Stock firmware - Add manual DNS entry

[ARizk]

Hi,

I bought an Asus RT-AXE7800 some time ago and while it is working alright, I am unable to customize it to my liking.
Basically I want to add a manual DNS entry to forward requests to xxxx.com to a local IP, something I had been doing on my Pihole for some time.
Is that possible using this router?

More details:
I used PiHole to do this before but my connection would drop randomly every couple of days or so, causing all my DNS requests to fail - at the end I preferred stability so I removed the PI.
I also briefly had a mini-pc pulling Opnsense duty where I could do the same thing using Unbound + ADGuard but again it was not really stable and I'd lose my internet connection completely until I restart it.
Having the router on its own doing all roles has been rock solid for me but it seems I don't have anywhere to apply this setting.
There is also no merlin support for it so a custom FW solution does not seem likely.

 

[rung]

You can edit /tmp/etc/hosts but it won't survive a reboot.

 

[ARizk]

You can edit /tmp/etc/hosts but it won't survive a reboot.

Thanks - anyway to persist the change?

 

[rung]

There were tricks at one time, but I think most don't work anymore.

 

[bbunge]

Why won't the Pi stay online? I run Pi-Hole on a 3B+ connected with Ethernet and it runs and runs almost forever. Well, until I turn it off. Have run Boinc on the same Pi for months at a time on WIFI with no disconnect issues. Maybe it is a problem with Unbound. If you are concerned about DNS privacy just run Stubby (DoT) on the Pi before Pi-Hole. Works really well!

 

[ARizk]

Why won't the Pi stay online? I run Pi-Hole on a 3B+ connected with Ethernet and it runs and runs almost forever. Well, until I turn it off. Have run Boinc on the same Pi for months at a time on WIFI with no disconnect issues. Maybe it is a problem with Unbound. If you are concerned about DNS privacy just run Stubby (DoT) on the Pi before Pi-Hole. Works really well!

I am not sure to be honest. I run those headless so whenever an issue occurs, it is good luck finding what happened in one of the logs.
Connecting a display after the fact never worked for me.
I'll try again with the PI but use it only for DNS, not DHCP but add a secondary DNS to the router - maybe that would help.

 

[bennor]

I am not sure to be honest. I run those headless so whenever an issue occurs, it is good luck finding what happened in one of the logs.
Connecting a display after the fact never worked for me.
I'll try again with the PI but use it only for DNS, not DHCP but add a secondary DNS to the router - maybe that would help.

Properly setup Pi-Holes+ Unbound on headless Raspberry Pi's should not be dropping offline or otherwise crashing or having issues. Been using dual Pi Zero W and Pi 3B+ (for DNS only redundancy) for a number of years with Pi-Hole + Unbound on the local network, and once properly configured and using good boot storage media those Pi's run 24/7 without any issues or dropouts. While Asus may recommend using the Pi-Hole IP address(es) in the WAN DNS fields, Pi-Hole actually does not recommend that. Instead they recommend putting them only in the router's DHCP server's DNS fields. There are examples of basic how to setup Pi-Holes on Asus routers in these subforums, for example at this post (directions for stock Asus firmware should be the same/similar).

 

[ARizk]

Properly setup Pi-Holes+ Unbound on headless Raspberry Pi's should not be dropping offline or otherwise crashing or having issues. Been using dual Pi Zero W and Pi 3B+ (for DNS only redundancy) for a number of years with Pi-Hole + Unbound on the local network, and once properly configured and using good boot storage media those Pi's run 24/7 without any issues or dropouts. While Asus may recommend using the Pi-Hole IP address(es) in the WAN DNS fields, Pi-Hole actually does not recommend that. Instead they recommend putting them only in the router's DHCP server's DNS fields. There are examples of basic how to setup Pi-Holes on Asus routers in these subforums, for example at this post (directions for stock Asus firmware should be the same/similar).

Maybe there is a chance after all.
Connected the PI to a monitor and it seems like the SD card is on its last legs.
That's one mystery down.

I usually just use PiHole (when it works) for DHCP, as it is far superior from a usability point of view compared to the ASUS router.
Clicking save for example after adding the devices' MACs is not instantaneous and also drops the connection for a moment.
Also what's with that 64 device limit?

Thanks for the link - will have a go at it.

 

[ARizk]

The instructions in the linked post were good but not suitable for my case, because as previously mentioned, I only use PiHole (sometimes AdGuard) as both DHCP and DNS servers, never just DNS.
Thank you for the assistance though. I'll just continue reusing my PI for this purpose.

If anyone finds a way to do this through the router though that'd be great.
I prefer having the least amount of devices (required) for basic internet connectivity, as this reduces the points of failure and the troubleshooting headaches.