I have an asus router with a pi-hole on the network.
I was doing some work on my server and noticed that when pi-hole was down, I couldn’t access the internet. I was looking for some ideas online how to deal with this, but they said to have a second pihole on the network in case one is offline. Is that the only way to do it? Is there any way to have the network go back to normal if the pihole is offline?
I don’t think this accomplishes what he wants. The router DHCP will assign the second DNS address as you mention, but the devices will select one at random, not as a backup/failover. So what happens is that devices sometimes go through the Pi-hole and sometimes go through the secondary DNS address and receive ads. The only real way I’m aware of is to have a second pi-hole for redundancy. Personally, I decided to use a cloud based service (NextDNS) for this exact reason. I didn’t want my families internet to rely on devices that I host.
I’m not exactly sure how many queries, but it’s above the free limit. I purchased the pro plan. For $20 a year and it’s been a great service for me. I can send a referral code for 30% off (I think). I think adguard has a similar service.
Does it really do that? I thought if pi-hole blocks it, it just says nothing here, normally a pc then looks up your secondary dns and then ads are back at it.
Yes, your experience will be different if your DNS is being provided by another kind of DNS resolver. If you want a consistent pi-hole experience (and you can’t avoid downtime of your current pi-hole), add another pi-hole to your network and let that be your secondary DNS resolver.
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Add another DNS server (1.1.1.1, for instance) to your DHCP options. Your DHCP clients will use 1.1.1.1 when the pi-hole isn’t responsive.
I don’t think this accomplishes what he wants. The router DHCP will assign the second DNS address as you mention, but the devices will select one at random, not as a backup/failover. So what happens is that devices sometimes go through the Pi-hole and sometimes go through the secondary DNS address and receive ads. The only real way I’m aware of is to have a second pi-hole for redundancy. Personally, I decided to use a cloud based service (NextDNS) for this exact reason. I didn’t want my families internet to rely on devices that I host.
How many queries a month do you have? I’m at 15 days and I’m already at 750K. Do you pay for your service? I can do that, just curious what is common.
I’m not exactly sure how many queries, but it’s above the free limit. I purchased the pro plan. For $20 a year and it’s been a great service for me. I can send a referral code for 30% off (I think). I think adguard has a similar service.
When it comes to a “secondary”DNS… there is nothing like a primary and secondary DNS server. These indications are quite misleading but many systems adopted it this way. Pihole only list the DNS servers as primary and secondary, because this is what the providers write on their pages. The bad phrasing is supported especially by how Windows handles it.
Most operating systems implement DNS servers as alternatives, not as fallbacks, i.e. they will query any of both servers from time to time, so it is quite likely that you will loose your Pi-hole filtering capabilities (at least partially) [if you specify a secondary DNS server on your network].
The ONLY DNS server you should have set on your network is a/the PiHole(s).
Except when the ONLY pi-hole is down, which was the original OP’s whole question.
Does it really do that? I thought if pi-hole blocks it, it just says nothing here, normally a pc then looks up your secondary dns and then ads are back at it.
This was my experience when i did that.
Yes, your experience will be different if your DNS is being provided by another kind of DNS resolver. If you want a consistent pi-hole experience (and you can’t avoid downtime of your current pi-hole), add another pi-hole to your network and let that be your secondary DNS resolver.