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Newbie question regarding multiple profiles and DNS servers

I am new to NextDNS.  I signed up for the Pro plan.


In my configuration, I have a multi-WAN set up (Spectrum and Spectrum Business) at my home. The DNS implication of this is that my queries could go out over 2 different public IP addresses. (One if dynamic, the other static.) I am manually setting my router to point at NextDNS's servers with the linked IP set up. Since, NextDNS does not support multiple linked IPs with the same profile, I have 2 profiles. 

(A downside of the 2 profiles at the same location is that the traffic can be split and hence to find something in the logs, I have to search both profile's logs. Same goes for any customization of rules or lists. I am ok with this.)

Profile 1: Set with fixed IP ISP

Profile 2: Set with DDNS ISP address

The issue I am running into is that when I created the 2nd profile, I did not realize that NextDNS assigned me different DNS servers than profile 1. (I have listed the first's profiles DNS entries in my router.) So, if my DNS request goes out over profile 1, NextDNS is happy, and reports I am linked correctly to my profile. However, if my traffic goes out on the DDNS profile, NextDNS says I am not using a correct set up. (Since while it knows the IP address, it knows that came into the wrong DNS in the profile.)

That all makes sense as to why this occurs. My question is if there is a way to specify or get NextDNS to align my DNS servers across profiles? I created a bunch of test profiles, but after 10, none had repeated servers. I don't think I want to make 200+ profiles to get lucky and find a matching pair.

In the meantime, I have gotten around this issue by directed all traffic to the NextDNS servers out the WAN matching Profile 1's linked IP. (I have a failover rule and fallback setting to go out the other WAN should that be needed. NextDNS will not like that but perhaps if the number of requests is small, it won't choke or block me.  This at least keeps the normal operations working with NextDNS as expected.)

 

In any case, does anyone have tips about multiple profiles in multi-WAN set ups? I would prefer to not force the DNS traffic so bluntly if I could align the profiles.

Thanks,

Laird  

3 replies

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    • NextDNs
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    For such setup, we recommend using our CLI https://nextdns.io/cli

    • Laird_Malamed
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Thank you for the fast replay on a Sunday. I will research that. I am using Synology DNS for my DNS (so I can route local servers), but it seems like I can disable that and run this package instead (and then create local host files to handle the internal traffic).  

    • Laird_Malamed
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Just a further follow up that I was finally able to update my setup and install the CLI package. Run into the usual issues of needing sudo in some spots and having to manually point the NAS to another DNS resolver during install. However, after some tweaks and then editing the local hosts file on the NAS, I now have what I want: local resolution of internal resources, proper NextDNS resolving of everything else with machine names populating to the my.nextdns.io for easier debugging and tracking. I have the CLI installed on two different NAS's for redundancy.

     

    Thank you again. 

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