Change DNS address in the Vodafone Hub

[androbinuk]

Hi all,

I have been a broadband Vodafone customer since March 2022. I have an Intelligent WiFi Hub (nor sure which model exactly but it's like this: https://kenstechtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Vodafone-Wi-Fi-Hub.jpg)

I have tried to change the DNS in the expert settings and looks like this isn't working. Even after changing the DNS I still get 192.168.1.1 as the default DNS on all the devices. I have tried to restart the router and also the devices connecting to it several times.

I found this thread and looks like I am not the only one having this problem:

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/Vodafone-Connect-Router-Local-DNS-Setup/m-p/...

The guy in the end gave up and used the Vodafone hub only as a modem and got another router connected to it.

It looks like a software problem with the Vodafone Hub. Does anybody know if there is a solution for this please or if it needs to be escalated to the Vodafone customer service?

Thanks in advance

[HappyNomad · Accepted solution]

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@androbinuk wrote:

Hi all,

I have been a broadband Vodafone customer since March 2022. I have an Intelligent WiFi Hub (nor sure which model exactly but it's like this: https://kenstechtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Vodafone-Wi-Fi-Hub.jpg)

I have tried to change the DNS in the expert settings and looks like this isn't working. Even after changing the DNS I still get 192.168.1.1 as the default DNS on all the devices. I have tried to restart the router and also the devices connecting to it several times.

I found this thread and looks like I am not the only one having this problem:

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/Vodafone-Connect-Router-Local-DNS-Setup/m-p/...

The guy in the end gave up and used the Vodafone hub only as a modem and got another router connected to it.

It looks like a software problem with the Vodafone Hub. Does anybody know if there is a solution for this please or if it needs to be escalated to the Vodafone customer service?

Thanks in advance

Most, if not all  of my devices use my router's address, 192.168.1.1 as  their DNS server but the router itself uses 192.168.1.200 as its primary DNS server.  

192.168.1.200 is actually the address of a Raspberry Pi running PiHole which in turn uses my preferred public server (Cloudflare 1.1.1.1).  It all works rather well and if, for example, I take the PiHole offline, I simply have to change the primary DNS server address in the router from 192.168.1.200 to 1.1.1.1 to keep the LAN running.  PiHole back on line and into the router, change 1.1.1.1 back to 192.168.1.200 and its job done.

By setting up your preferred DNS server at router level and setting all of your devices to use the router's local IP address as their DNS server you'll only need to change the server address once for your entire network if you choose to change to another public server.

[androbinuk]

Thanks this makes sense. I was testing DNS with adGuard and I couldn't connect the router. I had to confirm the device before adGuard started to log the queries.

I assume you get all the queries logged in the PiHole from the Vodafone router then? Unless you use PiHole also as a DHCP server?

[CrimsonLiar]

Even if you set a Pi-Hole up as a DHCP server, if you also have the DNS settings on the router pointed at the Pi-Hole, when the router comes to do its own housekeeping then it'll still go through the Pi-Hole, and you get to choose just how much you log!  Obviously, in that setup, your other devices are being handed the Pi-Hole as DNS during DHCP.

The main thing is not to get too paranoid about these things.  You can't completely anonymise your DNS lookups - or you'd never get any responses back.  It is interesting to use the https://www.dnsleaktest.com site while using AdGuard DNS though, the results can be interesting!

[Jayach]

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@androbinuk wrote:

I have tried to change the DNS in the expert settings and looks like this isn't working. Even after changing the DNS I still get 192.168.1.1 as the default DNS on all the devices. I have tried to restart the router and also the devices connecting to it several times.

That's the way it's supposed to work, the devices use the router for their DNS and the router uses what ever you have set. If you want to confirm it's working, visit this website: https://www.dnsleaktest.com/