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Only one DNS server in DHCP?

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LoneWolf

Senior Member
Minor annoyance, but definitely there...I noticed it, but haven't commented until now.

Is there any reason the RT-AC66 (and I'm guessing the N66) only have an option for one DNS server in DNS? Almost every router I know of has a fallback DNS address. This is kind of a big deal for me, since if my home server (which is my primary DNS) is down, I'd really like to have a second outside DNS for internet access provided through DHCP. It seems like a bit of an oversight considering that I've never seen another router that didn't offer a primary and a secondary option.
 
Minor annoyance, but definitely there...I noticed it, but haven't commented until now.

Is there any reason the RT-AC66 (and I'm guessing the N66) only have an option for one DNS server in DNS? Almost every router I know of has a fallback DNS address. This is kind of a big deal for me, since if my home server (which is my primary DNS) is down, I'd really like to have a second outside DNS for internet access provided through DHCP. It seems like a bit of an oversight considering that I've never seen another router that didn't offer a primary and a secondary option.

Asuswrt has the router run as a DNS proxy (that's the short version of it). That field on the DHCP page will usually contain your router's IP (that's the default when it's left empty), which means your clients will get your router's IP as the DNS, and then the router performs all DNS lookups using the DNS obtained either from your ISP, or manually entered on the WAN page. Having this means that your router can easily act as a caching server for DNS queries for your whole LAN, which can improve performances.

So if you wanted to use custom DNS servers, you would have to enter them on the WAN page, while leaving the DNS entry on the DHCP page untouched.
 
WAN DNS entries do not get pushed to client

I have an RT-AC66R FW 3.0.0.4.374.33. I have unexpected DNS results. It does not assign the 2 DNS ip's that I expect. Maybe someone else could please confirm. Below are different router settings and the corresponding DNS ip's pushed to the client. I used 3 different DNS ip's for testing purposes.

LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - blank
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - Yes
My clients get DNS of RT-AC66R's ip address 192.168.10.1

LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - blank
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - No
DNS Server1 - 10.1.10.1
DNS Server2 - 4.2.2.2
My clients get DNS of RT-AC66R's ip address 192.168.10.1

LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - 4.2.2.6
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - No
DNS Server1 - 10.1.10.1
DNS Server2 - 4.2.2.2
My clients get DNS 4.2.2.6 and 192.168.10.1


LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - 4.2.2.6
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - Yes
My clients get DNS 4.2.2.6 and 192.168.10.1

It appears the DNS Server1 and DNS Server2 do not work? And whatever ip you enter into the LAN DNS server ip, it gets assigned Primary and routers ip gets assigned Secondary DNS to clients.
 
I have an RT-AC66R FW 3.0.0.4.374.33. I have unexpected DNS results. It does not assign the 2 DNS ip's that I expect. Maybe someone else could please confirm. Below are different router settings and the corresponding DNS ip's pushed to the client. I used 3 different DNS ip's for testing purposes.

LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - blank
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - Yes
My clients get DNS of RT-AC66R's ip address 192.168.10.1

LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - blank
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - No
DNS Server1 - 10.1.10.1
DNS Server2 - 4.2.2.2
My clients get DNS of RT-AC66R's ip address 192.168.10.1

LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - 4.2.2.6
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - No
DNS Server1 - 10.1.10.1
DNS Server2 - 4.2.2.2
My clients get DNS 4.2.2.6 and 192.168.10.1


LAN, DHCP SERVER tab, DNS Server - 4.2.2.6
WAN, Connect to DNS Server automatically - Yes
My clients get DNS 4.2.2.6 and 192.168.10.1

It appears the DNS Server1 and DNS Server2 do not work? And whatever ip you enter into the LAN DNS server ip, it gets assigned Primary and routers ip gets assigned Secondary DNS to clients.

You can put two in your router for redundancy, but your router is the DNS gateway for all of your LAN client device's and it's IP address should be the DNS server of all clients (or if using DHCP, you shouldn't have to enter anything for the client and it will figure it out).

Or set it to auto & use DHCP w/ clients and everything will get DNS served by your ISP and locally by your router first.
 
It only allows the user to set a single DNS server, not both, because it is a DNS server, so it puts itself as the secondary DNS. For example, if i were to set my DNS server to 192.168.254.253 and instructed the ASUS router to use that as a DNS server, through DHCP it will assign the clients 192.168.254.253 and 192.168.254.1 as servers by default.
 

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