[SOLVED] Configuring D-Link Router to get DNS from DHCP

[horusfalcon]

Tags:  {PCLOS 2010 ALL Networking DNS}

Hi, Gang,

This one has me a bit keyed up:  sorry if I sound over-caffeinated tonight, but I wanted to share this in case someone else might be running into it.  That, and I need to just rant a bit.

I took the family out to dinner at a pizza buffet tonight, only to find that we had no DNS availability when we got home.  Hmm...  look in the router's setup, nothing looks amiss.  Called up Mediacomm, got a not-so bright "technical support" person (reading from a script) and asked to check the DNS Server addresses (previously provided by a Mediacomm rep) which I had set in the router's configuration.  I explained that I'm able to ping IPs no problem but can't resolve URLs so I know that DNS is being lost in the conversation somewhere, and nothing on my end has changed that I know of, and I'm just checking to be sure nothing's been changed on their end.

She promptly danced me in a grand circle making me go through an hour's worth of checks, at the end of which, after I repeatedly asked for the DNS addresses, she finally tells me, "oh, we don't give that information out - just configure your system to fetch it from DHCP".  I even asked to speak to a supervisor at one point because this girl's insistence on sticking to the script was just maddening.  (And I do computer support at work when I'm not working my "day job"...  I deal with customers all the time, but not like this - I'd get fired for this kind of conduct in a New York minute.)

There's only one problem:  it's not readily obvious how to do this in a D-Link DIR-615 router's setup pages.  There's no checkbox for it, no mention of how to do it in their help that I could find after another hour's reading, nothing.

So... I temporarily configure some DNS servers from Internet Doorway (I have been a paying "Netdoor" dial-up customer since 1995 or so...) long enough to go browse the forums here at PCLinuxOS.com.  I catch some kinda related chatter about DNS and DHCP and indirectly get the crazy idea to just clear out the boxes for the Primary and Secondary DNS Server addresses.  Click, click, BOOM!  It's working.  So if you have a D-Link router that's acting strangely like this, try it and see.  (Don't forget to save your settings.)

Hmm... this begged the question:  could I now use the router's status pages to see what DNS servers I'm using?  You betcha!  Opened the router's Status page, and on the first page of that set, there are the addresses displayed for all the world to see.

I'm going to start looking at those addresses every evening for long enough to compile a good-sized list of them, and then I'm going to send the list to Mediacomm's tech support for their reference.

I'm considering moving just to get away from these folks - their cable and internet prices are too high, their tech support is !@#$!#@$ bonkers, and they act as if I'm committing a crime just running Linux.

Oh, and one last detail, the icing on the proverbial cake:  those DNS addresses provided to me previously by Mediacomm?  They were DNS servers for AT&T!  I imagine what happened is that AT&T's network ops people saw us riding their DNS servers and blocked our router's IP. Surprise, surprise, surprise!

That about covers it.  I feel much better now.  I'm gonna go bunky now, so I'll catch y'all...

Later On,
D

[smcs_steve]

horusfalcon,
This sounds like the ongoing irritation we receive dealing with Telstra Australia.
I'd be interested what Namebench reports as the best DNS servers.  You might do well to make the Namebence recommended DNS first (primary) and Mediacomm's as the secondary.
>Steve

[YouCanToo]

Tags:  {PCLOS 2010 ALL Networking DNS}

Hi, Gang,

This one has me a bit keyed up:  sorry if I sound over-caffeinated tonight, but I wanted to share this in case someone else might be running into it.  That, and I need to just rant a bit.

I took the family out to dinner at a pizza buffet tonight, only to find that we had no DNS availability when we got home.  Hmm...  look in the router's setup, nothing looks amiss.  Called up Mediacomm, got a not-so bright "technical support" person (reading from a script) and asked to check the DNS Server addresses (previously provided by a Mediacomm rep) which I had set in the router's configuration.  I explained that I'm able to ping IPs no problem but can't resolve URLs so I know that DNS is being lost in the conversation somewhere, and nothing on my end has changed that I know of, and I'm just checking to be sure nothing's been changed on their end.

She promptly danced me in a grand circle making me go through an hour's worth of checks, at the end of which, after I repeatedly asked for the DNS addresses, she finally tells me, "oh, we don't give that information out - just configure your system to fetch it from DHCP".  I even asked to speak to a supervisor at one point because this girl's insistence on sticking to the script was just maddening.  (And I do computer support at work when I'm not working my "day job"...  I deal with customers all the time, but not like this - I'd get fired for this kind of conduct in a New York minute.)

There's only one problem:  it's not readily obvious how to do this in a D-Link DIR-615 router's setup pages.  There's no checkbox for it, no mention of how to do it in their help that I could find after another hour's reading, nothing.

So... I temporarily configure some DNS servers from Internet Doorway (I have been a paying "Netdoor" dial-up customer since 1995 or so...) long enough to go browse the forums here at PCLinuxOS.com.  I catch some kinda related chatter about DNS and DHCP and indirectly get the crazy idea to just clear out the boxes for the Primary and Secondary DNS Server addresses.  Click, click, BOOM!  It's working.  So if you have a D-Link router that's acting strangely like this, try it and see.  (Don't forget to save your settings.)

Hmm... this begged the question:  could I now use the router's status pages to see what DNS servers I'm using?  You betcha!  Opened the router's Status page, and on the first page of that set, there are the addresses displayed for all the world to see.

I'm going to start looking at those addresses every evening for long enough to compile a good-sized list of them, and then I'm going to send the list to Mediacomm's tech support for their reference.

I'm considering moving just to get away from these folks - their cable and internet prices are too high, their tech support is !@#$!#@$ bonkers, and they act as if I'm committing a crime just running Linux.

Oh, and one last detail, the icing on the proverbial cake:  those DNS addresses provided to me previously by Mediacomm?  They were DNS servers for AT&T!  I imagine what happened is that AT&T's network ops people saw us riding their DNS servers and blocked our router's IP. Surprise, surprise, surprise!

That about covers it.  I feel much better now.  I'm gonna go bunky now, so I'll catch y'all...

Later On,
D

Not all routers software will show you the IP for DynamicDNS some earlier version of Linksys and Netopia are good examples. The do show the IP if you choose static DNS.  It probably best not to your your ISP DNS as most of the time they are unreliable or just dog slow. A better bet might to be to use a public DNS number like Googles 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 or OpenDNS  208.67.222.222/208.67.220.220   There may be other, but these I know off the top of my head.

[horusfalcon]

Guys, the problem I have with using anyone else's DNS servers is that I'm paying to use Mediacomm's and they had the unmitigated gall to have me riding another company's (private) servers at the start of this whole evolution.  I'm sure that AT&T probably didn't appreciate this, as they don't give away DNS services to non-paying customers.  I wouldn't be too surprised to find that this misdirection on Mediacomm's part was actionable.

Using a public DNS server might work okay, but the one I'm paying for seems to work for now, and is fairly fast (I'm paying for Mediacomm's fastest service package, at ten megs/second) so I'll stick with what I have for now.

And, yeah, YouCanToo, it's true that not all routers are created equal.  One of the reasons I went with D-Link is that they seem to provide a stable, fast, and robust platform without too many vulnerabilities, they patch promptly when issues are uncovered, and they provide a fairly good amount of system and network information back to the administrator.

It also kinda chaps me that, given more than half of the web's back-end is run from Linux servers nowadays, ISPs still look askance at anyone running Linux on their desktop, as if we are some kind of evil 133t_hax0r_|\/|a5ter just because we use a FOSS OS.

I gotta get back to bed...

Later On,
D