Request: Client Name

Hello,

i see the clients only with the ip address. I wish that there is a custom field to define a own friendly name.

Thanks

Add them here http://pi.hole/admin/custom_dns.php

The text there is not very clear.

name: = name you pick, no space etc.
Description: = is the ip of the client.

1 Like

There is a discussion about redesigning/rephrasing the page but I'm not sure they've come to a conclusion, yet.

Thanky @Tntdruid

That is the function that i need.

Sorry i don´t know about this

Independent of the rephrasing of the custom DNS page, could you add a pre-populated list of the known clients there as the one in Group Managements/Clients? This would speed up setting custom DNS entries for hosts at the local network if pihole is not the DHCP and I don't use conditional forwarding.

I'll think about it. The suggestion code is tightly coupled into the group management pages and cannot easily be reused (clients already associated to groups are not included in the list). I will think about how this could be done without duplicating code (maintenance burden). As always, this is not a promise that it will be added in the end.

3 Likes

I can't get it to work - maybe I did it wrong.
I've used custom dns to give certain clients "friendly" names, but the won't be displayed on the dashboard or the query list.

I was using /etc/hosts before and it worked just fine but it was somehow cumbersome to edit the file instead of doing it via GUI.


Name changes are not imported immediately but only hourly. Please check again.

Still not working.

Okay, please run the following on your Pi-hole:

dig -x 10.0.1.136 +short

Does this bring up the host name? If not, please check if the IP is in fact contained i /etc/pihole/custom.list (this file might be called differently, I don't remember exactly). If it is also in there, please try a pihole restartdns and check again after a few minutes.

Have done that, the dig command at the pihole doesn't resolve into domain name, but on a different pc at my network its working (it's using pihole as DNS server).

nanopi@nanopi:~$ cat /etc/pihole/custom.list 
10.0.40.3 sony-xz1-wireguard
10.0.1.2 cloudkey
10.0.30.254 chromecast-wohnzimmer
10.0.1.3 switch
10.0.1.4 access-point
10.0.1.6 omv
nanopi@nanopi:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.2 +short
nanopi@nanopi:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.3 +short
nanopi@nanopi:~$ pihole restartdns 
[sudo] password for nanopi: 
  [✓] Restarting DNS server
nanopi@nanopi:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.3 +short
nanopi@nanopi:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.6 +short
nanopi@nanopi:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.6 +short
chrko@ThinkPad-X230:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.2 +short
cloudkey.
chrko@ThinkPad-X230:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.3 +short
switch.
chrko@ThinkPad-X230:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.6 +short
omv

Oh right, your Pi-hole may not use itself as resolver right now, please try explicitly

dig -x 10.0.1.2 +short @127.0.0.1

Also, the IP addresses you tested seem to be different than the ones I've seen in your previous screenshot?

Pinging @jfb for awareness. Not sure if there will be other downsides coming up since FTL will not typically not be the resolver on the Pi-hole itself.

They're the same, but I added some more custom DNS enties. (10.0.1.136 doesn't have a entrie yet)

nanopi@nanopi:~$ dig -x 10.0.1.2 +short @127.0.0.1
cloudkey.

It's working but dashboard still looks like that

Hmm, further ideas:

  1. Do you have a file /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf?
    If so, what are its contents (specifically looking towards these settings)?

  2. If not, does

    echo ">reresolve >quit" | nc 127.0.0.1 4711
    

    help?

  3. If not, does 2. at least trigger some PTRs being made from your Pi-hole to itself (check the Query Log on the Pi-hole dashboard)?

nanopi@nanopi:~$ ls -l /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 pihole root 49 Feb 10 11:58 /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf

nanopi@nanopi:~$ cat /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf 
DBINTERVAL=60.0
BLOCKINGMODE=NULL
PRIVACYLEVEL=0

Added

RESOLVE_IPV4=yes

and restated FTL (pihole restartdns)

I don't see any PTRs from pihole itself (10.0.1.5) after

echo ">reresolve >quit" | nc 127.0.0.1 4711

If "RESOLVE_IPV4=yes" is necessary for custom DNS to work maybe it should be set by default when the first entry is set

Sorry, just saw that the first option is the default...

Updated pihole today and now they are partly "resolved" in the dashboard. Maybe that are the ones I issued the dig command for yesterday....

Side note:
The sorting in Custom DNS for IP is "kind of" broken, 10.0.1.1XX come before 10.0.1.2 but I would expect 10.0.1.1, 10.0.1.2, 10.0.1.1XX....

It does not need to be enabled explicitly but I see you have seen this already.

Yes, this is lexicographical instead of IP sorting. This page was an external contribution and it seems the contributor forgot to add this. I will try to remember changing this.


