Mysterious DNS resolutions RT-AX86U + 388.1

[DogsSchrodinger]

The situation is the following:

Previously I set up domains for my home PC and MacBook on DHCP Settings by assigning them a static IP and a hostname. This worked well, but I decided to use dnsmasq instead, because it's more capable, and because I wanted to dive a bit deeper.

I had problems with DNS resolution after the fact (intermittently not working on public sites, on YT, video stops, on Apple TV the whole thing needs a restart) and I tried to roll back a few of my changes, turning off Guest Networks, WireGuard VPN Server deleting the dnsmasq config under /jffs/configs and all deleting all manually assigned IPs. I only left in the 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 WAN DNS setting.

Also, I decided to move to 172.16.0.0/16 because I need more addresses for long-term homelab projects (k3s cluster). Previously I was on 192.186.0.0/24.

What suprised me completely is that DNS resolution on local hosts still work. My router's domain is .home., and I set up both windows.home and macbook.home as I mentioned previously. Even though I nuked everything I did, both still resolve.

Why is that?

Also, what is the best way to set something like this up?

Sorry if these questions are a bit silly, I don't have much experience in networking, the main reason I'm doing this is to get more.

 

[naznaznaz]

Version 388.1 is problematic. I recommend going back to version 386 until version 388.2 is released.

 

[DogsSchrodinger]

I'm not sure if my "problem" is related to the new FW.

I think it's a configuration error on my part, and I'm really not sure how DNS resolution can work without all of these settings.

The only thing I did is that I fixed the IP of my Windows PC under DHCP settings.

My dnsmasq.conf under /etc/ looks like this:

Edit: Obviously the router was rebooted multiple times by now after the changes. Yet macbook.home resolves the totally dynamic IP (172.16.0.249) and windows.home resolves to 172.16.0.10.

pid-file=/var/run/dnsmasq.pid
user=nobody
bind-dynamic
interface=br0
interface=pptp*
no-dhcp-interface=pptp*
no-resolv
servers-file=/tmp/resolv.dnsmasq
no-poll
no-negcache
cache-size=1500
min-port=4096
domain=home
expand-hosts
bogus-priv
domain-needed
local=/home/
dhcp-range=lan,172.16.0.2,172.16.0.254,255.255.0.0,86400s
dhcp-option=lan,3,172.16.0.1
dhcp-option=lan,15,home
dhcp-option=lan,252,"\n"
dhcp-authoritative
interface=br1
dhcp-range=br1,192.168.101.2,192.168.101.254,255.255.255.0,86400s
dhcp-option=br1,3,192.168.101.1
interface=br2
dhcp-range=br2,192.168.102.2,192.168.102.254,255.255.255.0,86400s
dhcp-option=br2,3,192.168.102.1
dhcp-host={windows MAC},set:{windows MAC},172.16.0.10
dhcp-name-match=set:wpad-ignore,wpad
dhcp-ignore-names=tag:wpad-ignore
dhcp-script=/sbin/dhcpc_lease
script-arp
edns-packet-max=1280

 

[ColinTaylor]

What suprised me completely is that DNS resolution on local hosts still work. My router's domain is .home., and I set up both windows.home and macbook.home as I mentioned previously. Even though I nuked everything I did, both still resolve.

If a client uses DHCP to obtain its IP address its host name will usually be registered with the DNS server at the same time. So there is no need to manually assign a host name.

RFC 4702: The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Client Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) Option

EDIT: Windows also has other methods of name resolution apart from DNS, e.g. NetBIOS.

Version 388.1 is problematic. I recommend going back to version 386 until version 388.2 is released.

What has that got to do with DNS?

 

[naznaznaz]

What has that got to do with DNS?

When you install a clean 386 version, you will see that it is fixed.

 

[DogsSchrodinger]

If a client uses DHCP to obtain its IP address its host name will usually be registered with the DNS server at the same time. So there is no need to manually assign a host name.

RFC 4702: The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Client Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) Option

EDIT: Windows also has other methods of name resolution apart from DNS, e.g. NetBIOS.


What has that got to do with DNS?

I think that's the answer, I had a feeling it's something silly. Thanks!

On this note, is there a good thread about asking lesser questions, mostly educational about?

 

[ColinTaylor]

On this note, is there a good thread about asking lesser questions, mostly educational about?

Not really. Some questions are best answered by Google searches and Wikipedia if they're not specifically related to a particular router. Otherwise Merlin questions (of any level) can be posted here. Or more general questions could be posted here:

Routers

Hardware routers, wired only. Post about Wireless routers in the Wireless Networking Forums.

www.snbforums.com

General Wireless Discussion

www.snbforums.com