I am using a Pi-Hole inside my network and my previous networks (Eero, and Google Wifi before that) let me set DNS servers for my internal clients separate from the DNS servers for the WAN interface. It appears that Orbi only allows DNS to pass through the Orbi and does not let you set distinct DNS addresses for your LAN clients. Netgear support was NO help.
Anyone solve this problem? The Orbi's are fairly useless to me if I can't use my Pi-Hole to block ads, malware, etc.
This is not a problem. Point the Orbi at the Pi-Hole for DNS. Every Orbi client will resolve DNS through the Orbi, and the Orbi will resolve DNS through the Pi-Hole. This is on the Orbi web interface, Internet menu item. Rather than checking "Get DNS from ISP", check the box, "Use these DNS Servers" and put in the IP of the Pi-Hole.
Thanks for the reply, that doesn’t work unfortunately because the IP is internal to the LAN and the Orbi external interface can’t reach it for DNS resolution - it just hangs on requests (without a secondary).
I did make a workaround, however, by spinning up an Amazon Lightsail service running PiHole and whitelisting my home IP for DNS. It’s $3.50 per month for 1TB of traffic and the server itself - so it’s more than free but less than buying a raspberry pi to stick on my WAN to handle DNS.
I did this setup, however I chickened out on running my entire house through it for DNS. Instead, I manually set DNS hosts in a couple of Windows and Linux machines that my family doesn't use. Pointed them at the local Pi-Hole DNS instead of the Orbi and set Pi-Hole to Google DNS.
On thing I noticed right away was that Pi-Hole blocks Google search results that are "Ads". Click on one and it comes up Host Unreachable (or something like that). It didn't bother ME too much, but I am REALLY glad that I did not have to explain to the family why "sometimes you click on something and it doesn't work."
I will wait until alone in the house and see what happens when I point the Orbi itself at the local Pi-Hole.
I will wait until alone in the house and see what happens when I point the Orbi itself at the local Pi-Hole.
My (brief*) test succeeded. Local Pi-Hole resolved DNS for computers on the LAN that were pointing to the Orbi (192.168.1.1). The local Pi-Hole is on 192.168.1.27. My guess is that some network activities function only with the WAN port, such as the Orbi doing DHCP requests. But, other functions may pass through the normal network processing, "Where is xx.xx.xx.xx? Send the packet out that port." Maybe it's a "Layer 2 vs. Layer 3" type of thing?
Anyway, using Amazon AWS for $3.50/month is a really creative solution, I just do not feel certain that it is necessary.
* Although I, personally, enjoy the way Pi-Hole blocks about 25% of my DNS requests (Ads, Trackers, etc.), I am still not ready to explain the nuances to others.
