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    Logging DNS queries

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • U
      Uglybrian
      last edited by

      For your reference here are some stock settings on 24.11 using resolver mode and ISC as backend. Python module is enabled as I use PFBlocker.

      Screenshot from 2025-01-31 08-24-02.png

      Screenshot from 2025-01-31 08-26-25.png

      Screenshot from 2025-01-31 08-20-14.png

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Octopuss
        last edited by

        @Octopuss said in Logging DNS queries:

        because some websites work and some don't

        If unbound is not running - no sites would work, unless your client is just using its cache.. There is zero reason to do a full reinstall. Let me fire up my VM and see if can duplicate.. But not having dnssec check sure and the hell should not keep unbound from starting that is for sure.

        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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        • O
          Octopuss @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz said in Logging DNS queries:

          If unbound is not running - no sites would work, unless your client is just using its cache..

          I don't know! All I know pinging by hostname and some website don't work after reboot unless I restart the service.

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

            @Octopuss ok I can not duplicate your problem..

            Here are my settings, reboot of pfsense and soon as it comes up I can do a query and get answer.. In forwarding mode as you can, pointing to my upstream physical pfsense IP.. dnssec is off, etc..

            settings.jpg

            I then went to change the min ttl to 3600, and go this warning

            warning.jpg

            So unchecked that and then it saved.. Rebooted and again no problems, comes right up - if I do a query now can see that my min ttl is set.

            minttl.jpg

            Only thing that comes to mind maybe - do you have the patches installed.. None of them specific jumped out at me that should matter for this.. But I do have all the patches installed.

            patches.jpg

            Vs trying to ping - do an actual query.. Use nslookup, or dig or whatever your fav dns tool is.. Pinging from your pc is going to use its local cache, So yeah its quite possible something is cached and others are not.. Doing a directed query would tell you if unbound is up, and your getting some error like nx or servfail, or if just timing out, etc.

            nslookup.jpg

            I changed the server nslookup pointed too - because my pc defaults to using my pihole, unbound on my pfsense vm is on 192.168.9.34

            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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            • O
              Octopuss @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz I changed the settings a bit (they were mostly the same) so they mirror yours, and it still doesn't work withour restarting it.
              I don't know what the patches are so I probably didn't touch them.

              Oh and 46fd3a27-a332-43ee-91e7-78e6232b3f99-image.png

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              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Octopuss
                last edited by

                @Octopuss so you have no patches installed? I would install the patches package, and then apply all the recommended patches.

                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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                • O
                  Octopuss @johnpoz
                  last edited by Octopuss

                  @johnpoz I can do that, but that's irrelevant to this problem I believe. I mean everything worked fine until I disabled DNSSEC as per your recommendation for forwarding mode or something :D

                  I don't even know where the patches are.
                  Found the patches, no difference like I expected :(

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                  • johnpozJ
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Octopuss
                    last edited by johnpoz

                    @Octopuss they are in the package manager..

                    patches.jpg

                    Here is the thing - I can't replicate your problem.. I have patches installed. You have an issue, no patches installed.. It would seem pretty logical that possible the patches fixed an issue that your running into.. Because I can not duplicate your problem.

                    I mean nothing jumps out at me in the patches that could fix whatever your seeing.. But might as well be up to date to see if that does fix it before doing a complete reinstall.

                    What I can tell you for sure - is I can not duplicate the problem on my 2.7.2 VM

                    Also what else I can tell you is doing dnssec or not doing dnssec should not force you to restart unbound once pfsense starts.

                    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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                    • O
                      Octopuss @johnpoz
                      last edited by

                      @johnpoz Like I said, I will simply reinstall the entire thing from scratch and redo all the settings manually when I find the motivation to lose several hours of my life, lol.

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                      • johnpozJ
                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Octopuss
                        last edited by johnpoz

                        @Octopuss or you could install the patches in like 2 minutes and do a reboot and see if you don't have to reinstall.. And more than likely whatever issue your running into - not sure how a reinstall is going to correct the problem.. This is freebsd, this not windows me ;)

                        In all the years I have been using pfsense, on all kinds of different hardware.. Have only once had to do a reinstall.. And that was crashed update.. So I had to do a clean install.

