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I wrote a step by step for pi hole. See https://keyliner.blogspot.com/2018/01/network-wide-blocking-of-ads-tracking.html
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I did some network switching around recently and learned how important the cables are. My upstream is fiber optic.
Find a good bandwidth tester. Start with the simplest setup with the shortest cables. Find the fastest speed even switching cables in the simplest setup to see if there is any impact.
Test every step of every change.
Why bother with a 1gig switch if you crater your throughput somewhere along the path.
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Glad you got it going with the domain controller. Just to add some umph to your umphness...
The modem/router may or may not have a DNS server (most don't), but that's not the same thing as its DNS settings, which most likely will point to your ISP's DNS. So, in effect it would just be a pass through and your DNS look ups are still using the ISP's servers directly.
Just guessing in the past, you had that VM set up to talk to your ISP's DNS servers and then your machine's DNS settings pointing to the VM. So, in effect, it was acting kinda like a domain controller.
Pihole is awesome btw. I'll stick it on a cheapo raspberry pi though. Works like a champ. I'll set the pi up to use either my ISP's DNS servers directly or just use Google's. Then I'll configure my machines (or domain controller) to use the raspberry pi as its DNS server. Installing Pihole automatically includes installing DNS software, including caching and everything.
Just FYI, if you ever into DNS issues with your ISP, Google offers free to use ones to bypass any ISP wonkiness. Primary 8.8.8.8 and secondary 8.8.4.4. Seriously, do an ARIN search on it, those are Google IPs.
Jeremy Falcon
modified 13-Jun-24 22:11pm.
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My previous ISP only provided me with a modem (no router functionality), so I used my own router and specified Pi-Hole's static IP for its primary DNS.
Since that router is now gone, and my current ISP's router doesn't allow me to specify an alternate DNS, Pi-Hole essentially stopped working then.
But as I said, when I can afford some down time, I'll set up the ISP's router in bridge mode and bring my old router back online to take over.
[Edit]
And yes, I've been relying on Google's DNS for years. I see no other reason to look for alternatives.
[Edit]
Since everybody should be using Google's DNS anyway, why don't they do us all a big favor and implement their own equivalent Pi-Hole functionality? Oh, wait, they're in the ad business, that's the last thing they'd ever do...
modified 14-Jun-24 9:42am.
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dandy72 wrote: ...why would the queries not go to Pi-Hole first and foremost? Now my configuration is:
Oh, to actually answer your question... 
It should do that. The only reason it would only default to a secondary is if the primary is down. So maybe the Pi had issues. Can be confirmed with an nslookup. Or maybe (unlikely but just shooting in the dark) windows made the DC settings take priority?
dandy72 wrote: a) The DC (with Pi-Hole's IP under Forwarders)
If you're going to use a DC this is the right way to do it anyway. Otherwise you'd be setting up DNS for every machine you logged in to, so may as well just do it on the DC. Unless you want to shut your DC down that is.
You shouldn't need forwarders though (I think, haven't used a DC in over a decade), your Pi has its own IP on the local network. For DNS, make sure they're static IPs though. But, if your DC is setting the configuration for DNS, an IP is an IP is an IP.
Jeremy Falcon
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DNS is so crazy nowadays.
A couple things to note that wasn't mentioned.
Default settings for computers are to accept whatever DNS server that the DHCP server gave them when connecting to a network. So it is, without doubt, the ISP-provided router that is choosing to give their choice of DNS instead of your choice (the Pi) at the moment your machine requests an IP address from the router's DHCP server.
Probably your Domain Controller setup fixes this by being the gateway and/or DHCP server for the network, and that allows you to choose what you wish.
Do note that cable companies like Comcast *want* you to have their all-in-one modem/router combos, but they still *allow* you to have home-owned modem devices (certain ones are allowed, but they don't typically restrict it except by DOCSIS version capabilities). Bonus -- you don't pay the rental fee for having their all-in-one combo, Bonus 2 -- you can control what your router actually does.
When you have your own device, you can easily just set in the router config what DNS server will get returned to DHCP clients, and done deal.
Note that on computer side, you can override this with manual configuration per network (But Windows 11 is actually broken currently, and gets confused over whether this is set local to a network or globally for all networks -- Sigh -- that's a fun one to fix if you've ever had it manually set and Win11 UI won't allow you to change it, and nothing works to reset it)
Further, a browser can choose to resolve domain names differently as well, using DNS over HTTP -- it may also be that you have to turn this off to get things to work as expected.
A huge headache all around. Remember when the internet was simpler and well-designed hierarchy?
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Tiger12506 wrote: accept whatever DNS server that the DHCP server gave them when connecting to a network. So it is, without doubt, the ISP-provided router that is choosing to give their choice of DNS instead of your choice (the Pi) at the moment your machine requests an IP address from the router's DHCP server.
