Cloudflare DNS not connecting to my city server

[Aisfkhan]

Hey Guys.

I'm using cloudflare DNS on my both router one is with openwrt and other one is TP Link router.

We have cloudflare server in our city too.

I live in middle east.

Openwrt router DNS connected to cloudflare Germany servers.

And TP link Router DNS connected to my city cloudflare DNS server.

I'm configuring openwrt dns in wan interface.

So question is why openwrt connect to cloudflare dns Germany servers which is very far from my country even we have cloudflare DNS server in our city.

Thanks

[AndrewZ]

Don't touch interfaces at all, configure your favourite servers as forwardings on DHCP & DNS page.

For the server location test: install bind-dig and run
dig +short CHAOS TXT id.server @1.1.1.1

[Aisfkhan]

Is this the one?

[AndrewZ]

Yes, but please avoid posting pictures.

[Aisfkhan]

To problem is still same now it's connected to France cloudflare server and also showing my isp server in dns leak test.

Sorry for the picture I'm uploading it to just to explain better.

[AndrewZ]

There is no need to explain anything, you only need to copy/paste what I asked for.

[Aisfkhan]

OpenWrt 23.05.5, r24106-10cc5fcd00

root@OpenWrt:~# dig +short CHAOS TXT id.server @1.1.1.1
"MRS"
root@OpenWrt:~#

[AndrewZ]

@Aisfkhan

"MRS"

Well, this is Marseille, France and this is how your ISP routes the traffic to Cloudflare's address(es). You can repeat the same command several times and also change 1.1.1.1 to 1.0.0.1 and see if the location is changed.

What you see in the browser is completely different story. If you want to test your router you should disable secure DNS in your browser so it will not talk to Cloudflare directly but rather use the system DNS assigned by the router.
More about what is used in the browser: How to configure https-dns-proxy to give the nearest DNS Resolvers? - #4 by AndrewZ

[Aisfkhan]

thanks for the detailed answer.

one thing more should I uncheck the use DNS server advertised by isp in wan so all the device fully use cloudfare DNS which I set in DHCP and DNS ?

[AndrewZ]

Reboot and check your system log for dnsmasq related records like these:

daemon.info dnsmasq[1]: reading /tmp/resolv.conf.d/resolv.conf.auto
daemon.info dnsmasq[1]: using nameserver x.x.x.x#53

The goal is to see there only the servers you want. You might need to tick "Ignore resolv file" in DHCP and DNS server configuration.

To make sure all the devices use your local DNS you will need to implement some filtering and blocking. See DNS interception on GL.iNet GL-MT6000 - #17 by AndrewZ and around.