DNSMasq Config Adds Suddenly Not Working

[Parallax Abstraction]

Hey all. So I've been using dnsmasq.conf.add in the configs folder to have DNS for certain sites direct through another provider (basically, to have Netflix and other sites route through Borderless Internet, previously through Unblock-Us.) This has been working great but suddenly recently (possibly after I upgraded to 380.59), this has just suddenly stopped working. The file has same data in it that worked before but now it just doesn't. If I go to the Borderless Internet site (which is in the file), it says my DNS isn't configured properly for their service. If I set their DNS servers to instead be my global DNS servers, it works fine.

I haven't changed anything from when it previously worked until now beyond updating to 380.59. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if something broke. Can anyone assist? Thanks so much!

 

[RMerlin]

Check your system log, it will confirm whether the config file is seen by the firmware or not.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

So the system log does have this entry:

May 15 21:44:36 custom config: Appending content of /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf.add.

So it does appear to be loading in the file. But for some odd reason, the config doesn't appear to be working any more.

 

[RMerlin]

If you use DNSFilter or an OpenVPN client with policy-based routing, these two features can bypass your dnsmasq configuration.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

Nope, not using either of those. I just confirmed DNS Filtering is turned off and I've never used a VPN on this router. I'm really scratching my head as to what could have changed. I suppose I could just format my JFFS partition and recreate the file. Maybe something got messed up during my recent upgrade?

 

[RMerlin]

Nope, not using either of those. I just confirmed DNS Filtering is turned off and I've never used a VPN on this router. I'm really scratching my head as to what could have changed. I suppose I could just format my JFFS partition and recreate the file. Maybe something got messed up during my recent upgrade?

If the logfile says it found the file, then that part should be fine. You can confirm it by checking at the content of /etc/dnsmasq.conf.

Make sure you don't have clients using their own nameservers, and also that you didn't change the nameserver on the DHCP page, so clients can properly use the router's IP as their nameservers.

Also, reboot everything. These days, everything seems to have its own DNS cache. Browsers do, and Windows also has its own cache.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

Tried rebooting everything and no dice. The settings to properly show appended to dnsmasq.conf and my clients are just using the router as their DNS server but things still don't work through DNSMasq. If I change the router's entire DNS to the Borderless Internet servers and apply them, everything starts to work right away. This is so strange.

 

[RMerlin]

Without knowing what you are specifically configuring and how you are testing I can't help you any further than that, sorry.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

Fair enough. So here's the configuration I'm putting in the add file:

server=/netflix.com/192.169.69.169
server=/netflix.com/192.169.69.168
server=/pandora.com/192.169.69.169
server=/pandora.com/192.169.69.168
server=/borderlessinternet.com/192.169.69.169
server=/borderlessinternet.com/192.169.69.168

Pretty straightforward as you can see. Generally, this has been working great until just a couple of days ago.

 

[RMerlin]

Run an nslookup from one of the test computers to confirm that a) you are indeed using your router's IP as your DNS, and b) see what IP response you get from it.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

So this is very odd. As you saw above, I only have 3 sites listed in the .add file. Here's the nslookup results for each:

C:\Users\Parallax Abstraction>nslookup netflix.com
Server: router.asus.com
Address: 192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: netflix.com
Addresses: c6ff:1502::
198.255.21.2

C:\Users\Parallax Abstraction>nslookup pandora.com
Server: router.asus.com
Address: 192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: pandora.com
Addresses: c6ff:1502::
198.255.21.2

C:\Users\Parallax Abstraction>nslookup borderlessinternet.com
Server: router.asus.com
Address: 192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: borderlessinternet.com
Address: 192.169.69.186

So both Netflix and Pandora are resolving to the same address and it's definitely not a server for either of those services. The BI IP doesn't go to their web site but it's definitely in the range they're using.

 

[ColinTaylor]

So both Netflix and Pandora are resolving to the same address and it's definitely not a server for either of those services. The BI IP doesn't go to their web site but it's definitely in the range they're using.

This looks like it's probably working as expected.

The Netflix/Pandora stuff looks to be proxied through a US address and 192.169.69.186 is Borderless's (HYAS) website.

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

Yeah, that's what I thought too but nothing (including BI) detects I'm running through their servers unless I make them my hard coded universal ones in the DHCP Server tab of my router. Very odd. BI had some major DDoS issues over the weekend and this also coincides with that. I may also contact their support and see what's up. Thanks for your help everyone.