Use router device names (fritzbox) and pihole

Help
1

Hello,
I have setup a pihole in a docker as local dns as well as upstream dns in my 7590 configuration.
What i'm struggling to achieve is what is described here

which is to have access to a device via the name reported in the router device list without the need to add it as a local DNS records.
For those devices that broadcast their mdns it doesnt seem a problem although their mdns address do not appear anywhere unless i do a scan so one needs to know them.
I have seen some script sniffing on port 53 and populate the /etc/host of the hosting machine but it felt like a little bit of an hack.

Is there a way with the current setup?

2

That's what Conditional Forwarding is for, accessible via Settings | DNS.

3

Really appreciated

EDIT:
@Bucking_Horn
for whatever reason the host on which pihole is running (x.x.x.52), which in the router it is called "server", sometimes it is displayed as a really long ascii string instead of its name
Is there a reason why this specific device is behaving differently?

I'm also getting

Warning in `dnsmasq` core:
Maximum number of concurrent DNS queries reached (max: 150)
Check out [our documentation](https://docs.pi-hole.net/ftldns/dnsmasq_warn/) for further information.

which seems related to the conditional forward although i'm not sure whether this is because a dns loop (!?)

This is what i see

image
image965×821 36.9 KB

4

I am taking a stab in the dark here, but often the Maximum Concurrent DNS Queries issue is cause when you have Conditional Forwarding set to be the IP address of your router, and the router has its WAN DNS settings to be the IP address of the Pihole device.

You should typically only use the IP address of the Pihole for LAN (or DHCP, depends on hardware) DNS settings. This is the information your router will provide to client devices on your network for where to get DNS information; the WAN DNS tells the router where it (and only it) will go for DNS resolution. This almost always should be a public DNS server like 1.1.1.1, 9.9.9.9 or 8.8.8.8.

If you are using Conditional Forwarding, you should not have your router (WAN) DNS pointing back to the Pihole, or you'll create a loop and this error occurs.

There are other conditions that can cause this, but the above is pretty typical when folks are trying to get set up.

5

I'm definitely in the scenario you are describing.
I've come across this Pi-Hole setup with a FritzBox! · GitHub which seems to have resolved the warning although it seems my dns records are not getting updated (? i need to test a bit).
Does that mean that my WAN DNS cannot pass through the pihole? is there any downside to that?

6

Look at it this way: the only thing that will be using public DNS queries will be those your router makes directly (as in, the operating system running on the router). What are the chances it will try to go to a rogue DNS for queries? All it will do is make queries to verify it's connected to the Internet and occasionally check for firmware updates.

7

IMHO the best setup is the following :

  • Forget about your Router doing any DNS for you : You have Pi-Hole + Unbound for that !!
  • Obviously make sure the DHCP Server on the Router hands out the IP address of your Pi-Hole as the Primary and Secondary (or eve more if possible) DNS Server...
  • Make sure all IP's on your network are either Static IP's configured on the Client or have a Static DHCP Mapping based on the MAC Address of the Client.
  • Now go ahead and create DNS Records for all these IP addresses in your Pi-Hole webGUI or via the custom.list file when using SSH to modify stuff.

Result :

One happy Pi-Hole user who has DNS Name Resolving for all his Clients on the network and can see them all in the webGUI doing DNS Queries and stuff :grin:

8

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