Seems like I could potentially get around my issue by taking the device out of this “router mode” setting I found and connecting my Pi to it via Ethernet cable and have the Pi be the router for my network.
EDIT: Actually, scratch that. I don’t think a Pi would be powerful enough to act as a router. Well, off to by a modem (not a combo) it is!
So something like this?
I don’t think there’s anything in the Pi-Hole VPN setup with Wireguard that says you need to open up port 53. In fact, in the Pi-Hole userspace you see so many people specifically saying to not open up port 53.
You’ve supplied the actual network address of your pihole machine and not the 192.168.1.250 address shown, right?
I could’ve sworn I did that but I’ll try again.
EDIT: Okay, I found the specific IP addresses for the Pi-Hole’s DNS servers. I tried putting the 2 IPv4 ones, clicked the applied button and got “Invalid IPs.” But what’s stupid is that I can ping those IPs. There’s something else going on here.
And you’ve set your pihole server up to have a static ip address as well, correct?
Yes I’m pretty sure it’s set to have a static IP address. I’m pretty sure it’s something you have to do when setting up the Pi-Hole.
the spectrum supplied router
Oh I should’ve clarified: this is one I bought myself, not one from Spectrum.___
I know there’s a way to do a recursive DNS with DNS-over-HTTPS. I believe there’s a guide out there on how to do this with unbound and stubby on OpenBSD.
I tried to set the Pi-Hole as the DNS via the instructions here, and the exact settings for the Netgear router is under Advanced -> Setup -> Internet Setup. Everytime I’ve set this, no hostnames can be resolved. I followed the Pi-Hole instructions to a tee, so I don’t know if I’d be missing something. Currently, the Pi-Hole acts as the DHCP server.
Have you made sure you’re on the latest firmware?
I don’t even know how I would do this on this Netgear router. I see nothing in the settings to check for firmware updates, and I don’t recall seeing anything in the manual. I guess I’d have to call their tech support.
It’s a combo. Most are these days, I believe, but I know Spectrum is weird and will give you a router AND modem if you just buy it through them. What device would you recommend? I don’t want to buy one just to find out I can’t set the Pi-Hole as the DNS server on a new one.
Here’s what the Pi-Hole installation says to do in the case of not being able to have your Pi-Hole be the DNS server for your router:
If your router does not support setting the DNS server, you can use Pi-hole’s built-in DHCP server; just be sure to disable DHCP on your router first (if it has that feature available).
So can I or can I not use unbound for a recursive DNS (I known you can do DNS-over-HTTPS with unbound and stubby)? Or am I misunderstanding the steps to eventually use my Pi-Hole as a VPN?
This is what Pi-Hole tells you to do, maybe I’m misunderstanding something: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-configure-my-devices-to-use-pi-hole-as-their-dns-server/245
EDIT: I’m specifying this because I cannot do what’s instructed in that link, and can only have the Pi-Hole be my networks DHCP server. As the post-install instructions say:
If your router does not support setting the DNS server, you can use Pi-hole’s built-in DHCP server; just be sure to disable DHCP on your router first (if it has that feature available).
As I said to someone else, it must be the Netgear modem. If I go to Advanced -> Setup -> Internet Setup and click Use These DNS Servers and put in the address for the Pi-Hole, it prevents me from doing so. Or, rather, I can set the addresses, but then I have no internet access. Hostnames don’t get resolved, so I’m wondering if I’m missing something?
Hmmm then it’s something with the modem I have then. I can’t set the DNS address. It’s some cheap Netgear modem. If I go to Advanced -> Setup -> Internet Setup and click Use These DNS Servers and put in the address for the Pi-Hole, it prevents me from doing so.
porkbun
Interesting. Would you say that porkbun is a good candidate for setting up a PiHole + Wireguard VPN at home?
Find a static site generator you can tolerate and style things the way you want, have the static files be generated, pick your favorite way to host and server up those static files.
It’s not self hosted, but you might like 750words as well.