Using pihole DHCP setup causes most traffic to fail

I finally got pihole working if I specify it on my desktop as my DNS server. Now I'm trying to get it working using the DHCP settings since my wifi router does not allow me to specify DNS servers. When I do that and reboot everything (raspberry pi, wifi router, and desktop), all of my devices connect fine. I'm able to load some pages (e.g. google.com and rottentomatoes.com) but every other page I've tried has failed.

Screenshot from the pihole admin console:

Screenshot from my router settings:

Expected Behaviour:

When using pihole DHCP settings, most webpages should still load normally

Actual Behaviour:

Most webpages fail to load

Debug Token:

https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/87i18t0quw

Your debug log shows that your Pi-Hole is working normally.

When you try to load other pages, are you seeing matching traffic from the client in the Pi-Hole log? This FAQ has a number of helpful tools to determine why desired content will not load. I recommend using them, and work with just one client at a time to simplify the troubleshooting.

Yes, I do see matching traffic in the logs, but the pages still aren't loading. It seems like something is going wrong with the DNS resolution. I'm not seeing anything in that article that would help with this particular issue. When i turn off the DHCP settings & reconnect to wifi then the page loads fine

Chrome error page when I browsed:

From the Pi terminal, are you able to dig and ping these domains successfully? If yes, then the problem lies in the browser and its settings. Or, you may be blocking some element of the page that the page needs to load in your location (the referenced tools can help here). Have you tried an alternate browser? Have you cleared the browser cache and restarted the browser?

Using Chrome browser on Mac (latest OS and latest Chrome), with no ad-blockers other than Pi-Hole, the following domains are requested when https://www.nba.com is loaded in the US (and the page loads normally):

* nba.com
* www.nba.com
* cdn.nba.net
* fonts.googleapis.com
* dpm.demdex.net
* agility.nba.com
* secure-us.imrworldwide.com
* www.googletagmanager.com
* cdn.branch.io
* js-sec.indexww.com
* static.criteo.net
* c.amazon-adsystem.com
* i.cdn.turner.com
* www.ugdturner.com
* cdn.krxd.net
* www.googletagservices.com
* d1z2jf7jlzjs58.cloudfront.net
* s.cdn.turner.com
* 5165526.fls.doubleclick.net
* fastlane.rubiconproject.com
* ib.adnxs.com
* data.nba.net
* geo.ngtv.io
* fonts.gstatic.com
* adservice.google.com
* lp.nba.net
* js-agent.newrelic.com
* nba.demdex.net
* z.cdn.turner.com

Yes, I can ping the sites from raspberry pi device. I tried this, but I don't think the problem is with the pi accessing the site; I think it's something to do with the DHCP setup. Here's an outline of what I've done--basically three tests that to me make it seem like this is a problem with the DHCP settings:

  1. Enable DHCP settings in pi-hole admin console
  2. Turn off DHCP settings on router
  3. Reboot pi, router, and desktop
  4. Connect to wifi on desktop
  5. Browse to rottentomatoes.com & page loads fine
  6. Confirm pihole is being used via query log
  7. Browse to nba.com & page does not load
  8. Confirm pihole is being used via query log
  9. Disable DHCP settings in pihole admin console
  10. Turn DHCP back on in router settings
  11. Restart wifi connection on desktop
  12. Browse to nba.com & it loads
  13. Confirm pihole is not being used in admin console
  14. Go to network settings on desktop, and specify pihole IP as DNS server
  15. Restart wifi connection
  16. Browse to nba.com & it loads
  17. Confirm pihole is used in admin console

Can repeat this ad nauseam with the same results

I think if this were a DHCP problem, it would affect all sites equally, as it would cause the same DNS problem all around.

Have you cleared the browser cache, tried another browser, looked at the web inspector feature of the browser for any errors that would indicate the page does not load?

Have you tried disabling Pi-Hole for 30 seconds and loading the nba page, without changing anything else?

Yep, just tried both of those again, clearing Chrome cache and trying Firefox. Still getting the same result. I did try a few more sites--it seems it's only "major" sites that will load, e.g. microsoft.com, facebook.com, linkedin.com, etc. Pretty much any "smaller" sites (including this one) do not load. If I disable pihole using the "pihole disable" command it does not change the behavior I'm seeing

Sounds like only ipv6 traffic?

That seems like it could be the issue. The original screenshot I posted of my router settings was just for IPv4. This is basically all I have for IPv6... would any of these settings work? Or is it just not going to be possible on my router?

image

Shouldn't you use 192.168.1.254 as gateway address in below settings:

image

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Wow, that was exactly the problem. Not sure why it was wrong in the first place as I never modified that, but thanks!!

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Good catch!

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Its the tiny little details :wink:

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