After installing, only some websites load. Others say server IP address could not be found

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hi everyone,

I am super new to using OpenWRT and figuring out how to setup a router so please bear with me. I recently flashed OpenWRT 19.07.2 on my Linksys EA6350v3. Originally I did it just to test if it would help speeds and network stability at all and it drastically did so I decided to stick with it. I use the web GUI to configure the router and don't know how to SSH into it yet, but I can learn that if that is something that would help me. Anyway, I have been having an issue with my configuration for a little while now.

If I go to Chrome and try to load google.com, it loads quick and I can search anything I want. But if I try to load youtube.com, I get an error "www.youtube.com's server IP address could not be found. DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_CONFIG". As far as I know, my DNS is setup correctly, following the guide on openwrt.org.

I live in an apartment and the internet is provided via an ethernet port in the wall and AP's on our ceilings but the network does not work with smart home devices and such. With the linksys firmware, it was just plug and use for me. I read there might be something to do with a Double NAT being caused by there being two routers in a network essentially, but I am not sure if that is the problem.

I have spent days trying to figure out what could be the issue causing this and nothing has solved it. If anyone is able to help I would greatly appreciate it. I just need to know what I need to change to fix this!

Thanks so much!

edit: I also want to add that sometimes when the websites do not load I keep refreshing the page a couple times and it then loads.

2

Hello @nbhagat, welcome. Please post your DNS configuration. Send screenshots of the relevant DNS changes you made in LuCI (the web interface), or even better, post the output of the following two commands using the command line interface via SSH as preformatted text.

uci show dhcp
uci show network

By the way - OpenWRT should by default work without making any changes to your DNS settings. By leaving it default, it takes the DNS server advertised by the primary router, which is the same behavior as the default Linksys image.

Alternatively, you can use a third party DNS such as Cloudflare (1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1) or Google DNS (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4). These should be set in your WAN interface, and not as DHCP option in your LAN interface. You should only use the latter if you're running your own local DNS server.

Edit: To makes thing more complicated, if you're browser is Chrome, I think they made DNS over HTTPS (DoH) the default setting recently. With DoH enabled, Chrome isn't using the DNS server advertised / configured in OpenWRT. Switch to Edge or Firefox to test it, or check if DoH is enabled in Chrome. Disable it to test if the DNS is correctly configured on your router. If Firefox / Edge / Chrome without DoH is working, the problem is with Chrome itself.

3

Thanks a lot for replying and helping me out. So I ran those commands and got this:

root@OpenWrt:~# uci show dhcp

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0]=dnsmasq

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].domainneeded='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].boguspriv='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].filterwin2k='0'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].localise_queries='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].rebind_protection='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].rebind_localhost='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].local='/lan/'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].domain='lan'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].expandhosts='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].nonegcache='0'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].authoritative='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].readethers='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].leasefile='/tmp/dhcp.leases'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].resolvfile='/tmp/resolv.conf.auto'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].nonwildcard='1'

dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].localservice='1'

dhcp.lan=dhcp

dhcp.lan.interface='lan'

dhcp.lan.start='100'

dhcp.lan.limit='150'

dhcp.lan.leasetime='12h'

dhcp.lan.dhcpv6='server'

dhcp.lan.ra='server'

dhcp.lan.ra_management='1'

dhcp.wan=dhcp

dhcp.wan.interface='wan'

dhcp.wan.ignore='1'

dhcp.odhcpd=odhcpd

dhcp.odhcpd.maindhcp='0'

dhcp.odhcpd.leasefile='/tmp/hosts/odhcpd'

dhcp.odhcpd.leasetrigger='/usr/sbin/odhcpd-update'

dhcp.odhcpd.loglevel='4'

root@OpenWrt:~# uci show network

network.loopback=interface

network.loopback.ifname='lo'

network.loopback.proto='static'

network.loopback.ipaddr='127.0.0.1'

network.loopback.netmask='255.0.0.0'

network.globals=globals

network.globals.ula_prefix='fda6:acb0:b429::/48'

network.lan=interface

network.lan.type='bridge'

network.lan.ifname='eth0'

network.lan.proto='static'

network.lan.ipaddr='192.168.1.1'

network.lan.netmask='255.255.255.0'

network.lan.ip6assign='60'

network.lan.dns='1.1.1.1' '1.0.0.1'

network.lan_eth0_dev=device

network.lan_eth0_dev.name='eth0'

network.lan_eth0_dev.macaddr='60:38:e0:78:9a:76'

network.wan=interface

network.wan.ifname='eth1'

network.wan.proto='dhcp'

network.wan_eth1_dev=device

network.wan_eth1_dev.name='eth1'

network.wan_eth1_dev.macaddr='60:38:e0:78:9a:75'

network.wan6=interface

network.wan6.ifname='eth1'

network.wan6.proto='dhcpv6'

network.wan6.reqaddress='try'

network.wan6.reqprefix='auto'

network.@switch[0]=switch

network.@switch[0].name='switch0'

network.@switch[0].reset='1'

network.@switch[0].enable_vlan='1'

network.@switch_vlan[0]=switch_vlan

network.@switch_vlan[0].device='switch0'

network.@switch_vlan[0].vlan='1'

network.@switch_vlan[0].ports='1 2 3 4 0'

Sorry if that isn't formatted correctly, I'm still trying to figure this out.

4

Haha close, its the </> button instead of the double quote button. Anyway, I see you've set cloudflare DNS servers in your LAN interface. This should be done in your WAN interface instead of LAN (or - use the DHCP option parameter for custom DNS in the LAN interface). Are you using the webinterface for configuration? Go to Network > Interfaces > LAN and remove 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 from the "Use custom DNS servers" field. Set these IP addresses in your WAN interface instead. You can do the same for WAN6 but with Cloudflare's IPv6 addresses for IPv6 if you have that.

Also test with another browser, anything except Chrome, to exclude DoH problems.

5

Oh okay great. So after doing what you said (and making sure to test on Firefox), it looks like it is running stable at the moment. Embarrassing since its such a simple issue but I learned a few things along the way.

Do you have any clue as to why some of my devices such as PS4 or Apple TV connect to the network but cannot load anything? I usually get the error that it could not connect to the network within the time limit. Would it have something to do with UPnP? If not no worries, you have helped me a bunch.

edit: grammar

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6

Don't worry, I made the same mistake when I used OpenWRT the first time (but that was pre 2008 with OpenWRT kamikaze lol).

No I don't have a clue but DNS settings are usually cached so that could be your problem. Have you rebooted your PS4 and Apple TV after making the changes?

7

Sorry for the late reply!

I did some trail and error and what finally fixed it was changing my WiFi channels to auto. I was previously on 11 but changing it solved the issue for me. It’s quite strange since there wasn’t anyone around me that was on that channel...

Anyway, I figured I would update incase if someone else had the same issue :grin:

1 Like
8

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