Trying to use Quad9 with new ASUS RT-AX88U Pro

[Tech9]

Maybe Zen is redirecting DNS to itself

Looks like nice ISP. I haven't seen this for a while.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

Looks like nice ISP. I haven't seen this for a while.

They are really good (see Trustpilot reviews). Easy to contact via phone, e-mail or chat and if using the CityFibre network (as here in Worcester), there are no mid-term contract price rises. I ditched BT last month, even though my contract wasn't due to end in December, because they had once again hiked the price (by around 14% this time), so even though I had to pay a penalty of £97, the savings I am making with Zen will cover that and next year I shall be better off, plus I get an even faster speed with Zen (~900/900 as opposed to ~500/72 with BT).

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Check your settings again. As I said no one complained there is DNS servers issue in Asuswrt-Merlin 388.2 firmware and I had a router running it until yesterday for like 10 days. Had to load stock Asuswrt 388_22525 to check something. This is the base for Asuswrt-Merlin 388.2 firmware.

@SomeWhereOverTheRainBow has RT-AX88U Pro running 388.2 firmware. If he never noticed any DNS issues on it - they don't exist.

Yea I didn't notice any DNS issues, however that doesn't mean they were not present in this user use case. Haha. Squad9 has been a mystery for me. I have seen people with regular issues with it, and people with geolocation issues as well. I cannot imagine there is a one size fits all for DNS. DNS tends to follow murphys law around here. Common symptom causes range any where from dns server location issues, to user misconfiguration.

 

[Smokey613]

No issues here using 388.2 and when I was using DNSDirector for specific devices.

Now I use AdGuard Home loaded on the AX86U Pro which works great.

I stopped using Quad9 a long time ago due to high latency and other “unexplainable” issues. My go to default DNS servers now are Cloudflare.

 

[Tech9]

I stopped using Quad9 a long time ago due to high latency and other “unexplainable” issues.

The same here in my area. It often has delayed responses perhaps due to local server overload. Sends requests to servers far away.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

The same here in my area. It often has delayed responses perhaps due to local server overload. Sends requests to servers far away.

I've set mine to use Cloudfare now as well. It does seem to be quicker.

 

[Tech9]

I would leave the setting above "Prevent auto client DoH" to default No though.

Seems like with the new router you have started a new playing with the settings cycle and I expect more threads to come.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

I would leave the setting above "Prevent auto client DoH" to default No though.

Seems like with the new router you have started a new playing with the settings cycle and I expect more threads to come.

I'm not rulling it out LOL.

 

[Tech9]

What happened to your AX88U? Replacing it with AX88U Pro is not really an upgrade. You may never notice the difference.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

What happened to your AX88U? Replacing it with AX88U Pro is not really an upgrade. You may never notice the difference.

There are a couple of noticeable differences involving the CPU processing spec, lan ports, and wan port. Otherwise I would say they are identical.

 

[Tech9]

Not a $300 worth in performance upgrade for sure. Eventually Pro firmware features at some point and longer expected firmware support.

 

[bbunge]

I've set mine to use Cloudfare now as well. It does seem to be quicker.

These are the settings I've been using for a while and they work very well even with DNSSEC enabled. The Cloudflare data center my router uses is in Reston, Va which is less than 100 miles away. Quad9 also has servers at the same data center but my ISP routes the Anycast address for Quad9 to data centers in Miami, Fl or NYC. For some reason I feel the ISP's do not like folks to use Quad9. It is not that their servers are overloaded or slow but, I feel, that they do not get friendly routing.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

What happened to your AX88U? Replacing it with AX88U Pro is not really an upgrade. You may never notice the difference.

I was having problems with the connection speeds with my new Zen Full Fibre (sometimes way below what they should have been), so I decided to just use the ISP's router (FRITZ!Box 7530 AX) and sell the ASUS device on ebay. However, the Wi-Fi range was somewhat lower on the FRITZ!Box and not surprisingly, there were fewer features on offer, plus there were only three available ethernet LAN ports, so I decided to keep it as a backup and revert back to using an ASUS router as my main device. One handy little feature on my new router is I can use the little button on the back of the router (or top in my case because it's wall-mounted) for turning the leds on and off, rather than have it allocated to the WPS function, which is normally disabled in my case.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

These are the settings I've been using for a while and they work very well even with DNSSEC enabled. The Cloudflare data center my router uses is in Reston, Va which is less than 100 miles away. Quad9 also has servers at the same data center but my ISP routes the Anycast address for Quad9 to data centers in Miami, Fl or NYC. For some reason I feel the ISP's do not like folks to use Quad9. It is not that their servers are overloaded or slow but, I feel, that they do not get friendly routing.

The only exception I have set is to use AdGuard for my mobile phone, as I don't have an ad blocker on it.

 

[Tech9]

so I decided to keep it as a backup and revert back to using an ASUS router

Got it. You wanted your Toyota Corolla back and the new model came with touch screen and 10hp more.

 

[bluzfanmr1]

These are the settings I've been using for a while and they work very well even with DNSSEC enabled. The Cloudflare data center my router uses is in Reston, Va which is less than 100 miles away. Quad9 also has servers at the same data center but my ISP routes the Anycast address for Quad9 to data centers in Miami, Fl or NYC. For some reason I feel the ISP's do not like folks to use Quad9. It is not that their servers are overloaded or slow but, I feel, that they do not get friendly routing.

@bbunge could you please explain what method you use to find out this info i.e. the distance to each server? I'm in a location where most dns providers are slower.

 

[bbunge]

Got it. You wanted your Toyota Corolla back and the new model came with touch screen and 10hp more.

What's wrong with a Corolla? Mine is getting 63 MPG. And does have a touch screen, too.

 

[Tech9]

What's wrong with a Corolla?

Nothing is wrong with it. @TheLyppardMan sold his by mistake and wanted it back.

 

[bbunge]

@bbunge could you please explain what method you use to find out this info i.e. the distance to each server? I'm in a location where most dns providers are slower.

DNS leak test

www.dnsleaktest.com

 

[Tech9]

Two more:

dnscheck.tools - check your dns resolvers

A tool to test for DNS leaks, DNSSEC validation, and more

dnscheck.tools

DNS Leak Test

The DNS Leak Test is a tool used to determine which DNS servers your browser is using to resolve domain names. This test attempts to resolve 50 randomly generated domain names, of which 25 are IPv4-only and 25 are IPv6-only.

browserleaks.com

Quad9 often takes me on a journey across the USA. Sometimes we may visit exotic destinations.