Where to set DNS?

[Rumboogy]

I have an old RT-N66 that I am trying to re-purpose. I would like to set the it to use the CleanBrowsing DNS. But I see two places to set a DNS - under the LAN menu and also under the WAN menu. Which of these locations would be the correct one for accomplishing this?

Here are the detailed paths to the two locations in the menu mentioned above:
LAN -> DHCP Server -> DNS Server
WAN -> Internet Connection -> Connect to DNS Server automatically

 

[ColinTaylor]

Leave the LAN DNS servers blank so the clients use the router's DNS. Then set the WAN DNS to not be automatic and put the CleanBrowsing IP's in there.

 

[Rumboogy]

Thanks. I tried it both ways and both seem to "work" either. By "work" I mean that dnsleaktest.com shows cleanbrowsing.org as the DNS server name. But if I set the DNS under the LAN menu, then it seems breaks being able to connect to the router using the router.asus.com address. So your solution seems to be the superior one.

Is there some webpage that describes the difference in detail between setting DNS in these two locations? I want to understand this more deeply. The ASUS documentation is useless in its description of these settings.

 

[distilled]

I don't know a webpage, but it is pretty simple - the DNS on the WAN page is what the router itself uses, and the DNS on the LAN page are what the router hands your clients. If the clients get the router address as DNS (blank LAN DNS) the clients will use the router for DNS, which means the clients will be using the DNS configured in WAN.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks. I tried it both ways and both seem to "work" either. By "work" I mean that dnsleaktest.com shows cleanbrowsing.org as the DNS server name. But if I set the DNS under the LAN menu, then it seems breaks being able to connect to the router using the router.asus.com address. So your solution seems to be the superior one.

Using the LAN option the clients will send their queries directly to the CleanBrowsing server which has no knowledge of router.asus.com or any of your other LAN clients names. Telling the clients to use the router as their DNS server means that you can resolve all your local names including router.asus.com. It's also faster because it caches DNS requests.

Is there some webpage that describes the difference in detail between setting DNS in these two locations? I want to understand this more deeply. The ASUS documentation is useless in its description of these settings.

If you hold the mouse pointer over the field names and click you get pop-up help for most fields. Beyond that there's no extra Asus-specific documentation as these are basic networking options. Google for information on how DHCP and DNS work.

 

[Rumboogy]

Distilled and Colin, thanks for your responses.

Your are right, it is simple. I just did not understand the subtle differences between these two and now I do!