Telus Wifi Hub manual DNS not working

[Nozzy]

Hello, I have the new Telus Wifi Hub gateway and I am trying to set it up so that it configures connected clients to use a local DNS server that I have in my LAN. I go to Network > LAN and change the DNS Server address to a local IP on my network, however, when I connect devices, they still get configured with the gateway (In my case 192.168.1.1) as the DNS server. I've restarted gateway and computer and I have also released and renewed ip to no avail.

[Nozzy]

No one has an answer?

[jcbshw]

Not working for me either and its a pain since it renders my pihole useless

[Nozzy · Accepted solution]

I suggest you call Telus technical support and report it so they can log it as a bug.  I did that more than a month ago so they would add it to the backlog of features/bugs they are working on. I had hopes that they would quickly fix it in a firmware update for the Telus Wifi Hub but boy was I optimistic....

[ITGuy]

Does not work for me, I followed some advice from forums:

- Set DNS in the LAN

- Set DNS1 and DNS2 in the WAN

- Rebooting Hub after making entries, rebooting computers, ipconfig /release /renew etc.

Seems like there is no way to get the TELUS Hub to automatically set the DNS for my pihole. 

It is disappointing - Cira Canadian Shield or OpenDNS FamilyShield offers free DNS protection against malware, phishing, adult content and TELUS does not.  Further TELUS prevents it's customers from setting a custom DNS.......I imagine there are TELUS customers with children who would welcome the option and choice.  At least offer a paid product that gives families this protection.

[snakedog116]

I'm having the same issue. I spoke with two different people from tech support from Telus and they both had no idea what a DNS server was and even after I explained it they said they weren't sure how to fix it. (They sent me to Port Forwarding page, and then DHCP reservations, parental controls etc.)

Interestingly, changing the WAN DNS server worked... but not to my pihole, only to cloudflair (since my pihole is on the LAN, not the WAN... obviously).

The LAN DNS server, however does nothing at all.

[Nozzy]

Thanks Snakedog, I called Telus tech support to report this bug in the hopes that they fix it in a new firmware but it has been I don't know how many months and they still have not done anything about it...  To tell you the truth, I just use my own non-Telus router now and DNS works as intended there.

[MixPix]

Hello @Nozzy, I have the Telus WiFi Hub and this is the way to change your DNS servers.

IP4

1. Network left menu.

2. WAN tab.

3. Edit Button on Configure.

4. In the WAN DNS Setting area, set "Connect to DNS Server automatically" to No and the manual DNS boxes will be available. 

5. Apply Settings.

IP6

1. Network left menu.

2. IPv6 and then choose IPv6 again in the menu.

3. Set DNS1, DNS2.

4. Apply Settings.

Once you apply the DNS settings restart the router first, then all of devices on network to obtain new DNS settings.

Note: The DNS that you're changing in your post is for running your own DNS server on your internal network.

[EvilllKint]

That does not work. The TELUS Wi-Fi Hub will always have a DNS resolver running on its LAN IP, that DNS resolver will always bypass *any* upstream IPv4 or IPv6 DNS that you defined in its config (you have the right steps in your article), and finally the LAN IP of the Wi-Fi hub will always get pushed as the primary DNS server by the built-in DHCP server.

Basically, you can set *all* of your home devices with custom DNS settings in order to bypass the Telus Wi-Fi hub, or you can set the hub in Bridge mode and use another device as your ethernet + wifi router.

I am exactly in the same boat as @jcbshw here;

TELUS Wi-Fi Hub LAN IP : 10.0.2.1

Pi-Hole DNS : 10.0.2.10

I set 10.0.2.10 as *both* the WAN DNS and the LAN DNS, I save the config, reboot the TELUS Wi-Fi Hub, reboot all my client devices. 

Every single Windows computer in the house, and gaming console will always get 10.0.2.1 pushed as its *only* IPv4 DNS, every time, effectively bypassing my Pi-Hole DNS. Oddly, this does not apply for IPv6 cliients, however not all of my home devices can do IPv6-only.

Simple dig commands run from any computer on my home LAN show that my findings are correct :

Querying my Pi-Hole DNS :

dig @10.0.2.10 pornhub.com +short

0.0.0.0

Querying the TELUS Wi-Fi Hub DNS :

dig @10.0.2.1 pornhub.com +short

pornhub.com.
66.254.114.41

Querying Cloudflare's family DNS :

dig @1.1.1.3 www.pornhub.com +short
0.0.0.0

In the example above, my Wi-Fi Hub has its WAN DNS set to cloudflare's 1.1.1.3 DNS, which *will* block pornhub.com every time. The Hub entirely bypasses its own DNS config and gladly fetches pornhub.com's A record from what I can only assume are Telus internal DNS hard-coded in its firmware.

I consider this a bug, and sadly looking at my Wi-Fi Hub info page, I don't have a lot of hope for a firmware update that will fix the issue, as the versions below have not changed by a single release in the 2+ years I've had the Hub.

Firmware Version: v3.00.21 build02
Boot Code Version: 0.00.01
Hardware Version: 01

[EvilllKint]

I should add that using the Hub's built-in firewall or port forwarding feature in order to block/redirect DNS requests sent to the Hub's LAN IP does not work. There is truly no method to shut down that built-in DNS server or change its behaviour.