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    All DNS lookups extremely slow

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • R
      rollin1 @johnpoz
      last edited by

      @johnpoz
      So that a lan client doing those looks you posted?
      This is a lan workstation, logged into pfsense via web gui using Diagnostics - DNS Lookup
      Once it is cached in unbound - the client should get a response in 1 or 2ms tops - I completely agree with you

      Or you have something on on your network between the client and pfsense.
      I don't have anything between the client and pfsense.

      Lets say 500 ms even for a dns query does not equate to a website taking 5-10 to display?
      I am not saying that it translates I was really trying to review everything and hopefully with other users have more pfsense configuration experience than myself

      What browser are you using?
      I have used all of them - Chrome, Firefox, Edge

      You sure its even using your local dns and not doh?
      I have pointed clients to local dns servers and to google dns servers and the issue still exists either way

      Fire up say in firefox the web developers tools and you can see exactly something takes or what is delay.. Sure chrome or edge has sim tools?
      I will also check into this tonight/tomorrow morning using Firefox web developer tools

      Are you blocking stuff and it keeps trying a retrans before it gives up?
      No filtering or blocking is being done
      No VPN's configured

      5 to 10 seconds for something to load doesn't seem like slow dns to me - you got something else going on..
      I also patched the clients 2nd ESXi host today. Afterword, I deployed a fresh install of PFSense and I updated 2.6.0 to 2.7.0 successfully running a copy of clients config. The production pfsense vm is running on a host that needs ESXi to be patched, so pfsense 2.7.0 and newer will run properly.

      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @rollin1
        last edited by johnpoz

        @rollin1 said in All DNS lookups extremely slow:

        I have pointed clients to local dns servers and to google dns servers and the issue still exists either way

        Browsers these days like to ignore your client settings and use doh anyway, unless you jump through hoops to disable the use of doh.

        But if it is using what you set in the client, and you pointed it directly to say googledns and still slow, kind of points to something other than dns being the source of the slow page load.

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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        • J
          jrey @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz said in All DNS lookups extremely slow:

          pointed clients to local dns servers and to google dns servers

          clients local dns AND google

          johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @jrey
            last edited by

            @jrey said in All DNS lookups extremely slow:

            clients local dns AND google

            This is never a good setup anyway - since you really have no idea exactly which the client will use when you point to more than one NS.

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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            • J
              jrey @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz

              This is never a good setup anyway

              that was my point.

              I, like you, would much rather see the actual "dig" or "NSLookup" directly from whatever the client is, not just the times. just the times doesn't really say what the response was or if there even was a valid response. Without knowing what "domain 1" or "domain 2" are or what might be actually loading (a webpage? something else?)

              This really does not feel like a DNS "slowness" issue.

              you got something else going on

              ^^ yup

              after the suggestions on here
              ..
              increased Message Cache to 250MB
              Increased Number of hosts to cache to 200000

              did I miss something on here?

              GertjanG johnpozJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • GertjanG
                Gertjan @jrey
                last edited by

                nslookup will use what 'system' (PC) uses.
                An application like Firefox, out of the box, will completely bypass the system DNS, and goes directly to the outside DoH server, doing its DoH thing. The pfSense resolver will never see the requests.

                No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                Edit : and where are the logs ??

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @jrey
                  last edited by

                  @jrey said in All DNS lookups extremely slow:

                  did I miss something on here?

                  you don't need to adjust those to be honest, the defaults should be fine.. And that sure has nothing to do with whatever issue your having.

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                  J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • J
                    jrey @johnpoz
                    last edited by

                    @johnpoz

                    did I miss something on here?

                    My question was more about the OP stated changing them in reference to something said "on here".

                    the defaults should be fine

                    I'm 100% in agreement with this

                    johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • johnpozJ
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @jrey
                      last edited by

                      @jrey said in All DNS lookups extremely slow:

                      reference to something said "on here".

                      No idea where he would of seen that - I have sure never stated anything of the sort. And don't recall any one saying it, if I would of seen it I would of questioned it.

                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                      R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • R
                        rollin1 @johnpoz
                        last edited by

                        @johnpoz
                        The pfsense vm is running 2.6.0 right now and its on ESXi 6.0 which will be updated to the most recent patch for esxi 6.0 this week. The pfsense vm also has the vmxnet3 nic's which I know usually work better than the e1000. I have to get the firmware/bios updated on the host and then I plan to patch. I know the host is running extremely old esxi software but they have to continue to keep 4 NT4 servers running for their manufacturing.

                        I think the settings I found for adjusting things under Advanced Settings were from another support forum. I mistakenly lumped them with the suggestions I got from this group, sorry about doing that.

                        Anyone else have any ideas after updating the host and the pfsense version to 2.7.2 so they are running current software

                        I also changed all of my advanced settings back to the defaults for the DB size and the number of entries in the DB.

                        johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • johnpozJ
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @rollin1
                          last edited by

                          @rollin1 bumping those settings to those values - you must be handling a shit ton of dns to a bunch of different clients all going to lots of different places ;)

                          If I had a need for dns that those settings would make sense, prob wouldn't be running it on my router ;) And would have a dedicated NS properly sized for my needs.

                          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                          SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                          R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • R
                            rollin1 @johnpoz
                            last edited by rollin1

                            @johnpoz
                            Those settings were never something I adjusted in any other pfsense install that I have done but the latency is too significant to not notice. What do you think if I change all the settings to forward vs look everything up? I have honestly wondered through out this whole issue if the problem could be with the vm itself. I mean after the DNSSEC settings were changed the lookup times improved but they are definitely not normal. What do you think about the following steps

                            1. Update ESXI 6 - Client has been running esxi 6 with no patches for a while
                              A. Once patched to most recent patch for ESXi 6 I can then deploy a fresh 2.7.2 pfsense vm
                              B. After patches the new 2.7.2 pfsense vm will actually run and not power off
                              C. Import the clients config on the new vm and see how everything runs

                            Does anyone see any issue with doing this? I basically want to rule out anything with the existing pfsense vm and their configuration is very basic (no vpn's, no complex network)

                            johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • johnpozJ
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @rollin1
                              last edited by

                              @rollin1 I moved away from running pfsense on esxi many years ago - It did have some advantages, but also drawbacks.. I have seen issues where user having performance issues.. But haven't paid much attention to them since not currently running on esxi.

                              But isn't esxi 6 eol? Like last year??

                              Isn't 8 current?

                              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                              R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • R
                                rollin1 @johnpoz
                                last edited by

                                @johnpoz
                                The most current version is 8 yes. They have 4 vm's that are NT4 which is extremely old and they machines are slated to be retired in 2024 so the vm's have to stay around until that time. Once I can retire those vm's I can upgrade their hosts to the most current version of ESXi 7. The servers are off on their own vlan and arent accessible from the workstation network so at least they are isolated from everything else.

                                johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • johnpozJ
                                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @rollin1
                                  last edited by

                                  @rollin1 said in All DNS lookups extremely slow:

                                  hat are NT4

                                  Wow - that is crazy old!!

                                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                                  R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • R
                                    rollin1 @johnpoz
                                    last edited by

                                    @johnpoz
                                    Your telling me they are old. My immediate reaction was to tell them well when are we phasing these out? They are finally already in process to replace these machines finally.

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