Controlling DNS on AT&T Fiber

[River]

would this work as well ?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082KR9KX5/

I know it is more expensive but would I need a switch as well to add a extra ethernet port onto my AT&T BGW 210 modem/gateway to just add a different dns to all devices on network. That is basically all I want to do. Though I may grow into other things so better to have a little extra power.

[Omega]

As long as your router allows you to change the default DNS or disable DHCP you can replace the DNS server in your network.

You can point the router's default DNS server to your custom DNS-box.

Alternatively you can disable DHCP and allow your DNS-box to act as both DNS and DHCP. This method is slightly more complex (Really not much) and can be used as a fallback if you are unable to set a custom DNS on the router itself. This method is performance wise also faster.


Personally I would go with something like a Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB/8GB, it is cheaper and much more energy efficient. It will be more than sufficient for DNS, DHCP, a Nextcloud etc...

[River]

Would this work https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BBD7NFU/ on a old laptop with a ethernet port already ?

[Omega]

Originally posted by gamer:

Would this work https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BBD7NFU/ on a old laptop with a ethernet port already ?

Yes, but do be aware that USB will be a limiting factor in latency and bandwidth.

[River]

Originally posted by Omega:

Originally posted by gamer:

Would this work https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BBD7NFU/ on a old laptop with a ethernet port already ?

Yes, but do be aware that USB will be a limiting factor in latency and bandwidth.

True.

Thanks.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Is the ISP modem an all-in-one Modem+Router? Easy to tell if the "modem" offers 4x ethernet Lan ports and built-in WiFi

If so it should advanced enough options so you could manually configure DNS, Firewall, Port Forwarding and alike.

[Meatloaf Cocktail]

Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 + Pi-Hole (w/ DHCP + DNS enabled). Added benefit of adblocking. Easiest and cheapest option.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

^ Yes definitely a good way to control things better and block ads. This is good because when configured properly it will even block many of the ads you see on your mobile devices as well when using WiFi on them.

[River]

My problem is how do I set it up once I have it ?

Does the Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 + Pi-Hole not need 2 ethernet ports ?

[Lord Flashheart]

Originally posted by gamer:

would this work as well ?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082KR9KX5/

I know it is more expensive but would I need a switch as well to add a extra ethernet port onto my AT&T BGW 210 modem/gateway to just add a different dns to all devices on network. That is basically all I want to do. Though I may grow into other things so better to have a little extra power.

You have many options to control your DNS.
So I have an old machine a a server.
It has the proxmox hypervisor.
On there is a quad port gigabit nic. It is passed through to a pfsense virtual machine.
I have 1 main lan. It is used for handing ut local IP & dns numbers.
For DNS , there is a lancache server which uses and upstram container with pihole + unbound. It blocks about 2 million domains. So ad & tracking blocking and of coursse bypass my ISP DNS. I understand it is the primary way to track your activity.

Oh and nearly forgot, I have another pi + unbound container which is very very restrictive. This is for my 'smart' TV.

Maybe this is of use.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by gamer:

My problem is how do I set it up once I have it ?

Does the Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 + Pi-Hole not need 2 ethernet ports ?

No, because you change your network DNS settings to point to the Pi instead of your ISP or third-party DNS provider. The Pi-Hole software handles the DNS requests from your network, blocking results if the domain matches its blocklist. Unfiltered requests go to the DNS provider chosen by the Pi-Hole interface.

[[N]ebsun]

Originally posted by gamer:

My problem is how do I set it up once I have it ?

Does the Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 + Pi-Hole not need 2 ethernet ports ?

You only need 1 interface to be connected to the internet, it doesn't need 1 for in and 1 for out.
You could even use wifi (but it is slower and less reliable than ethernet so I wouldn't).

Give the PI a static IP, and setup DNS and whatever else you want on it - then setup the router to use that as the default DNS. If the router doesn't have support to set a different default DNS, you can set your PC itself to use the PI IP address for DNS, but you would have to do that manually on each device (but it should be supported on any recent / decent router)