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RS7000S NOT working with Pi-hole. Bug Report.
I have been running a Raspberry Pi with Pi-hole installed for years. Absolutely ZERO issues with all the routers I've had over the last 5 years.
My Netgear RS7000S is running the latest Firmware Version V1.0.7.86_2.0.82 with an IP address of 192.168.1.1.
- I have DHCP disabled on the RS7000S.
- My Pi-hole has a static IP of 192.168.1.2
- My Pi-hole has DHCP enabled so I can give each device a friendly name.
In my Netgear RS7000S' settings, I go to Internet > Domain Name Server (DNS) Address > Use These DNS Servers > 192.168.1.2 > Apply.
Everything is working fine for anyhwere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. Then, all of a sudden the Internet stops working and websites will not load. The Netgear Nighthawk RS7000S is NOT compatible with Pi-hole. This is a MAJOR bug that I have found with this Netgear router. How can I get this bug reported so Netgear can fix it in a future update?
I have been testing and troubleshooting this for a week now. I wanted to gather all sorts of evidence before submitting this post. Here are a few things to note:
- The issue does NOT happen if I swap out the Netgear router with a different router. I switch to a TP-Link or ASUS router that I have on hand and if I use the Pi-hole as my DNS server, the issue goes away. It's only this Netgear router that has the issue.
- I have factory reset the RS7000S router. It fixes the issue for less than 24 hours.
- I have downgraded the RS7000S router to the previous firmware version. No fix.
- I have tried 2 other RS7000S routers by exchanging them at Best Buy.
- If I use a custom DNS server like 1.1.1.1 the issue goes away. It's only when trying to use my Pi-hole's IP address as the DNS server for the Netgear RS7000S router.
I know the last bullet point probably stands out. You're probably thinking, "it's the Pi-hole! It's the Pi-hole!" No it is not! I factory re-installed the Pi-hole. Wiped the OS. Fresh install of Pi-hole. Nothing. It absolutely does not work with the Netgear RS7000S router.
As mentioned earlier, I can swap the Netgear router for another name brand router and use the Pi-hole as the DNS server. The issue is non-existent on any other router. This confirms it's a bug with the Netgear router!
I have gone as far as getting a brand new RS7000S from the store and setting up the router without changing any settings other than disabling DHCP and changing the DNS server to 192.168.1.2. I want to change as little as possible on the router to narrow down the bug.
Maybe the bug is because I'm trying to use an internal IP address as the DNS server? Who knows.
I am begging a Netgear employee who is working on this router to please setup a Pi-hole and try to use it as a DNS server for 24 hours or more. You will experience the same exact issue.
I have 60 days to return this router with Best Buy. I'm going to sit tight and see if Netgear can figure this one out and if a future firmware update will fix the issue. If not, this router is going back on day 60 and it will be my THIRD router return.
If a Netgear employee wants to reach out to me personally on the phone etc. I am more than happy to be guinea pig to squash this bug. Netgear is going to have a lot of unhappy customers if they can't use Pi-hole with this router.
Well, here is one for the books.
All the websites and forum posts say to enter your Pi-hole's IP address as the DNS server in your Netgear router's setting. That is absolutely NOT true!
Every post said "Go to Internet > DNS > enter in your Pi-Hole's IP addresss (in my case, 192.168.1.2.)
That is NOT the case with Netgear routers!
Instead, I had to use Public DNS servers. I used 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.
Then, go to Advanced > Setup > LAN Setup > DISABLE DHCP.
Enable DHCP in your Pi-hole. Once you do that, then only will your deviecs on your network be told that your DHCP server is your Pi-hole IP address AND your DNS server will also be handed out my your Pi-hole!
Now when I run a "ipconfig /all" in my Windows box, I see that Pi-hole (192.168.1.2) is the DHCP server AND the DNS server.
Everything is working as intended now.
Sheesh, Netgear! Get your stuff together!
Problem solved! I hop this helps someone in the future on Google 🙂
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Well, here is one for the books.
All the websites and forum posts say to enter your Pi-hole's IP address as the DNS server in your Netgear router's setting. That is absolutely NOT true!
Every post said "Go to Internet > DNS > enter in your Pi-Hole's IP addresss (in my case, 192.168.1.2.)
That is NOT the case with Netgear routers!
Instead, I had to use Public DNS servers. I used 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.
Then, go to Advanced > Setup > LAN Setup > DISABLE DHCP.
Enable DHCP in your Pi-hole. Once you do that, then only will your deviecs on your network be told that your DHCP server is your Pi-hole IP address AND your DNS server will also be handed out my your Pi-hole!
Now when I run a "ipconfig /all" in my Windows box, I see that Pi-hole (192.168.1.2) is the DHCP server AND the DNS server.
Everything is working as intended now.
Sheesh, Netgear! Get your stuff together!
Problem solved! I hop this helps someone in the future on Google 🙂
No news unfortunately. Netgear's (consumer only?) router design and implementation does not allow using a DNS server on the local LAN IP subnet. This is prohibiting not only the deployment of a Pi-hole, but also other services operated on the router itself making use of that specific DNS server, too.
The disabling the router DHCP server, and reserving the MAC<->IP pair for the Pi-hole (or whichever system is used for similar purposes, e.g. certain VPN or proxy servers) is just partial workaround - at least, it allows to operate such a system.
We're all good. My post above is the proper to use Pi-hole with Netgear routers.
- Set your Netgear's router DNS servers to something external, like 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. If you try an internal IP address like I was doing (192.168.1.2) Netgear causes an infinite look or something. Basically, it's broken.
- Disable DHCP on your Netgear router.
- Enable DHCP on Pi-hole.
- Done.
Follow those steps above and everything works as it should. I can run an IPCONFIG /ALL command in Windows Command Prompt and I see 192.168.1.2 is being used at the DHCP server and the DNS server đź‘Ť
The steps above mentioned by hyma and "associating the server's MAC address along with the local IP address you assigned" are not needed and clearly do not make sense. There are no servers involved, so I don't know what hyma is trying to say.
Part of the setup process with Pi-hole is setting your Raspberry Pi to have a static IP. I'm not mentioning all these steps, because if you already have your Pi-hole up and running you know that you should have done all these steps prior.
Thread can be closed. Issue resolved.
