Pi-hole not blocking ads with Asus RT-AX88U

[gil80]

@Bucking_Horn

I would if you tell me which way you're heading:
Option 2.) or having Pi-hole as DHCP?

Your most recent change would support the former:

Pi Hole as DHCP.
Seems that only Merlin-WRT, supported on Asus routers, reveals the option to not publish the router's DNS.
Example:
I could install new firmware on my router, but it's too much effort for my limited time.

@Bucking_Horn

If you can live with the restrictions that go with that config, you can try whether this works for you. Just make sure Pi-hole is your router's only upstream DNS. If you're forced to enter a second IP, reenter Pi-hole's, and if that is rejected for being identical, choose 0.0.0.0 .

Unless I manually set 192.168.1.2 as the DNS of my PC on IPv4 settings.
But, I'm not sure if my other wireless clients will go though 192.168.1.2 or 192.168.1.1.
Is there a way to validate what DNS is used by my wireless clients?

@Bucking_Horn

You've configured Pi-hole to use some local upstream resolver on the same machine at 127.0.0.1#5053 . Is that cloudflared ?

Yes.
I followed the DNS over HTTPS guide here: Redirecting...
BUT, DoH while claiming it is secure still depends on normal DNS over port 53 to locate the DoH server so is not, secure. I might try Stubby DoT Implementing DNS-Over-TLS - #8 by bbunge

Thoughts?