The next thing is to go deeper into debugging. Please add

DEBUG_QUERIES=true

in /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.log and runpihole restartdns. The actions for each query are now logged with a lot of details in /var/log/pihole-FTL.log. Please check therein if

triggers PTR requests. You can check the value for RESOLVE_IPV{4,6} in the same file as FTL logs its entire configuration on (re)start.

from /var/log/pihole-FTL.log

[2020-02-11 21:29:26.722 1280] Shutting down...
[2020-02-11 21:29:26.774 1280] Finished final database update
[2020-02-11 21:29:26.777 1280] ########## FTL terminated after 23693242.0 ms! ##########
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.090 29806] Using log file /var/log/pihole-FTL.log
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.090 29806] ########## FTL started! ##########
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.090 29806] FTL branch: release/v5.0
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.090 29806] FTL version: vDev-c3ee98b
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.090 29806] FTL commit: c3ee98b
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806] FTL date: 2020-02-11 14:13:53 +0100
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806] FTL user: pihole
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806] Compiled for aarch64 (compiled on CI) using aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc (Debian 6.3.0-18) 6.3.0 20170516
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806] Starting config file parsing (/etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf)
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    SOCKET_LISTENING: only local
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    AAAA_QUERY_ANALYSIS: Show AAAA queries
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    MAXDBDAYS: max age for stored queries is 365 days
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    RESOLVE_IPV6: Resolve IPv6 addresses
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    RESOLVE_IPV4: Resolve IPv4 addresses
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    DBINTERVAL: saving to DB file every 3600 seconds
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    DBFILE: Using /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.db
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    MAXLOGAGE: Importing up to 24.0 hours of log data
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    PRIVACYLEVEL: Set to 0
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.091 29806]    IGNORE_LOCALHOST: Show queries from localhost
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    BLOCKINGMODE: Null IPs for blocked domains
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    ANALYZE_ONLY_A_AND_AAAA: Disabled. Analyzing all queries
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    DBIMPORT: Importing history from database
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    PIDFILE: Using /var/run/pihole-FTL.pid
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    PORTFILE: Using /var/run/pihole-FTL.port
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    SOCKETFILE: Using /var/run/pihole/FTL.sock
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    SETUPVARSFILE: Using /etc/pihole/setupVars.conf
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    MACVENDORDB: Using /etc/pihole/macvendor.db
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    GRAVITYDB: Using /etc/pihole/gravity.db
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    PARSE_ARP_CACHE: Active
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    REGEX_IGNORECASE: Disabled. Regex is case sensitive
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806]    CNAME_DEEP_INSPECT: Active
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806] *****************************
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.092 29806] * Debugging enabled         *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_DATABASE        NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_NETWORKING      NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_LOCKS           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_QUERIES         YES *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_FLAGS           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_SHMEM           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_GC              NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_ARP             NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_REGEX           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_API             NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_OVERTIME        NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_EXTBLOCKED      NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_CAPS            NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] * DEBUG_DNSMASQ_LINES   NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] *****************************
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.093 29806] Finished config file parsing
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.096 29806] Database version is 5
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.096 29806] Database successfully initialized
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.097 29806] New upstream server: 127.0.0.1 (0/128)
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.113 29806] Resizing "/FTL-strings" from 4096 to 8192
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.128 29806] Resizing "/FTL-strings" from 8192 to 12288
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.153 29806] Resizing "/FTL-queries" from 229376 to 458752
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.160 29806] Resizing "/FTL-strings" from 12288 to 16384
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.214 29806] Resizing "/FTL-strings" from 16384 to 20480
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.240 29806] Resizing "/FTL-queries" from 458752 to 688128
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.277 29806] Resizing "/FTL-strings" from 20480 to 24576
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.304 29806] Resizing "/FTL-queries" from 688128 to 917504
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.306 29806] Imported 12473 queries from the long-term database
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Total DNS queries: 12473
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Cached DNS queries: 6811
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Forwarded DNS queries: 3991
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Blocked DNS queries: 1618
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Unknown DNS queries: 53
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Unique domains: 1138
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Unique clients: 10
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806]  -> Known forward destinations: 1
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.307 29806] Successfully accessed setupVars.conf
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.315 29808] PID of FTL process: 29808
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.315 29808] Listening on port 4711 for incoming IPv4 telnet connections
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.316 29808] Listening on port 4711 for incoming IPv6 telnet connections
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.316 29808] Listening on Unix socket
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.318 29808] Reloading DNS cache
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.318 29808] Blocking status is enabled
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] *****************************
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * Debugging enabled         *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_DATABASE        NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_NETWORKING      NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_LOCKS           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_QUERIES         YES *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_FLAGS           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_SHMEM           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_GC              NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_ARP             NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_REGEX           NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_API             NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_OVERTIME        NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_EXTBLOCKED      NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_CAPS            NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] * DEBUG_DNSMASQ_LINES   NO  *
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.319 29808] *****************************
[2020-02-11 21:29:28.351 29808] Compiled 1 whitelist and 23 blacklist regex filters in 15.0 msec

echo ">reresolve >quit" | nc 127.0.0.1 4711

gives

[2020-02-11 21:32:47.781 29808] Received API request to re-resolve host names
[2020-02-11 21:32:48.175 29808] Done re-resolving host names

No PTR requests in pihole dashboard

Please also add

DEBUG_API=true

in your /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf and run

pihole ftl tweak/more_resolve_details

to receive a modified version of FTL that should show a lot more debugging messages related to host name resolving.

Please re-run

echo “>reresolve >quit” | nc 127.0.0.1 4711

afterwards and check the output in /var/log/pihole-FTL.log.