Although I have DHCP enabled in my ISP's router, all systems connected to my network - except maybe for my phone - have been given an explicit IP address, locally. Still, based on what I've seen, it did look like the ISP's router got first dibs, despite DNS on any given computer specified as Pihole -> DC -> Router. Until I set up the forwarder on the DC to point to the Pihole machine, and then I removed Pihole from the explicit DNS entry on individual endpoints.
Tiger12506 wrote: Remember when the internet was simpler and well-designed hierarchy?
Was it, ever?
Simpler, maybe, but we were dealing with different problems.
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Just to throw my 2 cents in.. I would advise to avoid using a modem/router combo device, especially an ISP provided one. When possible, always use independent modem and router devices.
Reasons:
- You don't want the ISP to have direct access to your internal network. This also includes anyone unauthorized who accesses the device due to the ISP's lack of security.
- These things hit EoL far too quickly. Why pay twice the money to replace a device if it no longer gets security updates, or you just want better features. Also installing an opensource firmware to get extra life out of an older device isn't going to support many, if any, combo devices.
- Technology lock-in. If you have a cable modem/router and want to move to an ISP with DSL, fiber, satellite, etc, you'll have to start from scratch with router setup. But with a separate device, you just plug your old configured router into the new modem and you're done.
- Better hardware selection. Why be limited to a much smaller set of combo device choices when shopping for specific features, e.g. USB/NAS, detachable WiFi antennas, gigabit ethernet ports, PoE ports.
- [Often] better customization (the issue behind the OP).
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I completely agree with what you wrote.
The problem with my ISP's supplied modem/router is that I can't even set it up in bridge mode (and I've looked). Given that, all bets are off.
I really, really hate how it's forcing me to let it take over. I'm no network expert, and all my attempts so far to re-introduce my own router into the mix (since the ISP's is hardly configurable) results in things getting broken - as in, fixing one problem raises another (or more).
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Your router doesn't support bridge mode, or theirs doesn't? Are you limited to OEM firmware on your router, or can you install open source firmware (e.g. OpenWRT) to expand its functionality?
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My router is already running third-party firmware (DD-WRT).
My ISP's router doesn't support bridge mode. It's from Rogers, up here in Canada. They sent me a Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway.
I've found plenty of threads written by people who are a lot better at networking than I am, and they're all saying the same thing. You're SOL.
I do understand some of the alternatives one might still have, but that'll be a rather unpleasant and time-consuming transition. I need my connection for work, so I can't afford much down time.
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If no one else has suggested it, how about this possibility:
Configure your router as a bridge (WAN<->LAN), instead of NAT. Block all DHCP traffic from their router and do your own DHCP server with compatible address pool settings. So all devices will still route through their device, but you fully control the DHCP settings.
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That's an interesting idea. I'll have to read up on the details.
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Marking your own message as [Spam] does not grant you permission to blatantly violate the one rule shown in red at the top of the lounge.
Away with you!
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I've probably watched a French video a few weeks ago on YouTube. Ever since, YouTube has been showing me a mixture of French and English ads (maybe 50-50). At least I'm attributing this fact to the one video I might've watched, I see no other reason it might be showing me French ads.
I do NOT log into YouTube, so there's no language preference for me to set. I have no language set in my browser (Edge) other than the default US-English.
And at some point starting this week, every time I go to www.microsoft.com, it explicitly sends me to www.microsoft.com/fr-ca/. Again, despite the fact that I have no other language set in my browser. Or the OS's Regional Settings page.
I could try to clear cookies, but that's an all-or-nothing type of thing - I'd probably lose a lot of tweaks for various sites I'd rather not go through again. As far as I know, you can't clear cookies specifically for one site only. Or can you?
I've just tried InPrivate mode with Edge and going to www.microsoft.com. It sent me to www.microsoft.com/en-ca, so it knows I'm in Canada, but at least the page is in English. That, to me, tells me it's got to be some data in a cookie.
How might I go about finding, then removing that cookie...? Or does someone have a better suggestion?
(and no, I'm not changing browsers for that, TYVM)
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You're forgetting one teensy thing, geolocation of your IP. If the cookie doesn't exist, your country can be guessed by your IP address.
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Jinx! Didn't see your post before I replied. 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Bah! I would have beat you to it if I wasn't eating breakfast while I type.
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Location doesn't infer language. It's the language I object to.
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It's got you pegged for Quebec and the language is making certain assumptions about your location.
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All geolocators I've seen since I've been on the internet (94? 95?) have shown my city as being my ISP's...which operates near Toronto, Ontario.
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They do change. It used to be my location was pegged at about 50 miles away. Now it's got me down to about 6 miles.
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Ok.
Riddle me this: Browsers on other systems within my LAN keep me on www.microsoft.com. Only one of them forwards me to www.microsoft.com/fr-ca.
Yet all my systems, from MS's perspective, should originate from the same public IP.
I'm not trying to be contradictory, I welcome the thoughts.
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Ya got me there. I have no idea on that one.
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