RT-AC87U Local DNS Problem

[cliver]

Hi, I have been working fine for a few years now on some advice I got from this thread . Albeit, I have now upgraded my router nd the old 66 is now an AP upstairs.
The problem I am having is that I currently have no internet because Plusnet cancelled my account without my requesting it and, without going into details, I am now waiting for a new service to be provided.
My problem is that, since my WAN dsconnected, my local servers (I have a music server and a NAS among other things) are not reachable by client name within my LAN. I can get to them by IP but not by name.
Some facts:

1. All clients show a name in the router client list.
2. ipconfig at a client shows my router as the only DNS server.
3. In windows file explorer>network the clients show up by name but I can't open them.

I have tried flushing the dns cache to no avail.
I was expecting my LAN to carry on as normal while I wait for the new service to come up but it seems I was wrong.
I thought I have a grasp of the basics of DNS from my initial question a few years back. It seems I was wrong there as well
I attach My LAN and WAN DNS setup below.
Am I missing something obvious?
Any and all input appreciated.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Just a guess, but try turning off the WAN connection in the router's GUI (instead of letting it just fail to connect).

 

[cliver]

Just a guess, but try turning off the WAN connection in the router's GUI (instead of letting it just fail to connect).

Hi Colin,
That was one of the first things I tried. Sadly it made no difference.

 

[ColinTaylor]

So what do you get when you issue this sort of command from the Windows command prompt?

nslookup mydevice.home

 

[cliver]

I Get:

Server: UnKnown
Address: 10.0.0.1

Non-Authoratitive answer:
Name: ****
Address: 10.0.0.1

Which is odd as an ipconfig /all gives my router as the server for Gateway, DHCP, DNS and WINS

UPDATE:
Tried doing the same from Network Analysis Tools on the router and it gives the same results.
So I would conclude that my server isn't running a DNS server??

 

[ColinTaylor]

Ah OK I understand.

There's a router option called something like "redirect when WAN is down". That needs to be set to No.

EDIT: I think it's called "Enable WAN down browser redirect notice" at Administration > System.

 

[cliver]

I found a setting in Advanced Settings > Administration > System > "Enable WAN down browser redirect notice"
It was set to Yes although I didn't get any such redirect notices in the browser.
I set it to No but it doesn't appear to have made any difference.

 

[ColinTaylor]

What do you get from your nslookup now? Did you do a ipconfig /flushdns or reboot your PC after making the change?

 

[Deleted member 51572]

Hi, I have been working fine for a few years now on some advice I got from this thread . Albeit, I have now upgraded my router nd the old 66 is now an AP upstairs.
The problem I am having is that I currently have no internet because Plusnet cancelled my account without my requesting it and, without going into details, I am now waiting for a new service to be provided.
My problem is that, since my WAN dsconnected, my local servers (I have a music server and a NAS among other things) are not reachable by client name within my LAN. I can get to them by IP but not by name.
Some facts:

1. All clients show a name in the router client list.
2. ipconfig at a client shows my router as the only DNS server.
3. In windows file explorer>network the clients show up by name but I can't open them.

I have tried flushing the dns cache to no avail.
I was expecting my LAN to carry on as normal while I wait for the new service to come up but it seems I was wrong.
I thought I have a grasp of the basics of DNS from my initial question a few years back. It seems I was wrong there as well
I attach My LAN and WAN DNS setup below.
Am I missing something obvious?
Any and all input appreciated.

maybe turn off "Connect to DNS Server automatically" (WAN DNS Setting), then enter your router's own IP address for DNS Server 1 (LAN - DHCP Server). i'm just guessing here.

 

[cliver]

Yes I flushed dns.
Now getting

Server: UnKnown
Address: 10.xxx.xxx.xxx

Non-Authoratitive answer:
Name: ****.home
Address: 10.0.0.1

So, I'm now getting the router IP returned as the server but still server unknown.
I also notice that it's putting the .home in for me.
So, if I put

nslookup deviceid.home

It returns

deviceid.home.home

So I try

nslookup deviceid

It returns

deviceid.home

Both Non-authoratitive answers with IP 10.0.0.1

 

[cliver]

maybe turn off "Connect to DNS Server automatically" (WAN DNS Setting), then enter your router's own IP address for DNS Server 1 (LAN - DHCP Server). i'm just guessing here.

I see your train of though here but ipconfig /all on my clients all show that they are picking up the router for DNS?

 

[ColinTaylor]

OK I may have been making an incorrect assumption here. I was assuming that your router's IP address was not 10.0.0.1 but something like 192.168.1.1.

What is your router's IP address and subnet mask?

Can you post the unedited output of ipconfig /all from your PC?

Are you using any ad-blockers or DNSFilter on your router?

 

[Deleted member 51572]

I see your train of though here but ipconfig /all on my clients all show that they are picking up the router for DNS?

oh yes i get that (the DHCP server includes the router's IP as the DNS, in your current configuration) but i'm thinking because WAN DNS is set to 'connect automatically', and fails due to WAN down, perhaps that might be buggering things (techncial term doesn't hurt to give it a try, but i agree, probably won't make any difference.

 

[cliver]

Router is on
IP: 10.101.202.1
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

 

[cliver]

oh yes i get that (the DHCP server includes the router's IP as the DNS, in your current configuration) but i'm thinking because WAN DNS is set to 'connect automatically', and fails due to WAN down, perhaps that might be buggering things (techncial term doesn't hurt to give it a try, but i agree, probably won't make any difference.

I agree, I'll give it a go when I've chased down and replied to Colin

 

[dave14305]

The 10.0.0.1 responses are still coming from wanduck as part of the "redirect" feature.

 

[cliver]

The 10.0.0.1 responses are still coming from wanduck as part of the "redirect" feature.

I have set the setting in Advanced Settings > Administration > System > "Enable WAN down browser redirect notice" to NO and it's still happening.
Is there a setting somewhere I have missed?

 

[ColinTaylor]

The 10.0.0.1 responses are still coming from wanduck as part of the "redirect" feature.

Dave, is there another "NAT redirect" option in Merlin that might be doing this? John's firmware doesn't have anything like that.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I have set the setting in Advanced Settings > Administration > System > "Enable WAN down browser redirect notice" to NO and it's still happening.
Is there a setting somewhere I have missed?

If you can SSH into your router and issue the following command we might be able to see the problem.

iptables-save -t nat

 

[dave14305]

Dave, is there another "NAT redirect" option in Merlin that might be doing this? John's firmware doesn't have anything like that.

It's the same one he disabled, but wanduck seems to have a mind of its own when it's already in the down state, it seems. I don't know if restarting wanduck or restarting the firewall would help.

asuswrt-merlin.ng/wanduck.c at mainline.384 · RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - asuswrt-merlin.ng/wanduck.c at mainline.384 · RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com