DNS Server Issue

[SilentStorm]

Hello,

I'm having some issues with DNS servers right now.

I want to change the DNS servers on my Asus Rog GT AC2900. I go into my WAN settings, set DNS servers to manual and use 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

When I go on my PC and type ipconfig /all, my DNS server is showing up as my Routers login page... 192.168.50.1

I've tried to release and renew but no avail.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[eibgrad]

I believe all that specifying static DNS servers on the WAN does it change the public DNS servers used by DNSMasq (from those of the ISP), the DNS proxy server managed by the router and assigned to clients by default via DHCP.

If you want your clients to be configured w/ those public DNS server directly (which btw denies them local name resolution, so I don't recommend it), you can reconfigure the DHCP server (via DNSMasq) to return those DNS servers rather than the router's LAN IP.

P.S. If you're using OEM/stock firmware, the latter may not be possible.

 

[SilentStorm]

I believe all that specifying static DNS servers on the WAN does it change the public DNS servers used by DNSMasq (from those of the ISP), the DNS proxy server managed by the router and assigned to clients by default via DHCP.

If you want your clients to be configured w/ those public DNS server directly (which btw denies them local name resolution, so I don't recommend it), you can reconfigure the DHCP server (via DNSMasq) to return those DNS servers rather than the router's LAN IP.

This is all new to me so I somewhat get what you're saying?

The thing is, on my old router, I can do the same thing (it was a TPLink, not a gaming router.)

I could go into WAN settings, change DNS settings and when I did ipconfig /all, it actually changed the DNS servers to the one I have set manually.

 

[SilentStorm]

I believe all that specifying static DNS servers on the WAN does it change the public DNS servers used by DNSMasq (from those of the ISP), the DNS proxy server managed by the router and assigned to clients by default via DHCP.

If you want your clients to be configured w/ those public DNS server directly (which btw denies them local name resolution, so I don't recommend it), you can reconfigure the DHCP server (via DNSMasq) to return those DNS servers rather than the router's LAN IP.

P.S. If you're using OEM/stock firmware, the latter may not be possible.

I see you just edited your comment.

I'm using Merlin firmware, latest version.

I've heard a lot of about DNS servers helping improve latency and what not, and I used DNSBenchmark as a reference. My router IP address is always the #1 on that list (192.168.50.1) but I'm not quite sure what it's referencing to here. The two behind my router were Google's DNS servers.

 

[eibgrad]

The thing is, on my old router, I can do the same thing (it was a TPLink, not a gaming router.)

I could go into WAN settings, change DNS settings and when I did ipconfig /all, it actually changed the DNS servers to the one I have set manually.

I can't speak for every router. Most consumer routers work similarly, and use DNSMasq (a DHCP+DNS server intended for small embedded systems) to manage a local DNS server, both for local name resolution and caching. So it's perfectly normal for your LAN clients to always be pointing to the router for DNS. It acts as a proxy, which then accesses the public DNS servers on their behalf.

 

[SilentStorm]

I can't speak for every router. Most consumer routers work similarly, and use DNSMasq (a DHCP+DNS server intended for small embedded systems) to manage a local DNS server, both for local name resolution and caching. So it's perfectly normal for your LAN clients to always be pointing to the router for DNS. It acts as a proxy, which then accesses the public DNS servers on their behalf.

Ah okay. I get it now.

So if I set the manual DNS servers in the WAN settings, the proxy is then communicating to those servers?

 

[eibgrad]

Ah okay. I get it now.

So if I set the manual DNS servers in the WAN settings, the proxy is then communicating to those servers?

Yes.

 

[SilentStorm]

Yes.

Makes sense. Thanks for your help.