Trying [and failing] to use dnsmasq to unblock BBC exclusively

[darkfinger]

Hi,
My interest is in watching BBC iPlayer abroad. I followed some instructions on the "DNS redirect for specific hosts" thread (many thanks to the contributors) with DNS Filtering and using an unblocking service. Unfortunately, while I've had good success with BBC, my setup often (not always) causes problems with Netflix. I have zero interest in unblocking Netflix, only the BBC, so I've looked into a way to only use unblock with BBC domains.

Based on this thread I did some more research and which led me to making changes with dsnmasq.conf.add. I haven't been able to get this to work at all on 380.59. My dnsmasq.conf.add contains lines like:

server=/bbc.co.uk/uuu.xxx.yyy.zzz

and I see these lines in the system log.

I wonder whether I'm doing something wrong. Perhaps there are interactions I'm not aware of (I've tried with DNS filtering on and off), and if there is a way for me to check that these DNS servers are being used for these domains.

Many thanks for any pointers.

Dave

 

[ColinTaylor]

service=/bbc.co.uk/uuu.xxx.yyy.zzz

I presume you mean "server="?

I doubt that iPlayer only uses the bbc.co.uk domain. Try turning on logging for dnsmasq (log-queries=extra), then trying iPlayer again. Check the syslog to see what domains it is querying.

 

[darkfinger]

Colin,

Yes, sorry, server=. I amended the post to avoid confusion.

I will add log-queries. I did search for the various BBC domains recommended, so I have a bunch. Likely I missed some that the Roku iPlayer app uses.

Many thanks,
Dave

 

[darkfinger]

Update on this. I've had some reasonable success by adding domains which are queried during an iPlayer session. Right now I have around 10, but every now and again iPlayer will complain and I need to exit iPlayer entirely and try again. Makes me think it is either randomly using some domains which I haven't pushed to the unblocker or some domains are being returned from the DNS server which are subsequently used.

I am wondering whether I could attack this the other way by making all the traffic from the Roku box go to the unblocker but use /server= with a bunch of netflix domains? Pretty perverse anyway (I do wish that the unblocker service could just allow me to choose which services I wanted).

Dave