                        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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                        • U
                          Uglybrian
                          last edited by

                          @Octopuss Please keep us updated. I will be curious about your final resolution. I understand, from what I interpret.........your frustration.

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                          • O
                            Octopuss @johnpoz
                            last edited by Octopuss

                            @johnpoz said in Logging DNS queries:

                            or you could install the patches in like 2 minutes and do a reboot and see if you don't have to reinstall

                            You seem to have missed the edited part of my post where I said it made no difference.

                            @johnpoz said in Logging DNS queries:

                            not sure how a reinstall is going to correct the problem.. This is freebsd, this not windows me ;)
                            Assuming it's a combination of settings, reinstall will solve it, because there's so much stuff that can be combined together and is possibly interconnected one way or another that there's no way to troubleshoot this.

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                            • O
                              Octopuss @Uglybrian
                              last edited by

                              @Uglybrian said in Logging DNS queries:

                              @Octopuss Please keep us updated. I will be curious about your final resolution. I understand, from what I interpret.........your frustration.

                              I really don't know what to make of this. It could be some obscure bug or it could be a combination of settings or some black magic.

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                              • U
                                Uglybrian
                                last edited by

                                I have been following along and was surprised by-your unbound behavior by simply turning off DNSSEC.

                                Since johnpoz could not replicate what was happening . I would determine it to be black magic.

                                There are some great suggestions in this post to help minimize your DNS lookups with your ISP. Even though they are in the range of normal.

                                The minimum TTL for RR sets to be set at 3600 is something I changed a couple of years ago when I read about it in a previous johnpoz post. Like him, I also have not ran into any issues.
                                I also think you should try resolving instead of forwarding. I believe you will find it just as fast as forwarding and not notice the difference.

                                If you do determine you would just rather reinstall. I would take a back up copy and instead of reinstalling go to diagnostics and click on factory defaults.

                                Can’t wait to see what happens next.

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                                • johnpozJ
                                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Octopuss
                                  last edited by

                                  @Octopuss what does your log say when you reboot and unbound isn't working? Is the service not running at all? ie it didn't start or did it start and is just not bound to something? If its running lets see output of

                                  [24.11-RELEASE][admin@sg4860.home.arpa]/root: unbound-control -c /var/unbound/unbound.conf status
                                  version: 1.22.0
                                  verbosity: 2
                                  threads: 4
                                  modules: 2 [ validator iterator ]
                                  uptime: 20638 seconds
                                  options: control(ssl)
                                  unbound (pid 65878) is running...
                                  

                                  and this

                                  [24.11-RELEASE][admin@sg4860.home.arpa]/root: netstat -anl | grep -w '53'
                                  tcp4       0      0 127.0.0.1.53                                  *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 192.168.7.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 192.168.4.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 192.168.6.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 192.168.2.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 192.168.110.253.53                            *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 192.168.9.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 192.168.3.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  tcp4       0      0 10.1.1.253.53                                 *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                  udp4       0      0 127.0.0.1.53                                  *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 192.168.7.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 192.168.4.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 192.168.6.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 192.168.2.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 192.168.110.253.53                            *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 192.168.9.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 192.168.3.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                  udp4       0      0 10.1.1.253.53                                 *.*                                           
                                  [24.11-RELEASE][admin@sg4860.home.arpa]/root: 
                                  

                                  That will show you what IPs is listening on.. If you do not see it listening on anything - then yeah its never going to work..

                                  If it fails to start completely there should be something in the logs saying why it didn't start.

                                  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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                                  • O
                                    Octopuss @johnpoz
                                    last edited by Octopuss

                                    @johnpoz said in Logging DNS queries:

                                    @Octopuss what does your log say when you reboot and unbound isn't working? Is the service not running at all? ie it didn't start or did it start and is just not bound to something? If its running lets see output of

                                    [24.11-RELEASE][admin@sg4860.home.arpa]/root: unbound-control -c /var/unbound/unbound.conf status
                                    version: 1.22.0
                                    verbosity: 2
                                    threads: 4
                                    modules: 2 [ validator iterator ]
                                    uptime: 20638 seconds
                                    options: control(ssl)
                                    unbound (pid 65878) is running...
                                    

