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How to configure NextDNS on OpenWRT router?

I am having trouble getting NextDNS to work on my Flint 2 OpenWRT router. First I tried using luci-app-nextdns. I noticed I was getting errors. One of them said I was missing the appropriate folders. I ended up removing it.

 

Next I tried using ctrld using the directions here https://github.com/Control-D-Inc/ctrld I ssh into the router. When I ran the quick install command I got an error about curl not being installed.

 

I have the NextDNS app installed on my phone. My IP is linked. If I using the IPV4 DNS IPs on my router will this be good enough? I have put the servers as my DNS servers for WAN and LAN on the router. As long as my IP is linked I should be good right?

3 replies

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    • dnylasf
    • 9 days ago
    • Reported - view

    @Rocky_Grim_Jr I have questions about this topic for @nextdns among many others. Let's see if we can get some solutions...!

    I have a Gl.inet Slate AX router with 4.6.8 firmware and is the latest stable version for my model and having the same issue as you are.

    (Of course AdGuard Home has a one button setup option since AdGuard is a marketing machine but I still don't understand why people find any of their products to be so impressive.) Also,

    I also have a mobileconfig profile on my iphone with iOS 18.2 that I downloaded via apple.nextdns.io per the recommendation in the NextDNS dashboard.

    I also just downloaded the @nextdns iOS app last night to test it,  but it hasn't been updated in 2 years. Really...? All that's gone down with Apple since September 2024 and not 1 little update in the app...? Not good given how powerful NextDNS products are. 

    Ideally there would be one my.nextdns.io endpoint used for any Gl.inet router and the URL could be edited for attribution so analytics and logs in the dashboard could be viewable if a user wanted this.

    There's too many ways to configure NextDNS and no consensus anywhere for macOS and iOS devices. No matter how it's configured, it seems there's guaranteed errors somewhere. Either is on any Apple device (usually Wifi section) , or within the logs in the Gl.inet router, or in the my.nextdns.io dashboard. I
    t's nearly inevitable to have "Unidentified Device" in Logs > Devices and I've looked for a definitive response from NexDNS, but  I may have missed it. I suspect is the router/wifi network is the "unidentified device", but there's no way to address this once the profile is live. Unacceptable.  This is the sort of thing that could be so easily addressed within the browser dashboard and within the mobile or desktop app.  Even better would be a proper PWA for privacy browsers (Brave, Firefox and pick the 2-4 others) so NextDNS can dump the f'in sneaky iOS and macOS App Stores and be consistent with the whole project of PRIVACY!

    C'mon @nextdns you could literally do this in less than a week.  

    Control D is a bit scary in my opinion. I was checking out their platform the other day and  they have a reasably well train AI bit that answers questions about the product. I decided to give the free version a try because the chatbot said that there is no mobileconfig profile created. I clicked through the funnel very carefully on my macbook air M1 on macOS Sonoma 14.7.2 and next thing I knew is it had somehow opened a Terminal app shell that was populated with the free profile I was going to test.

    I'm all for automation, but that's f'in bold AF. I worked in SV  for many years and it struck me like it was built by a presumptuous kid who is dangerous enough  to create this method and assumes all "users" would want this process "optimized". And, instead of the Control D UI showing what the options are, they use what I just deemed is a dark pattern.

    Any product that's built should always let the user know what to expect. If any company/platform thinks otherwise, they'd be wise to ask any established business development leader, because as tech becomes more complex, it's the job of the consumer facing platform to ensure they don't make that our problem.

    NextDNS is in the middle it seems. OpenWRT is our shared situation. Gl.inet has some amazing functionality in the routers but their documentation needs to be edited and updated so that we don't have to spend so much time in forums. The AI and/or person who published it left out critically important information, and it's common for sentences to not make sense.

    Apologies for all the additional commentary but I'm not a forum super-user yet I know there's rules and decorum but NextDNS needs to roll their sleeves up because this thing of theirs could be so much better with so little work. 

    • purple_window
    • 7 days ago
    • Reported - view

    @Rocky_Grim_Jr 

    You can try https://docs.openwrt.melmac.net/https-dns-proxy/, it works well with NextDNS.

    • Rocky_Grim_Jr
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I actually found out on the stock glinet software under DNS you can choose DNS over TLS, then pick NextDNS, and enter your NextDNS config ID.

Content aside

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