[Solved. Kind of.] TP-Link router/modem automatically changed internal network IP from 192.168.1.0 TO 192.168.0.0 , rendering the just set up Pi-hole useless

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1

Expected Behaviour:

After following every step in this tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X6KYN1cQ1Y) to set up Pi-hole , I expected all my routers to work with the just set up Pi-hole.

I used the 192.168.1.0 network during the setup of both router/modem and Pi-hole.

Following the steps above , I have success with my D-Link router/modem (D-Link Wireless N300 DSL-G225) using Pi-hole with my new ISP.

But my TP-Link router/modem (i.e. TP-Link Archer VR600v AC1600) is a different story.

Actual Behaviour:

TP-Link router/modem automatically changed internal network IP from 192.168.1.0 TO 192.168.0.0 , rendering the just set up Pi-hole useless.

This automatic change took place when I specified the TP-Link router/modem to use the static IP address of Pi-hole (192.168.1.201) as the primary DNS IP.

Bottom line is I cannot get my TP-Link router/modem to work with Pi-hole.

Debug Token:

Not possible to run.

More information that may be relevant:

My TP-Link router/modem fails to work with Pi-hole in the manner descrbied above only after my recent change of my ISP (internet service provider).
My old ISP uses dynamic external IP address .
My new ISP gave me an external static IP address.

The fact that D-Link Wireless N300 DSL-G225 works with Pi-hole even using the new ISP seems to prove that there is nothing wrong with the ISP's static IP address.

It seems to suggest something is wrong with my TP-Link router/modem.

Please advise.

Thanks a million.

2

Well, I agree because

is really odd behavior and definitely incorrect.

We need some more details about your network topology (a photo of a paper sketch is fine, too). If your setup is like

Internet (some static IP):
   D-Link DSL (192.168.1.0 network):
      TP-Link Archer (192.168.1.0 network):
         Pi-hole
         all other devices

then the router is correct in rejecting 192.168.1.0 as you'd have two networks with the same address space which is a misconfiguration. In this case, I'd suggest specifying 192.168.0.0 for the first network (the one of the D-Link modem) and leave 192.168.1.0 for the TP-Link-based network.

3

Thanks for the reply.

I only use 1 router/modem in the whole setup at any one time. A simple home setup.

The topoloy is:

Internet (some static IP):
D-Link DSL (192.168.1.0 network):
Pi-hole
all other devices

and then after getting rid of D-Link rotuer/modem --- >

Internet (some static IP):
TP-Link Archer (192.168.1.0 network):
Pi-hole
all other devices

I tried both TP-Link and D-Link one at a time in order to make sure it is possible to set up Pi-hole using my ISP's given static IP address.

By the way , I could successfully set up Pi-hole as the DHCP server , with TP-Link as the DHCP relay.

But I just cannot set up Pi-hole as the DNS server with TP-Link as the router/modem.

Edit:
Before the change of ISP to the the new ISP (external static IP address) , I had never had any problem using Pi-hole as the DNS server with TP-Link as the router/modem.
The old ISP used external dynamic IP address,

4

This is really weird but clearly is a bug of the Archer router.

Do you enable some setting for this? Be aware that this may involve some drawbacks as well, I'm unfamiliar with such an option on routers (shouldn't be needed but this router seems to be doing strange things).

5

I only enabled DHCP relay on my TP-Link as a proof of concept.

I have never used my TP-Link as DHCP relay in the past.

6

Solution:

My TP-Link Archer VR600v definitely cannot work with Pi-hole after I changed my ISP to one that provides me with a static IP address.

So I decided to ditch this TP-Link router and start using D-Link router.

Note that TP-Link router failed to work even after making sure the Primary DNS Server in Local Area Network section is 192.168.?.? (the IP address of the router)

7

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