                                    and this

                                    [24.11-RELEASE][admin@sg4860.home.arpa]/root: netstat -anl | grep -w '53'
                                    tcp4       0      0 127.0.0.1.53                                  *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 192.168.7.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 192.168.4.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 192.168.6.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 192.168.2.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 192.168.110.253.53                            *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 192.168.9.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 192.168.3.253.53                              *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    tcp4       0      0 10.1.1.253.53                                 *.*                                           LISTEN     
                                    udp4       0      0 127.0.0.1.53                                  *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 192.168.7.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 192.168.4.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 192.168.6.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 192.168.2.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 192.168.110.253.53                            *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 192.168.9.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 192.168.3.253.53                              *.*                                           
                                    udp4       0      0 10.1.1.253.53                                 *.*                                           
                                    [24.11-RELEASE][admin@sg4860.home.arpa]/root: 
                                    

                                    That will show you what IPs is listening on.. If you do not see it listening on anything - then yeah its never going to work..

                                    If it fails to start completely there should be something in the logs saying why it didn't start.

                                    [2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@rozcestnik.lan]/root: unbound-control -c /var/unbound/unbound.conf status
                                    version: 1.18.0
                                    verbosity: 1
                                    threads: 4
                                    modules: 1 [ iterator ]
                                    uptime: 69 seconds
                                    options: control(ssl)
                                    unbound (pid 333) is running...
                                    
                                    
                                    [2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@rozcestnik.lan]/root: netstat -anl | grep -w '53'
                                    tcp4       0      0 127.0.0.1.53                                  *.*                                           LISTEN
                                    udp4       0      0 127.0.0.1.53                                  *.*
                                    
                                    
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                                    • O
                                      Octopuss @Uglybrian
                                      last edited by

                                      @Uglybrian said in Logging DNS queries:

                                      There are some great suggestions in this post to help minimize your DNS lookups with your ISP.

                                      Honestly I don't care about that anymore. At most I am curious what kind of other clients they have, because any PC with enough tabs open and some online services running should generate plenty.

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                                      • johnpozJ
                                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Octopuss
                                        last edited by

                                        @Octopuss well if its only listening loopback that would explain why its not working, your clients talking to its lan port, its not listening on.

                                        Do you have say a vpn or something.. This is hardware, not a vm right? You have it set to listen on what interface(s) Just your lan? For some reason your lan is taking longer to come up than when unbound starts?

                                        But yeah there is clearly why its not working.. unbound never sees your clients queries because its not listening on the lan IP.

                                        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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                                        • O
                                          Octopuss @johnpoz
                                          last edited by Octopuss

                                          @johnpoz said in Logging DNS queries:

                                          @Octopuss well if its only listening loopback that would explain why its not working, your clients talking to its lan port, its not listening on.

                                          Do you have say a vpn or something.. This is hardware, not a vm right? You have it set to listen on what interface(s) Just your lan? For some reason your lan is taking longer to come up than when unbound starts?

                                          But yeah there is clearly why its not working.. unbound never sees your clients queries because its not listening on the lan IP.

                                          I don't have any VPN.
                                          And yes it's standalone hardware. I ran it virtualized for a few years until I realized what horrible pain in the arse it was when something stopped working on the server, so in the end I said fuckit and bought one of those... what are they called ,appliances? It's basically a micro PC of sorts.

                                          And yes it also has localhost in the interfaces, because it throws an error when I try to remove it. It's somehow related to the forwarding mode option being checked.
                                          043bf6e3-a373-483a-88a4-5cbae21799c6-image.png

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                                          • johnpozJ
                                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Octopuss
                                            last edited by

                                            @Octopuss can you do a test and not have it listen on your wifi.. And just the lan.. And also try it with all selected. its odd that its not listening on any.. other than local host..

                                            But if you click to do dnssec it boots just fine and everything is up?

                                            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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