Cannot resolve/change local domain

[TheDaveAbides]

I have an RT-AX58U, running latest 386.4.

I can't seem to change the '.local' domain to anything else. I was using DNSFilter but have since turned it off. No matter what I put in the Router's domain name (like home or lan), it still only resolves 'router.local' instead of 'router.lan'. However, using Adguard Home, I do see that change reflected in a client list. So something is going on, but it's not being reflected, but it's not resolving correctly.

Reason I need to change the domain is because there's an issue with Unraid. Something on there has an issue with the '.local' domain (which is odd, since that's its default). There is a TLD setting there, but changing that doesn't seem to do anything. I'm considering reverting back to the stock firmware, but I'd like to know if there's anything else I can check first. Thanks.

 

[ColinTaylor]

routername.local resolves in addition to your specified DNS host name because .local is used by avahi/mDNS. Consequently ".local" should never be used as a DNS domain name.

Check the contents of your router's hosts file:

# cd /etc
# cat hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.1 RT-AX86U.home.lan RT-AX86U
192.168.1.1 RT-AX86U.local
192.168.1.1 router.asus.com
192.168.1.1 www.asusnetwork.net
192.168.1.1 www.asusrouter.com

 

[TheDaveAbides]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to eliminate. I'm having an issue with avahi/mDNS, apparently it doesn't like the .local. So I'm trying to remove that domain. Changing it in the Unraid TLD settings does nothing. Not to turn this into Unraid support, I'm just trying to understand my router's role in this. When I put 'home' into the domain, I would expect 'router.home' to resolve to the router, but it doesn't, though 'router.local' does. I thought if I put 'home' as the router domain and 'home' into Unraid TLD, I would get rid of the .local issue.

Thank you for your helpful insights.

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.50.1 router.home router
192.168.50.1 router.local
192.168.50.1 router.asus.com
192.168.50.1 www.asusnetwork.net
192.168.50.1 www.asusrouter.com

 

[ColinTaylor]

I don't think this is related to your Unraid problem. The "router.local" entry is just a hard coded host name for the router (used if you enable the router's Time Machine or iTunes Server). It isn't using ".local" as the local DNS domain so shouldn't have any effect on your LAN clients.

That said, I don't know why you can't resolve router.home as that is present in the hosts file as well.

What do you get from nslookup router.home 192.168.50.1

 

[TheDaveAbides]

@router:/tmp/etc# nslookup router.home 192.168.50.1
Server:    192.168.50.1
Address 1: 192.168.50.1 router.home
Name:      router.home
Address 1: 192.168.50.1 router.home

If I run nslookup while logged into my Mac, not the router, there's #53 in the address field

 

[ColinTaylor]

@router:/tmp/etc# nslookup router.home 192.168.50.1
Server:    192.168.50.1
Address 1: 192.168.50.1 router.home
Name:      router.home
Address 1: 192.168.50.1 router.home

If I run nslookup while logged into my Mac, not the router, there's #53 in the address field

So everything on the router is working as expected.

 

[TheDaveAbides]

Please forgive my denseness. But shouldn't going to 'router.home' in a browser resolve to '192.168.50.1' instead of doing a google search (or adding http/s will say it can't find the server)? Like when I type 'router.local' I get that expected behavior.

 

[Jack Yaz]

Try explicitly using http://router.home

Your browser is trying to be helpful and failing

 

[TheDaveAbides]

Try explicitly using http://router.home

I have, but http and https, same result. I'm also running NextDNS on the router, might there be an issue there?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Please forgive my denseness. But shouldn't going to 'router.home' in a browser resolve to '192.168.50.1' instead of doing a google search (or adding http/s will say it can't find the server)? Like when I type 'router.local' I get that expected behavior.

It sounds like you have a name resolution problem on the client. Issue these commands from the client device:

ping router.home
nslookup router.home

... I'm also running NextDNS on the router, might there be an issue there?

Possibly. Are you using the CLI package or just pointing the router's WAN DNS at the NextDNS servers?

 

[TheDaveAbides]

I'm using the CLI package for NextDNS.

nslookup and ping show the correct internal IP.

I get the same result when using my iPhone as well.

Except I figured it out. My phone and Mac on wifi were using Adguard Home as DNS provider, and I must not have properly set that up for local DNS. When I plugged in the Mac, using http://router.home gave me the expected result. Since it's a thunderbolt doc, it gets different DNS settings. Sorry about that. Now to figure out my Unraid issue.