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What does "WAN DNS Setting" do?

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binarydad

Regular Contributor
I currently have this pointing to my own internal DNS servers on my home network, but these are handed out to clients using my own DHCP server, so I'm not entirely sure what setting the values below actually does. Thanks.

upload_2018-8-8_8-8-18.png
 
I currently have this pointing to my own internal DNS servers on my home network, but these are handed out to clients using my own DHCP server, so I'm not entirely sure what setting the values below actually does. Thanks.

View attachment 13974
If your DNS server addresses are the ones shown, then there is nothing wrong with the setup you have. All DNS will be directed to that server.
 
The WAN DNS servers are what is used by the router itself, not the clients.
Let me clarify. Any DNS requests sent to the router will be directed to those addresses.
 
There are two places you can specify DNS server addresses:

- LAN > DHCP Server > DNS
- WAN > DNS

The DHCP Server DNS is what will be given to devices that get a DHCP address from the router.

The WAN DNS is what the router contacts.

For example, if you leave the DHCP DNS blank, then the router will be used for DNS for DHCP served devices, which in turn contacts either your ISP's DNS servers if you leave WAN DNS blank, or the servers you've set in WAN DNS.
 
The wan dns setting specify what your router will use for recursive dns or you can use the default thats provided by your ISP

The DHCP dns settings specify what your clients use for their recursive dns or you can use the default which is your router

These settings can be independent of each other and can typically be overwritten.
 
Regarding this, what is the advantage of leaving DHCP assigned LAN DNS blank or internal to router, then having WAN to external (Google)

Currently I have 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in both locations.
 
Regarding this, what is the advantage of leaving DHCP assigned LAN DNS blank or internal to router, then having WAN to external (Google)

Currently I have 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in both locations.
If you leave the DHCP DNS blanc, your router can do some caching of DNS requests for your LAN clients. If left filled out, your devices will each have to do that - and they don't share. Less latency I guess will be one of the benefits.
 
Regarding this, what is the advantage of leaving DHCP assigned LAN DNS blank or internal to router, then having WAN to external (Google)

Currently I have 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in both locations.
In addition to the performance benefit that @thelonelycoder mentioned, the other benefit is that you can resolve your local host names with DNS. So that's things like "johns-pc" or "myprinter". Obviously Google's DNS servers don't know what "johns-pc" is.
 
Thanks for the informative responses gents.
 
In addition to the performance benefit that @thelonelycoder mentioned, the other benefit is that you can resolve your local host names with DNS. So that's things like "johns-pc" or "myprinter". Obviously Google's DNS servers don't know what "johns-pc" is.
Wanted to mention this but left it out for simplicity: All DNS requests will go to google if you leave the DHCP DNS fields populated. That means google (or whatever DNS Server you enter there) knows all your client's names and interactions and likely stores that info somewhere to monetize/take advantage of.
 
Wanted to mention this but left it out for simplicity: All DNS requests will go to google if you leave the DHCP DNS fields populated. That means google (or whatever DNS Server you enter there) knows all your client's names and interactions and likely stores that info somewhere to monetize/take advantage of.
So in order to have this setup which in theory would be beneficial for gaming because of less latency which is what I need bc I’m a professional gamer would you fill out 75.75.75.75 & 75.75.76.76 in the WAN section and in the LAN/DHCP you would also fill out 75.75.75.75/75.75.76.76
 
So in order to have this setup which in theory would be beneficial for gaming because of less latency which is what I need bc I’m a professional gamer would you fill out 75.75.75.75 & 75.75.76.76 in the WAN section and in the LAN/DHCP you would also fill out 75.75.75.75/75.75.76.76
Which DNS server you use will not effect in-game latency.
 
So in order to have this setup which in theory would be beneficial for gaming because of less latency which is what I need bc I’m a professional gamer would you fill out 75.75.75.75 & 75.75.76.76 in the WAN section and in the LAN/DHCP you would also fill out 75.75.75.75/75.75.76.76
I wouldn’t fill in the LAN DHCP addresses because that would prevent you from letting your router cache external addresses from your (our) Comcrap DNS servers. Let your machines get DNS from your router and let your router get DNS from your ISP, if it’s truly the fastest DNS from your location. But as Colin says, it won’t improve your actual game traffic.
 
So in order to have this setup which in theory would be beneficial for gaming because of less latency which is what I need bc I’m a professional gamer would you fill out 75.75.75.75 & 75.75.76.76 in the WAN section and in the LAN/DHCP you would also fill out 75.75.75.75/75.75.76.76
So to summarize:
1) WAN DNS Setting: Leave what you have or use Automatic which I believe would be the same on Comcast
2) If using it, do likewise for IPv6
3) LAN DNS servers: Leave blank and enable "Advertise router's IP in addition to user-specified DNS". Leave "Forward local domain queries to upstream DNS" set to No.
4) Optional: Intercept DNS requests and serve locally by enabling DNS-based Filtering in Global Filter Mode "Router". Clear the contents of the three custom entries to avoid confusion.
5) Optional: If JFFS enabled, enable DNS negative caching to substantially reduce upstream lookups and serve locally.
Create and chmod 755 script /jffs/scripts/dnsmasq.postconf contents below:
#!/bin/sh
CONFIG=$1
source /usr/sbin/helper.sh
pc_delete "no-negcache" $CONFIG
pc_append "neg-ttl=3600" $CONFIG
 
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3) LAN DNS servers: Leave blank and enable "Advertise router's IP in addition to user-specified DNS".
The setting of "Advertise router's IP in addition to user-specified DNS" is ignored when the LAN DNS servers are blank (the router's IP will always be advertised otherwise nothing would work).
 
The setting of "Advertise router's IP in addition to user-specified DNS" is ignored when the LAN DNS servers are blank (the router's IP will always be advertised otherwise nothing would work).
I thought you filled out LAN/DHCP dns settings to whatever dns settings you choose to use for example I thought i would fill out lan dns settings which would be 75.75.75.75 & 75.75.76.76 and on wan I would leave it automatic and than I would set advertise router ip to no.
 

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