Pi-Hole Not seeing DNS queries from other clients in network

[Dennis_Lu]

Please follow the below template, it will help us to help you!

Expected Behaviour:

Ads should be blocking when using clients to browse web (Windows 10 PC and Android Phone)

Actual Behaviour:

DNS lookups from Windows and Android are resolving normally. Browsing web from the computer that Pi-hole is installed works properly; ads are blocked.

Debug Token:

irxkr09z8p

I installed the latest version of Pi-Hole on my Intel Mac Mini running Debian 9. The IP address of the Pi-Hole server is 192.168.1.12. I am able to connect to the web interface from other devices.

I changed the DNS server on the Windows machine to the Pi-Hole server, yet no ads are blocked.

When I run nslookup, I get:

From Windows:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup doubleclick.com
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.12

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    doubleclick.com
Addresses:  2607:f8b0:400a:808::200e
          172.217.3.174

When I run the same command from the Pi-Hole server:

dennis@dennis-macmini:~$ nslookup doubleclick.com
Server: 127.0.0.1
Address: 127.0.0.1#53

Name: doubleclick.com
Address: 0.0.0.0

Any suggestions on what is set improperly?

[Mcat12]

Do you see the DNS requests from the other devices in your query log or in /var/log/pihole.log?

[Dennis_Lu]

No, I do not see and DNS requests from the other devices in the query log or in pihole.log

Even when I force an nslookup through the pi-hole server there are no entries.

C:\Users\Dennis>nslookup doubleclick.com 192.168.1.12
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.12

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    doubleclick.com
Addresses:  2607:f8b0:4009:812::200e
          172.217.6.110

I just ran that command from my Windows computer and there were no log entries. I'm confused how it returned 172.217.6.110 though

[Mcat12]

If it doesn't show up in /var/log/pihole.log, then Pi-hole did not receive the query, and the issue lies somewhere else in your network.

[jfb]

@Dennis_Lu

I’m confused how it returned 172.217.6.110 though

It returned this IP because the DNS request did not go through Pi-Hole. The domain doubleclick.com is blocked by the default Pi-Hole block lists. It is likely that your router is providing an alternate DNS path that bypasses Pi-Hole. If you are not actively using IPv6, disable this on your router and clients. This is a frequent source of bypasses.

How do I configure my devices to use Pi-hole as their DNS server?

Three methods Generally, there are three different methods that will enable devices on your network to be protected by Pi-hole. 1. Define Pi-hole's IP address as the only DNS entry in the router Rationale Only is italicized here for a reason: Pi-hole needs to be the only DNS server because it intercepts queries and decides whether or not they should be blocked. If you have other DNS servers configured, you may be sent to the correct domain, bypassing Pi-hole completely. Because of this, we…

Why should Pi-hole be my only DNS server?

Reduced Ad Blocking Capability The main reason you should Pi-hole as your only DNS server is that you will see increased performance in the blocking of ads. If you have two DNS servers (Pi-hole and something else), your network clients may not always query Pi-hole for name resolution. If a query happens to be answered from a non-Pi-hole DNS server, your block lists will not apply (since that DNS server doesn't know about them). All Queries Need To Go Through Pi-hole First Since other DNS se…

[Dennis_Lu]

So if I set my DNS server on my Windows 10 machine to be an non-existent device, 192.168.1.97, then no websites load.

However when I point the DNS server back to the pi-hole, then I can access websites, but ads are not blocked.

Does that help narrow down the issue?

[jfb]

Yes, a bit. When you say ads are not blocked, is this some ads are not blocked, or no ads are blocked at all?

What is the output of ipconfig /all on the Windows machine?