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    Alternative DNS Servers - no filter/censorship (buydomains.com problem)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    72 Posts 11 Posters 15.3k Views
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    • D
      doktornotor Banned
      last edited by

      @MrGlasspoole:

      It's a FritzBox 6360: http://avm.de/produkte/fritzbox/fritzbox-6360-cable/
      You can't buy it and you only get it from 2 providers.

      Great shame you cannot buy it, considering features like this nifty unauthenticated command injection :D

      @MrGlasspoole:

      What do you mean by "Stop pointing your DNS to cable modem in the first place."

      ^That ;)

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      • K
        kejianshi
        last edited by

        Its become recently apparent to me that as long as you keep using those sorts of non-dnssec compliant DNS servers you will continue to be vulnerable to having your DNS jacked.  So, consider using them as bad.  So, if its bad, no matter how much you like it, you shouldn't use it right?

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        • M
          MrGlasspoole
          last edited by

          @KOM:

          He means don't use your cable modem as DNS.  Use something external that is unlikely to be fiddled with, like Google DNS, Level3 or OpenDNS.  Your cable modem will be programmed to use your ISP's DNS, and some shady ISPs will do DNS injection, 404 redirection to serve ads, and other tricks etc

          I'm totally confused now. Isn't that what i'm doing/trying to do?

          I add the DNS Servers to system > general setup and point the computers to pfSense (192.168.0.1)

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          • K
            kejianshi
            last edited by

            See there are 2 directions to go with unbound.

            1 - Let unbound work in resolver + DNSSEC mode using just the root internet servers.  No servers list anywhere.  Yes its super nice.  No it won't stop you kid from trying to find nude pics of their favorite model.

            2. Put unbound in forwarder mode and let it work with the list of servers you put in system > general.  Depending on if the servers in the list are DNSSEC compliant, you may get to use DNSSEC.  If not, then you can't.  Yes this may help you control content and prevent someone from seeing Miss July or it may also allow your DNS to get jacked with in a way you were not expecting.

            You probably shouldn't be mixing these two on pfsense.

            What I might do if it were me is keep unbound in resolver mode + DNSSEC so the vast majority of the network gets unmolested DNS and go to the kid's machine and manually enter the DNS server IP of your choice into the adapter setting to prevent that one machine from being used to find the dimensions of Miss July.

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            • M
              MrGlasspoole
              last edited by

              There are no Kids and i don't want to filter something buy DNS Servers.
              All i want to do is making sure i use DNS Name servers that are not filtering or censorship
              and that are fast.

              That whole DNS thing and all the settings in pfSense are confusing  :(

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              • K
                kejianshi
                last edited by

                My god.  Then your settings are super simple.

                Go to system > General

                delete all your server IPs.

                uncheck Allow DNS server list to be overridden by DHCP/PPP on WAN

                uncheck  Do not use the DNS Forwarder as a DNS server for the firewall

                save.

                Then go to DNS forwarder and make sure its off.  Save.

                Then go to DNS resolver and make sure its on.
                Turn on DNSSEC

                Save

                Now, you should have raw, un-tampered unmolested DNS from the root servers.

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                • KOMK
                  KOM
                  last edited by

                  I add the DNS Servers to system > general setup and point the computers to pfSense (192.168.0.1)

                  That's correct, but what is your pfSense pointing to?  Probably your gateway which is your cable modem, or IP address(es) supplied by your ISP.  Don't use those.  Use external 3rd-party DNS from a list such as this:

                  Free & Public DNS Servers (Updated January 2015)

                  Provider           Primary DNS      Secondary DNS

                  Level3           209.244.0.3      209.244.0.4
                  Google           8.8.8.8          8.8.4.4
                  DNS.WATCH         84.200.69.80      84.200.70.40
                  Comodo Secure DNS  8.26.56.26        8.20.247.20
                  OpenDNS Home     208.67.222.222    208.67.220.220
                  DNS Advantage     156.154.70.1      156.154.71.1
                  Norton ConnectSafe  199.85.126.10    199.85.127.10
                  GreenTeamDNS     81.218.119.11    209.88.198.133
                  SafeDNS           195.46.39.39      195.46.39.40
                  OpenNIC           107.150.40.234    50.116.23.211
                  SmartViper       208.76.50.50      208.76.51.51
                  Dyn               216.146.35.35    216.146.36.36
                  FreeDNS           37.235.1.174      37.235.1.177
                  censurfridns.dk   89.233.43.71      91.239.100.100
                  Hurricane Electric  74.82.42.42
                  puntCAT           109.69.8.51

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                  • D
                    doktornotor Banned
                    last edited by

                    As a side note: DNS hijacking flaw in ZynOS-based routers.

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                    • M
                      MrGlasspoole
                      last edited by

                      @kejianshi:

                      My god.  Then your settings are super simple.

                      But that is what i already explained in the beginning.
                      But i don't get how this makes sure you get the fastest DNS server.
                      Tutorials say you should pick one near your location and there is:
                      https://code.google.com/p/namebench/
                      and
                      https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

                      @KOM:

                      That's correct, but what is your pfSense pointing to?  Probably your gateway which is your cable modem, or IP address(es) supplied by your ISP.

                      Is that not what you normally do - point your router to the modem?
                      Some years ago i used Windows Server as router and did it the same way:
                      Modem (10.0.0.1) <-> Win Server NIC1 WAN (10.0.0.2) - Win Server NIC2 LAN (192.168.0.1)

                      Also it worked that way with my old Asus Router with Tomato firmware.

                      And thats different from what kejianshi is suggesting.

                      Are you talking about system -> routing -> gateways (Gateway IP address)?
                      There you add only one external 3rd-party DNS and in "system > general setup" the others?
                      Is there something wrong with the https://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS list?

