Problem w/ one computer

[de1ta]

I have configured my router with the appropriate DNS settings and all devices on the network have passed the DNS test except one. Some appropriate info:

1. PC that failed is running ubuntu w/ wired connection

2. Current DNS is 192.168.1.1

3. Private Internet Access VPN service (installed but turned off)

4. Network setup with static IP provided by ISP

Things I've tried are:

1. Clearing the DNS Cache on Computers and Web Browsers

2. Changed DNS servers and the ‘Method’ to Automatic (DHCP) addresses only on the ‘IPv4 Settings’ tab

(note: network-manager showed a change to OpenDNS servers but the DNS test still failed.)

3. Disabled IPv6 by setting to 'ignore' on 'IPv6 Settings' tab

Any suggestions appreciated.

Note: networking is not my strong suit so all my router/modem/network settings are based on info provided by 3rd parties.

[rotblitz]

Copy & paste the complete plain text output of the following diagnostic command:

   nslookup -type=txt debug.opendns.com.

If you don't have nslookup installed, try with this:

   dig debug.opendns.com.  txt

or

   host -v -t txt debug.opendns.com.

[de1ta]

Got the following result:

familydesktop@family-desktop:~$ nslookup -type=txt debug.opendns.com
Server:        209.222.18.222
Address:    209.222.18.222#53

** server can't find debug.opendns.com: NXDOMAIN

familydesktop@family-desktop:~$

Thanks for the help.

[rotblitz]

Server:        209.222.18.222
Address:    209.222.18.222#53

I see your problem.  This computer uses the DNS resolver address 209.222.18.222 which is clearly not an OpenDNS resolver address.  Configure this computer to either use only the router as DNS server (you said this is at 192.168.1.1), or to use only OpenDNS resolvers 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220, 208.67.222.220, 208.67.220.222.

[rotblitz]

Looking further, this resolver 209.222.18.222 belongs to a VPN provider www.privateinternetaccess.com.  Another resolver address of theirs is 209.222.18.218.

"Private Internet Access VPN service (installed but turned off)"

It seems to me that this installation has overwritten your DNS configuration on this computer.

[de1ta]

To clarify what you mean by...

"Configure this computer to either use only the router as DNS server (you said this is at 192.168.1.1), or to use only OpenDNS resolvers 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220, 208.67.222.220, 208.67.220.222."

...should I change a setting in 'network-manager' on PC in question or the settings in my router (and if so, which)?

I have setup the router to use OpenDNS resolvers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 which is what I would like this PC to resolve too. So not sure how to make that happen.

To be clear, 'network-manager' is showing DNS is 192.168.1.1 for no reason that I can explain. This, as far as I can guess, is the problem and should be showing OpenDNS resolvers. However, as I stated, even when I made the changes on the ‘IPv4 Settings’ tab (DNS servers and the ‘Method’) and network-manager showed the correct OpenDNS servers in 'network-manager' the DNS test still failed. Which now that I think about it could have been a cache issue, no???

[de1ta]

Interesting, so turning PIA off is not enough to keep it from overwriting the DNS configuration.

[rotblitz]

"...should I change a setting in 'network-manager' on PC in question or the settings in my router (and if so, which)?"

You already changed your router's settings, so most likely nothing to do on the router, but on the computer, because it evidently doesn't use your router's settings.  You'll configure it to obtain the network settings automatically via DHCP from your router. But this may not be sufficient.

"To be clear, 'network-manager' is showing DNS is 192.168.1.1"

Fine, but this is apparently not in effect, but something else.  E.g., you also need to ensure that there are no entries like 209.222.18.222 and 209.222.18.218 in the configuration files /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/resolv.conf.auto, /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf (this latter may be located somewhere else), maybe others too.

"This, as far as I can guess, is the problem and should be showing OpenDNS resolvers."

This guessing is wrong.  If your computer would obtain the settings via DHCP from the router, DNS most likely would point to the router at 192.168.1.1, depending on the router..  Although it displays it so in the network-manager, this currently has no effect due to being overwritten.  Check the configuration files.

See also the end notes of https://support.opendns.com/entries/38042814-Ubuntu

[de1ta]

Ok I spoke to PIA support and they advised me to uncheck the 'IPv6 Leak Protection' option in settings, which is what forces the PIA DNS to overwrite my router settings. Not true, I did this and it did not make a difference in the DNS.

I looked for the configuration files and found the following:

etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base.txt

etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head.txt

etc/resolvconf/update.d/dnscache.txt

etc/resolvconf/update.d/libc.txt

etc/resolvconf/update-libc.d/avahi-daemon.txt

...the only file I searched was dnscache.txt b/c it seemed the most likely suspect. Unfortunately, it does not contain the 209.222.18.222 or 209.222.18.218. I did not know what else to look for as the file contains code I am not familiar with and might as well be Chinese. Seems obvious to me that PIA is the problem here and I am tempted to uninstall it to be sure. I am going to speak with PIA support once more before I do this, what are your thoughts?

[rotblitz]

No thoughts, just facts.  You're currently using 209.222.18.222 as DNS resolver on this computer, i.e. not OpenDNS and not your router, and therefore OpenDNS cannot work for you on this device. Your exercise is now to correct the computer's configuration to what you want to achieve.  I cannot provide further support for Ubuntu (beyond what I said) and for 3rd party products...

So let's see what PIA comes back with.

"uncheck the 'IPv6 Leak Protection' option in settings"

Even more, if you want to use OpenDNS with stats and content filtering, you have to disable IPv6 traffic alltogether.  These OpenDNS features work with IPv4 only yet.