Diversion Ads only blocked on laptops

[CannaLucente]

Hi All,

I have been trying all day and searching the forum but couldn't find an answer. I am kindly asking your help...
I have installed Diversion Standard via amtm and it works very well for all my laptops (when I access the control panel via ssh and follow dnsmasq.log I can see the entries filtered for my devices).
However it doesn't work for any of my mobile devices (both Android and iOS) - I see no entries in the dnsmasq.log.
The above happens irrespective of whether I have an openVPN connection active or not.

Based on all the posts I have read, I have made the following config:

LAN --> DNS Filter tab:
- Enable DNS-based Filtering is ON
- Global Filter Mode is Router
I have no exceptions maintained

LAN --> DHCP Server tab:
DNS Server 1 and 2 are blank
All devices have a manual IP assigned and use the default DNS

WAN --> Internet Connection
Connect to DNS Server automatically - No
DNS Server 1 - 103.86.96.100
DNS Server 2 - 103.86.99.100

What else can I check? I have also tried:

- restarting the mobile devices but no luck (OnePlus 6t, OnePlus Nord, iPhone 7).
- disabling the ad-blocking features to make sure I could see ads on the laptops and I can see them so Diversion is working properly with them.

Not sure it may help but I will throw this in... I have read a number of pages saying Diversion won't work if the Accept DNS Configuration on the VPN client is set to Exclusive. In my case, it works perfectly. In other words, I see no different behaviour irrespective of setting it to Exclusive, Strict or switching the VPN completely off. In all cases, ads on the laptops are blocked and on the mobile phones aren't.

What else should I look at?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[dave14305]

For Android, ensure Private DNS is not enabled. Or are the WiFi connections on the phones somehow overriding the router IP as DNS?

 

[CannaLucente]

Thanks for your reply Dave14305. The private DNS is not enabled. I have read the note on the Diversion site mentioning new Android devices have DNS hardcoded but, from what I understood, this should be in theory addressed by activating the DNS filter...

By the way, differently from what I said earlier, having switched off and on again the VPN, I have now noticed the ads don't get blocked when the VPN is set to Exclusive. When I set it to Strict, Diversion works again for the laptop (and still doesn't for the mobile phones).

 

[bluepoint]

Thanks for your reply Dave14305. The private DNS is not enabled. I have read the note on the Diversion site mentioning new Android devices have DNS hardcoded but, from what I understood, this should be in theory addressed by activating the DNS filter...

By the way, differently from what I said earlier, having switched off and on again the VPN, I have now noticed the ads don't get blocked when the VPN is set to Exclusive. When I set it to Strict, Diversion works again for the laptop (and still doesn't for the mobile phones).

Android phones use DOH?

 

[CannaLucente]

Android phones use DOH?

I am not sure... how can I check?

By the way, I have just discovered that if I force the network configuration manually on the phone (rather than it being assigned from DHCP) and I only enter a single DNS (i.e. my router IP), Diversion works.

And now my next question... Rather than setting up the DNS manually on every mobile device, can I create a rule somewhere in the router to make sure that all DNS requests are rerouted to the router IP? I would have thought DNS filter was meant to do that, but obviously it's not enough...

EDIT: After having configured the DNS manually on the OnePlus 6t, Diversion has started to work on the iPhone too! I am losing my mind... Will try restarting the router to see if all stays consistent.

 

[dave14305]

Do you have IPv6 enabled?

 

[CannaLucente]

Do you have IPv6 enabled?

On the router it's disabled. On the phone it's active (as, for wifi, it can only be deactivated on rooted devices).

 

[bluepoint]

I am not sure... how can I check?

By the way, I have just discovered that if I force the network configuration manually on the phone (rather than it being assigned from DHCP) and I only enter a single DNS (i.e. my router IP), Diversion works.

And now my next question... Rather than setting up the DNS manually on every mobile device, can I create a rule somewhere in the router to make sure that all DNS requests are rerouted to the router IP? I would have thought DNS filter was meant to do that, but obviously it's not enough...

EDIT: After having configured the DNS manually on the OnePlus 6t, Diversion has started to work on the iPhone too! I am losing my mind... Will try restarting the router to see if all stays consistent.

Since it's an android phone pretty much it uses google DOH which will bypass dnsmasq therefore ads are not blocked. Its a good thing it let you override the DNS manually.

 

[CannaLucente]

OK thanks. After the restart of the router, this morning I have done some more tests.
It looks like it's a specific behaviour of the Oneplus 6t which gets 8888 as secondary DNS if set to receive config via DHCP.
The Oneplus Nord only gets my router IP as DNS.
Is there a command or something I can run to delete the device/connection history for my Oneplus 6t in the router so that it treats is as a brand new device? (On the mobile I can forget the wifi but it didn't help). I would like to try and start on a clean slate as the OS for the two Oneplus devices is the same so it's weird one gets the secondary DNS and the other one doesn't.

 

[CannaLucente]

I have finally found the issue and it is described in the thread

OnePlus Community

Introducing our new OnePlus Community experience, with a completely revamped structure, built from the ground-up.

forums.oneplus.com

Do you see any issue if I hard code my router IP as primary and secondary DNS in LAN --> DHCP Server --> DNS and WINS Server Setting?