you run your Pi-hole as a Docker container:

docker exec -it <pihole-container-name-or-id> pihole -d

where you substitute <pihole-container-name-or-id> as required.

Always hesitate to send network information online. But it is possible the documentation I referenced in the top link is no longer accurate. Apparently a knowledgeable individual on reddit I have been also sharing the problem with is not sure it is current. If you care to read it, the link is below. I also provide it as it may also help others in a similar situation.

As an afterthought. Could running Unbound with Pihole be the issue? I am not smart enough to know how Unbound all works, I have the concept. But I know several options in Pihole are 'grayed' out like dns.upstreams, interface settings, and custom DNS servers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/1rpfcui/local_dns_records_and_network_overview_host_names/

Commonly, this would suggest that you have configured your router to use Pi-hole as its upstream, rather then telling its clients to use Pi-hole for DNS.
You'd have to consult your router's documentation and support on how to change that.

Your right I am sure. Apparently setting in DD-WRT ignore WAN DNS and putting the static IP address of the Pi-hole in the Static DNS 1 and Static DNS 2 is not valid (at least anymore). I just did a clean install of Pi-hole and all my entries are showing up under the router's IP. The link I used apparently is not complete with instructions or no longer valid. I'll just continue on with the manual installation on each device.

Your log won't be exposed on the Internet.

When you generate and upload a debug log, the file is saved in Pi-hole's server and only Pi-hole team members (only 8 or 9 people... and probably 1 or 2 will actually see it) will be able to access it. Logs are automatically deleted after 48h.

We understand your security concerns, but most of the information on the log is only useful for debugging process. Also, the debug log tries to restrict the information returned.

The log avoids dozens of questions about your system (and without a log your answers will be openly posted here).

Sometimes, without a debug log we won't be able to help you.

Thank you for the clarifying information. Since several people and on reddit have told me it doesn't work the way I hoped it would based on my reading of the link, I'll just enter them manually in each device again. But next time I'll send debug log.

This is unlikely to be a pihole issue, nor is it anything to do with unbound.

Those devices are sending their DNS queries to your router, which is dutifully forwarding them to your pihole. In all liklihood your router is advertising itself as the DNS server for all DHCP clients.

Consult Netgear support to see if it is possible for your particular router to advertise a specific DNS server to its DHCP clients. If it is possible, enter the addresses of your Pi-holes, and then the router will distribute those instead of its own address.

If it is not possible, you may be able to configure a pihole to act as the DHCP server for your network, note that this requires disabling the DHCP server on your netgear router.

I had set in my router's software, DD-WRT, both the Pi-hole instances static IP. I also checked, Ignore WAN DNS.

A friend recently suggested I turn off, Use dnsmasq for DNS.

Haven't tried that yet, but I added all my devices in Pihole under the DHCP server option. It seems to be working with two observations:

  1. Some hostnames have .lan attached to them and some do not. IE. (shieldtv) vs (tcl_tv.lan). Not sure why.

2). My pihole instances show up fine (pi-hole) and (pi-hole_2); but what is ::(pi.hole)?

:: is the IPv6 address equivalent to 0.0.0.0.

This is the abbreviated form of 0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000 and it means unspecified address.

If you enable DNSSEC validation, Pi-hole would verify DNS replies as received from its upstream. To that end, Pi-hole will send DNS requests of its own, retrieving e.g. keys and signatures from authoritative DNS servers, involving DNSSEC specific record types (like NSEC, DS, DNSKEY, RRSIG,…).

Those queries will show up in Pi-hole's Query Log as originating from a client ::. That somewhat artificial client name would allow you to tell Pi-hole's internal queries from those that originate from another process on the same machine, see also Understanding DNSSEC validation using Pi-hole's Query Log.

Noobie a bit on this stuff. I just see ::(pi.hole) with no IP Address and then Hardware Address with ip-::

If I click on it, there are recent queries with various times, type (DNSKEY & NS) and various domains. Client is pi.hole.

So basically functioning properly. I do see "Use DNSSEC" is checked and is 'grayed out. (Hard for me to know when Unbound makes some of these options grayed out." I keep watching more videos on Pi-hole so I learn more of what is taking place.