Hello, friends.
So I've had my Pi-Hole setup for awhile now and it's great. I'd like to get Wireguard working with it, too, so I could browse the internet without loads of ads and trackers on the go.
However, small issue. All DNS traffic is forcibly routed to my ISP. If you need some details, I made this post on the Pi-Hole userspace.
I'm in America and my ISP is Spectrum. I was wondering if there's a way I could convince technical support to allow me to use a recursive DNS for privacy/security (more-so the second of the two) purposes, or if it is even possible to convince them to do this. I don't know if there's a specific number I should contact, email I should email to, or if I just have to endure the nightmare of getting passed around by customer service one Saturday. Any recommendations would be great.
An interesting note for anyone who's ISP is Spectrum, their DNS service, at least for me, uses OpenDNS with dnsmasq-2.57. That version of dnsmasq is over 10 years old. You see if this is the case for you with
dig CHAOS TXT version.bind @192.33.4.12 +short
dig CHAOS TXT version.bind @198.97.190.53 +short
Or something similar if those IP addresses are different for you. You can see that running those commands were a part of the steps I was asked to take in that Pi-Hole userspace post.
EDIT 1:
For those interested, here's some Github gist I found that shows how to use unbound + stubby for have a recursive DNS + DNS-over-HTTPS. There's also this from the DNS Privacy Project.
EDIT 2:
I seems that initial answer from the Pi-Hole forums was correct. There's probably something that was set in the firmware for the Netgear router that prevents me from setting up my own DNS servers. However, I notice on the router there's a "router mode" option that's on, which I can probably turn off, plug in my Pi to the Netgear device and have the Pi act as my router, thus letting me be able to use it as my DNS server as well. That or just suck it up and buy only a modem, not a router + modem combo.
I've never heard of spectrum doing this. I think it's an issue with your router. The steps you mentioned sound right, but I'm not seeing what you're seeing. I usually try to look at the advanced mode, which might have more info.
You could contact Netgear tech support, or consult their manual. Have you made sure you're on the latest firmware?
I tried to set the Pi-Hole as the DNS via the instructions here, and the exact settings for the Netgear router is under
Advanced -> Setup -> Internet Setup. Everytime I've set this, no hostnames can be resolved. I followed the Pi-Hole instructions to a tee, so I don't know if I'd be missing something. Currently, the Pi-Hole acts as the DHCP server.I don't even know how I would do this on this Netgear router. I see nothing in the settings to check for firmware updates, and I don't recall seeing anything in the manual. I guess I'd have to call their tech support.
Ok, I see the problem. Your router needs an external DNS server for it's internet setup.
You need to set DHCP to give your pihole server as the DNS to the computers INSIDE your network. It's impossible for your router to use your LAN DNS server on the WAN port.