[gmesmer]

There seems to be conflicting and outdated information on the forum and in the wiki.
My clients only receive the router as the dns server and don't get any secondary backup servers (I believe I have dnsmasq as the server).
What is the correct way to assign the secondary servers? I was under the impression that they would get read from the basic setup page.

I have attached pictures of my setup pages as well as the config files which are loaded into /tmp

What do I need to do so clients receive the 10.0.0.2 dns server as well as 75.75.75.75 so if my router goes down they can still get dns requests?

[kernel-panic69]

It looks as if your device is configured as a wired AP/switch (wan port disabled). Which means dhcp and dnsmasq shouldn't be enabled per the wiki. I fixed your image sizes. Please refer to the forum rules and guidelines as well as the stickies / announcements, especially regarding image sizes. Thanks.

[gmesmer]

You are correct, the main router which is connected via WAN to the internet is my comcast router which I have no control over. I've forced that router to have a forever lease dchp server and only given it 2 addresses and set those statically.

All my clients correctly get assigned ip addresses from the dchp server on my secondary router (the one we are talking about here). the only problem I have is the only DNS server that is advertised to clients is the 10.0.0.2 server and not either of the other two servers which I would like to have as backup.

[kernel-panic69]

And I saw no signs of additional dnsmasq options entered (see the wiki). This is not a new topic of discussion. I honestly don't know why you're running your network this way, *but* there is a thread about this very thing, at least one, anyway.

*hint*

[gmesmer]

Well I have to keep the comcast router (rented) unless I want to purchase my own (it would have to be the same router since we also have phone over coax) and I have bad reliability, swapping out the router once a year so I'm stuck. I can't set the comcast router to bridge mode as I also need it for wifi

I wanted to try out dns caching hence why I reconfigured the network to run this way

[egc]

It is always helpful if you start with telling what router and which build you are running.

To get the best out of DDWRT and the forum read the forum guidelines with helpful pointers:
https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=324087

Your network setup is somewhat "irregular"

this is a WAP which is usually a secondary router used as a switch.
It is not impossible to use DNSMasq form the WAP like you are doing but at this moment you have two DHCP servers running on the same network that is not a good idea.
I know you have restricted the other one but still that is asking for trouble.

As you are now not only using the WAP to take care of DNS but you are also handing out the WAP as gateway for the clients so effectively everything is still going through the WAP so why not us this router as Gateway so connect its WAN to the ISP router?

Anyway that is up to you

Now on to your question.

You are using DNSMasq for DNS (and also for DHCP because that is what it does).
That means DNSMasq is pushing its own address to your clients, DNSMasq is then forwarding those requests to the servers in Static DNS 1,2,3 so Static DNS 1 is wrong in this setup.

Of course you do not have to use DNSMasq for DNS.
In that case disable it in the GUI then the DNS servers from static DNS 1,2,3 will be pushed to the clients.
You have to be aware that not all clients will handle multiple pushed DNS servers the same, some will use the first one pushed others will use the one which responds the fastest.
So the smart thing to do is to let DNSmasq handle everything that also gives you control over your clients for add blocking, parental control etc.
But of course it is entirely up to you

[kernel-panic69]

Well, I just re-checked, and dnsmasq by default hands out the router IP as dns server, but the router itself can be configured to not be a resolver and use upstream dns servers of your choice. I think I also use all-servers in the options and strict order, but I can't remember if there is more that can be done on this. I just haven't bothered with it in months. Perhaps the man page will shed some light:

https://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/docs/dnsmasq-man.html

EDIT: and sir egc just chimed in with something I forgot about

[gmesmer]

yeah irregular to say the least, lol

I would do as you suggested and connect its WAN to the ISP router BUT, I do use the ISP router (its a modem/router/wifi combo unit) so not really an option there as I like all my devices on the same subnet and whatnot.

I ended up just going back to letting my ISP router handle dhcp and dns server pushing as my dd-wrt router would infrequently crash and reboot itself which basically killed the network while it was rebooting... if I can solve this rebooting problem I'll come back to this

[ho1Aetoo]

[eibgrad]

There's no need to specify 10.0.0.2 in the list of static DNS servers on the Setup page. 10.0.0.2 *is* the DNS server that will be assigned to your clients, specifically DNSMasq, because that's the LAN ip of the router. Within DNSMasq itself, the DNS servers you specified on the Setup page will get added as public DNS server.

IOW, as you currently have it configured, having 10.0.0.2 on the Setup page for a DNS server is self-referencing and unnecessary. Presumably DNSMasq is just ignoring it.

[wxh]

Note, if you do not use DNSMasq for DNS, the router sends out as DNS servers via DHCP (in order starting with primary): It's own IP address, any static DNS servers you have configured, WAN DNS servers.

If you check to ignore WAN DNS, then it sends it's own IP followed by any static servers you configured.

In either configuration above, my client sent DNS query request first to the router and it responded back with an ICMP Port unreachable error. Perhaps it shouldn't send the router IP In DHCP offers in this case?

[ho1Aetoo]

[egc]

[wxh]