                      @doktornotor:

                      As a side note: DNS hijacking flaw in ZynOS-based routers.

                      If my cable modem/router has a problem then why the problem goes away after a pfSense restart?
                      Also there is nothing i can do about it if the modem has a problem.
                      You have to wait for the automatic update from the provider.
                      I only use this device as modem cause DECT and WLAN is bad, not much control and you can't add
                      your own VoIP numbers. You can use it only with the numbers from the ISP.

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                      • D
                        doktornotor Banned
                        last edited by

                        @MrGlasspoole:

                        Is that not what you normally do - point your router to the modem?

                        No, that's what I never ever do. Definitely never ever with any of this completely unmaintained ISP-provided POS (which is ideally dumbed down to a bridge instead if you cannot get rid of it altogether.)

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                        • K
                          kejianshi
                          last edited by

                          "But i don't get how this makes sure you get the fastest DNS server" - It will be super fast.  Only the 1st request to a page will require a look at the root servers.  The answer to the request will be cached (saved in memory).  From then on, the answers will come directly from pfsense.  It will take 1ms.  If you go into the advanced and enable Prefetch Support and Prefetch DNS Key Support sites you visit often will be kept warm in cache and rechecked and recached often and won't expire.  You will have fast fast resolver.

                          "Is that not what you normally do - point your router to the modem?"
                          Yes - If you are my grandmother…  There is a difference between "simple" and "optimal"
                          And isn't your DNS getting spoofed with that setting?  The answer should be obvious by now.

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                          • johnpozJ
                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                            last edited by

                            Maybe its just me but I would wish people would stop calling devices that are doing NAT modems ;)  Its not a "modem" if its doing NAT.. Its a gateway if its doing modem/router functions..

                            A modem is just dumb device that converts media type..  Modems don't provide dns or dhcp services, etc..

                            Why would anyone point their fancy pfsense router/firewall running nice dns forwarder or resolver like dnsmasq or ubound to some BS you have no idea what its using/doing of the dns forwarder service running on some isp provided "gateway"

                            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 2.7.2, 24.11

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                            • KOMK
                              KOM
                              last edited by

                              Is that not what you normally do - point your router to the modem?

                              In the context of DNS, yes, this is what most home users do and it used to be perfectly ok.  Used to.  Now you're better off using an external DNS.  I've found that Google is often faster than my local ISP, an dthey aren't fiddling like some ISPs.  However, being Google, they're likely tracking and analyzing all the DNS requests.  If that bothers you, try another free DNS.

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                              • K
                                kejianshi
                                last edited by

                                @johnpoz:

                                Why would anyone point their fancy pfsense router/firewall running nice dns forwarder or resolver like dnsmasq or ubound to some BS you have no idea what its using/doing of the dns forwarder service running on some isp provided "gateway"

                                To give us carpal tunnel?

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                                • M
                                  MrGlasspoole
                                  last edited by

                                  @doktornotor:

                                  which is ideally dumbed down to a bridge instead if you cannot get rid of it altogether.

                                  Was trying to do that with hacking but it's not working. You can to that on the DSL Routers from AVM you can buy.
                                  But it does not work on the custom firmware on the provider boxes.

                                  All i can do is setting port forward on the NIC to pfSense to "Exposed Host" to bypass NAT.

                                  @johnpoz:

                                  wish people would stop calling devices that are doing NAT modems

                                  Thats why i wrote modem/router.

                                  So can somebody guide me through the ideal settings please?
                                  There are so many settings in pfSense that its overwhelming and tutorials are rare.
                                  All stuff i was reading some time ago (not pfSense) was doing it the way with pointing the router to the modem.

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                                  • K
                                    kejianshi
                                    last edited by

                                    :'( - What I told you is default, works well and is secure.  Prevents DNS tampering.  Sounds pretty ideal.

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                                    • johnpozJ
                                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      "the ideal settings please?"

                                      Ideal settings for what network?  Every network is going to be different.  Different people have different priorities, needs/wants.  Your ideal setup might be completely different than mine.

                                      What hardware are you working with?  Do you only have 1 segment?  Do you have wireless - this is quite often broken out on its own segment..  While other users would say that is less than ideal..

                                      What connection do you have cable/dsl - are you pppoe?  I would think pretty much everyone in network would agree that doing a double nat like you have is less than ideal.. That is for sure.

                                      What you run for dns going to depend on your desires/requirements.  For many forwarder is fine - for others its useless they want do do their own queries to the owning servers and support for dnssec, etc. etc.

                                      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 2.7.2, 24.11

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                                      • H
                                        hda
                                        last edited by

                                        @MrGlasspoole:

                                        …
                                        So can somebody guide me through the ideal settings please?
                                        ...

                                        So, did you try the settings of kejianshi reply #17 ? The results are better or worse than you have/had ?

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                                        • MikeV7896M
                                          MikeV7896
                                          last edited by

                                          I benchmarked my DNS options using the GRC utility. There were 43 external servers that I was able to access.

                                          For uncached queries, my server was only 50ms slower than the fastest alternative.
                                          For cached queries, there was nothing faster than a 1ms response time, since the server is local. :)

                                          For just 1/20th of a second of delay I'd rather know that my DNS results are coming straight from the source rather than potentially poisoned by a third-party DNS server. Like you, I also prefer to not be forwarded to a domain seller or search results if I mistype a web address.

                                          So with these pieces of information, I happily choose Unbound as my DNS option rather than using an external server.

                                          The S in IOT stands for Security

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                                          • K
                                            kejianshi
                                            last edited by

                                            Yes - Totally agree ^

                                            I'd still love to hear, is there a downside to hardening glue and hardening DNSSEC.

                                            Seems like a great idea at first glace but not sure if it will cost me anything?

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