Too many queries made when 'Conditional Forwarding' is enabled

[deHakkelaar]

On Linux and Mac client PC's, whats outcome for below one ?

cat /etc/resolv.conf

Or if its Windows client PC, what does the DNS section display when run below one in a CMD prompt ?

ipconfig /all

Like @Therion87 mentions, you want clients to query the Pi-hole IP address directly and not via your router first.

You can test DNS lookups and blocking on a Linux/Mac/Windows client PC with below ones:

nslookup doubleclick.com

nslookup doubleclick.com <PIHOLE_IP_ADDRESS>

nslookup doubleclick.com 8.8.8.8

[agneev]

A restart of router and Pi solved that issue.

So ASUS routers send a few DNS queries every second to check if an internet connection is active or not... After I changed the WAN DNS from my Pi's IP to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, I noticed a downward spike in the graphs, but shortly, a spike in queries from localhost:

So I'm assuming that any DNS query the router will be making (like NS resolution for ping/traceroute) will be forwarded to the IPs set in WAN DNS settings?

[agneev]

@deHakkelaar

cat /etc/resolv.conf

For cat /etc/resolv.conf:

MacBook-Pro:~ Agneev$ cat /etc/resolv.conf

macOS Notice

This file is not consulted for DNS hostname resolution, address
resolution, or the DNS query routing mechanism used by most
processes on this system.

To view the DNS configuration used by this system, use:
scutil --dns

SEE ALSO
dns-sd(1), scutil(8)

This file is automatically generated.

domain RT-AC87U
nameserver 10.0.0.6
nameserver 10.0.0.1

For nslookup doubleclick.com:

MacBook-Pro:~ Agneev$ nslookup doubleclick.com
Server: 10.0.0.6
Address: 10.0.0.6#53

Name: doubleclick.com
Address: 0.0.0.0

[deHakkelaar]

@agneev

MacBook-Pro:~ Agneev$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 10.0.0.6
nameserver 10.0.0.1

The Mac has got two DNS servers configured.
This Mac will sometimes also query the not Pi-holed DNS server 10.0.0.1 resulting in the "pi.hole" name not resolving and ads leaking through.

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…

[agneev]

Yeah.

@Therion87

I now point my WAN DNS to 1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1, and use the LAN DHCP server to assign my clients the PiHole address for DNS for blocking purposes. This stopped the flood of DNS queries.

As @Therion87 suggested as a workaround, I had to point my WAN DNS towards 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

I can change the DNS servers on my Mac to 10.0.0.6 only.
But what about other devices in the household?; It's not possible to change DNS everywhere.

[deHakkelaar]

@Therion87 posted this bit:

@Therion87

and use the LAN DHCP server to assign my clients the PiHole address for DNS for blocking purposes.

He probably configured his routers DHCP service to push the Pi-hole IP address to his clients for DNS resolution
Can you post screenshots of your router's DHCP settings ?
If settings lacking/missing, you can disable the DHCP service on the router and use Pi-hole's own DHCP service as a replacement:

How do I use Pi-hole's built in DHCP server (and why would I want to)?

Using Your Existing Router For Network-wide Ad Blocking You might not need to use Pi-hole's DHCP server: In many home environments, your router also functions as your DHCP server. In this case, you can often set Pi-hole to be the DNS server for your network clients in the router's DHCP (or LAN) settings page, which allows all of your network clients to block ads simply by connecting to the network. Setting it up this way is also what makes Pi-hole very powerful for network-wide ad blocking. …

[agneev]

@deHakkelaar

He probably configured his routers DHCP service to push the Pi-hole IP address to his clients.

So did I.

@deHakkelaar

Can you post screenshots of your router’s DHCP settings ?

My WAN DNS currents points to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

[agneev]

But the thing is that the router advertises it's own server, and there is no way to disable that unless you turn off DHCP. I do not want to use pi hole as my DHCP server.

[deHakkelaar]

Aha Asus.
Read below posting.
Best bet, disable the DHCP service on the router and enable the one on Pi-hole.

Why are Adverts on Some Domains Not Blocked?

Expected Behaviour: Pi-Hole is operating successfully for many web sites. Actual Behaviour: However, I've noticed that some web sites (this one as an example - Australia's official weather forecasts & weather radar - Bureau of Meteorology) does not have it's advertisements blocked by Pi-Hole. However, if someone clicks on the displayed advertisement, Pi-Hole successfully blocks the advert web site from opening. Do I have something configured incorrectly, or is there something unusual about …

EDIT: our postings crossed but I believe this is the only option.

[agneev]

Alright. So if I use pi hole as my DHCP server, how does it deal with guest networks?

[deHakkelaar]

If the router doesnt block DHCP and/or DNS for those network segments, it should work.

EDIT: worst case, you can configure a bridge interface on Pi-hole that has a leg/connection to both networks.

EDIT2: below posting describes a bridge setup.
Though I made a mistake and the WiFi SSID and password should be configured in the wpa_supplicant config file.

Cant ssh into pi after reboot with pihole installed

Darn this gave me some headaches bc they changed things again Better put the IP on the bridge interface like below. In "/etc/network/interfaces": allow-hotplug eth0 iface eth0 inet manual allow-hotplug wlan0 iface wlan0 inet manual wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf wpa-ssid <YOUR_SSID_NAME> wpa-psk <PASSWORD> auto br0 iface br0 inet manual bridge_ports eth0 wlan0 In "/etc/dhcpcd.conf": interface eth0 nodhcp nodhcp6 interface wlan0 nodhcp nodhcp6 int…

[agneev]

What happens to my existing DHCP reservations set in the router, and can I still set reservations in the router's web UI?

[deHakkelaar]

DHCP reservations on the router will be lost.
The only place to set reservations is on the Pi-hole web GUI.

[agneev]

Android phones have weird hostnames. Is it possible to change hostnames of devices so it appears properly in the stats dashboard?

[deHakkelaar]

Not out of the box.
But maybe in some other way.
You have for example the "/etc/hosts" file on Pi-hole where you can configure names to IP.
Pi-hole reads this hosts file on startup.

[agneev]

But all devices connected through DHCP will still show up in my router's web UI, right?

[deHakkelaar]

No.
Devices will only advertise their hostname to Pi-hole during the DHCP process.
But why would you want those names to show on the router web GUI ?

[agneev]

Because I want to see how many devices are connected, how much bandwidth each is pulling, limit internet speeds on a device, from both the web UI and the ASUS Router app.

EDIT: Never mind, devices are showing up in the router's UI.

[deHakkelaar]

I cant think of anything to achieve that but maybe someone else does.

EDIT: our postings crossed again.
Keep in mind if you changed DHCP settings/server, the clients need to renew their DHCP leases to recieve new configured settings etc.
Disconnect & reconnect network or reboot them.