OpenDNS sometimes not working

rien.loterte · ‎11-07-2018

Hi,

There are times that domain blocking is not working. I already flush the my dns and browsers data.

rotblitz · ‎11-08-2018

Flushing your caches only helps if you changed the dashboard settings, else not.

The symptom indicates that your dynamic IP address is not always registered at https://dashboard.opendns.com/settings/
Therefore OpenDNS cannot associate your DNS queries with your individual dashboard settings. Ensure that you keep your IP address timely updated, e.g. by running an Updater in your network.

msandrus · ‎11-08-2018

I selected the updater to run hidden and it will not pop up so that I can manually refresh the DNS and the "auto" part of it does not seem to work

Please help

rotblitz · ‎11-08-2018

@msandrus, are you the same person as rien.loterte? Regardless...

"I selected the updater to run hidden and it will not pop up"

Click the start button to find also an icon to start the Updater. You can click the "Update Now" button then.
Or visit https://dashboard.opendns.com/settings/ to click the green arrows icon which appears between the old and the new IP address if not updated.
Or visit the following URL in a browser to perform a manual update:

https://updates.opendns.com/nic/update?hostname=NetworkLabel

"so that I can manually refresh the DNS"

This is not the purpose of the update process, but to register your IP address information at OpenDNS.

"the "auto" part of it does not seem to work"

Why not? The user who has installed the Updater must be logged on to this computer, so that the Updater is started to do its job. Else it does not run at all.

You can also navigate in Explorer to "%appdata%\OpenDNS Updater", and check the ipupdateslog.txt and also the log.txt. Open the latter with WordPad, not with NotePad, because it is in UNIX format. These logs should show you what the problem with the Updater is, if any.

rien.loterte · ‎11-08-2018

Hi @rotblitz

"The symptom indicates that your dynamic IP address is not always registered at https://dashboard.opendns.com/settings/
Therefore OpenDNS cannot associate your DNS queries with your individual dashboard settings. Ensure that you keep your IP address timely updated, e.g. by running an Updater in your network."

I am using a static/public ip address. It means that I don't need to update it every now and then, right? Updater is or Dynamic IP address only which changes every time.

rotblitz · ‎11-09-2018

@rien.loterte

If you have a static IP address, then there is no need for updates and no need to run an Updater. Just ensure that this IP address is registered at https://dashboard.opendns.com/settings/

Next time when this problem occurs, copy & paste the complete plain text output of the following commands to here:

nslookup -type=txt debug.opendns.com.
nslookup whoami.akamai.net.
netsh interface ipv4 show config      (Windows only)

rien.loterte · ‎11-11-2018

Hi @rotblitz

Here is the output

-----

Server: resolver1.opendns.com
Address: 208.67.222.222

Non-authoritative answer:
debug.opendns.com text =

"server m33.nrt"
debug.opendns.com text =

"flags 20 0 50 1800000000000000000039500007C0000020000"
debug.opendns.com text =

"originid 195297128"
debug.opendns.com text =

"actype 2"
debug.opendns.com text =

"bundle 11546346"
debug.opendns.com text =

"source 124.105.166.42:57710"

Server: resolver1.opendns.com
Address: 208.67.222.222

Name: whoami.akamai.net
Address: 2a04:e4c0:20::70

Configuration for interface "Ethernet"
DHCP enabled: Yes
IP Address: 192.168.0.192
Subnet Prefix: 192.168.0.0/24 (mask 255.255.255.0)
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Gateway Metric: 0
InterfaceMetric: 25
DNS servers configured through DHCP: 208.67.222.222
192.168.0.1
Register with which suffix: Primary only
WINS servers configured through DHCP: None

Configuration for interface "Ethernet 2"
DHCP enabled: Yes
InterfaceMetric: 35
DNS servers configured through DHCP: None
Register with which suffix: Primary only
WINS servers configured through DHCP: None

Configuration for interface "Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1"
DHCP enabled: No
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
Subnet Prefix: 127.0.0.0/8 (mask 255.0.0.0)
InterfaceMetric: 75
Statically Configured DNS Servers: None
Register with which suffix: None
Statically Configured WINS Servers: None

----

There are times that the users can access the blocked websites, then there are times that they cannot. It's randomly happening so I cannot determine what's the cause of it.

rotblitz · ‎11-12-2018

@rien.loterte

There was no problem when you executed the commands, but this is with concern:

DNS servers configured through DHCP: 208.67.222.222
192.168.0.1

Your router propagates mixed addresses, an OpenDNS address and the router's address, as DNS server addresses. It would be better to see only one kind of addresses, either OpenDNS' or the router's.

What exact router model do you have, and how did you configure OpenDNS on it? Can you post a screen shot?

What is the output of the following commands?

nslookup -type=txt debug.opendns.com. 192.168.0.1
nslookup whoami.akamai.net. 192.168.0.1

rien.loterte · ‎11-12-2018

@rotblitz

See images below.

Static IP setup: support.opendns.com_hc_user_images_c8Qn7dB4NXiy5JA2jxTdHA.png

Router's LAN IP:

support.opendns.com_hc_user_images_sr9GbSotMXpCO_dzwcZTAA.png

DHCP server setup:

support.opendns.com_hc_user_images_vDruw_gYL8T1XfP21ZEuew.png

Here's the result of the command:

nslookup -type=txt debug.opendns.com. 192.168.0.1
Server: router.asus.com
Address: 192.168.0.1

*** router.asus.com can't find debug.opendns.com.: Non-existent domain

C:\Users\TOCWS1>nslookup whoami.akamai.net. 192.168.0.1
Server: router.asus.com
Address: 192.168.0.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: whoami.akamai.net
Address: 122.2.166.132

rien.loterte · ‎11-12-2018

I change the DNS Server under the DHCP server setup from 208.67.222.222 to 192.168.0.1, and luckily obtain a single DNS server output (192.168.0.1 only) stated below:

Configuration for interface "Ethernet"
DHCP enabled: Yes
IP Address: 192.168.0.192
Subnet Prefix: 192.168.0.0/24 (mask 255.255.255.0)
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Gateway Metric: 0
InterfaceMetric: 25
DNS servers configured through DHCP: 192.168.0.1
192.168.0.1
Register with which suffix: Primary only
WINS servers configured through DHCP: None

Configuration for interface "Ethernet 2"
DHCP enabled: Yes
InterfaceMetric: 35
DNS servers configured through DHCP: None
Register with which suffix: Primary only
WINS servers configured through DHCP: None

Configuration for interface "Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1"
DHCP enabled: No
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
Subnet Prefix: 127.0.0.0/8 (mask 255.0.0.0)
InterfaceMetric: 75
Statically Configured DNS Servers: None
Register with which suffix: None
Statically Configured WINS Servers: None

But thing here is OpenDNS server is totally not working. I can even access ALL blocked sites. Meaning OpenDNS server is not in effect.

rotblitz · ‎11-13-2018

@rien.loterte

It seems your router's firmware is faulty, ignoring the DNS settings on the WAN side, because it does not forward DNS queries to OpenDNS as configured when you send them to 192.168.0.1, but to your ISP's DNS service. Also configuring on the DHCP/LAN side seems to be bad, because it propagates not only the configured DNS server address (OpenDNS in this case), but also its own in addition, not allowing to use another DNS service like OpenDNS consistently.

Your options are to try with another firmware version, to obtain another router, or to configure DNS on the end user devices instead of on the router.