• Pfsense Dns Server
• Pfsense Dynamic Dns Not Updating

This walkthrough uses the DNSBL portion of pfBlockerNG to remove ads/advertising and more importantly, malvertising. It essentially creates a functionality similar to the pi-Hole project except it doesn’t require a separate piece of hardware. Instead, you just use your pfSense + pfBlockerNG! If you’re interested in a write-up on installing/configuring the pi-hole on Ubuntu, I have one.Please note this walkthrough is for the new devel version of pfBlockerNG. The pfBlockerNG-devel package is now in the standard list of available packages and no longer requires the development/experimental branch of pfSense firmware.

Even though the package states “devel,” I have no issues using it in production. First, I was lucky enough to be a beta tester for this release and the number of are astounding. Second, the configuration is 10X easier. Last but not least, the package is extremely stable. All that said, if you are still leery about using a “development” package on your pfSense, the older version of this walkthrough is still available at the link below.Warning: DO NOT install the latest version of pfBlockerNG unless you are on the most up-to-date version of pfSense.

This is especially important if you are on a pfSense before 2.4.4. Version 2.4.4 introduced PHP 7.2 and it broke a lot of packages, not just pfBlockerNG. I would argue you should upgrade pfSense to the latest version.before. installing any new packages and the backs up my philosophy. The upgrade guide also emphasizes creating backups, rebooting before updates, etc. Which are all fantastic advice.I love pfSense and if I could only install one package to enhance its capabilities, it is undoubtedly pfBlockerNG. It is the very first package I install after configuring a brand new pfSense and in some cases, it is the only one.

PfBlockerNG is a pfSense package maintained by (on Twitter). It’s worth mentioning that BBCan177 has a where you can easily donate a few bucks to ensure he continues maintaining and adding to the package. If your using this in a production environment, I highly encourage you to donate.

PfBlockerNG is an absolutely amazing package and I would argue a pfSense install is not complete without it.pfBlockerNG can add other security enhancements that I’ve discussed on this site such as blocking known bad IP addresses with blocklists (link below). Did you add the whitelist recommendations? I am able to access Dropbox without issue. If whitelisting doesn’t work, you can also remove the offending list; simply go to the Reports - Alerts, find the feed with the Dropbox related domains, and then go back to your feeds to remove it. Don’t forget to force reload after you removing it.

You will also probably need to flush your local DNS and/or browser cache too. These items are explained in the troubleshooting/whitelisting section if you need further guidance. Russell, thanks for the feedback! It looks like S3 was added to one of the blacklists, which in turn caused those feed downloads to fail (they are hosted at s3.amazonaws.com).

Look at your DNSBL alerts (Reports - Alerts - DNSBL heading) and then whitelist one of the alerts that say s3.amazonaws.com. Go back to Update and Force/Run and you should see the download goes through without issue for those feeds. Can you verify if you used the whitelist from the guide?

I’m just curious if I need to add other hosts to it. I used the pihole for some time and fiddled with the pfsense dnsbl time and again. Before discovering that there was a -devel update to pfblockerng I tested the tld blacklist.Now you see this is extremely important and it must function like the whitelist. In the older version there was a custom whitelist feature but only the tld blacklist. That bugs me to no end. Blacklisting individual sites is extremely important.

I find ad serving sites that get by the blocklists all the time (or just sites that I never want to visit). Without a site blacklist I would not use the tool. I can’t understand why the author doesn’t provide a feature to blacklist sites on the same page or in the same area as the whitelist. It is perplexing.So I decided to search for a definition of tld blacklisting. I found someone’s answer that indicated that the tld blacklist operated like the custom whitelisting without the use of wild cards. So I tried it by putting the whole sitename in the tld blacklisting box.

That worked.A few days later I saw this post and decided to upgrade. I immediately worried that the tld blacklist feature would be broken. To my surprise it did not fail me. I did not tick the tld option on the page as you specified.So, that’s good news yet I’m fearful that since this feature is so poorly documented that he might sneak Nerf it when I’m least looking. Let’s hope not because site blacklisting here is important. And I mean “here” on this page.

I am aware of domain overrides. I don’t want to jump around to all over just to do what should be done where everything else blacklisting and whitelisting related is done.

The TLD whitelist is only used in conjunction with the TLD whitelist and the author specifies this several times in the various infobox descriptions. That said, I’m a little confused about the TLD blacklist/whitelist working without the TLD option. I tested this extensively myself (and double/triple-checked as I was writing this walkthrough) and disabling TLD caused the TLD blacklist/whitelist to quit working every time.FWIW, if you want to block individual sites, you can do this without any feeds Simply go to DNSBL - DNSBL Feeds and then click Add. You can then name it “customblacklist” (or whatever you want), leave DNSBL source blank/off, select action as unbound, and then then add your domains to the “DNSBL CustomList” at the bottom.

Either way, hopefully this helps!

Dynamic DNS ExplainedDyanmic DNS (DDNS) is a method of automatically updating a name server in the Domain Name System (DNS), often in real time, with the active DNS configuration of its configured hostnames, addresses or other information. The term is used in two different ways. At the administrative levels of the Internet, “dynamic DNS updating” refers to systems that are used to update traditional DNS records without manual editing. But another type of dynamic DNS permits lightweight and immediate updates to its local database, often using a web-based mechanism. It is used to resolve a domain name to an IP address that may change frequently, thus providing a persistent addressing method for devices that change their location or configuration.It is the latter type of DDNS in which we are interested. End users of Internet access receive an allocation of IP addresses, often only a single address, by their service providers. If you are a residential or small business customer, you will probably have an IP address assigned dynamically.

Such dynamic IP addresses present a problem if the customer wants to provide a service to other users, such as a website. As the IP address may change frequently, corresponding domain names must be quickly re-mapped in the DNS servers to maintain accessibility using a well-known domain name.

To this end, many providers offer commercial or free DDNS service for this scenario, with reconfiguration generally implemented in the user’s router or computer.Dynamic DNS providers offer a software client program that automates the discovery and registration of the client system’s public IP addresses. The client program connects to the DDNS provider from the client’s private network and links the public IP address of the home network with a hostname. Depending on the provider, the hostname is registered with a domain owned by the provider or the customer’s own domain name.

These services can function by a number of mechanisms. Often the use an HTTP service request.

The provider might use to update the DNS servers (more on RFC 2136 later). Many home networking modem/routers have clients for several DDNS providers built into their firmware, and pfSense is no exception, making it very easy to use DDNS with pfSense. Configuring Dynamic DNS in pfSense.

Pfsense Dns Server

Configuring the DDNS client in pfSense 2.0.To enable DDNS in pfSense, first navigate to Services - Dynamic DNS. If the “ DynDNS” tab is not selected already, click on it. Press the “ plus” button on the right side of the page to add a new DDNS client.

At “ Service type“, select a DDNS service provider from the dropdown box. At “ Interface to monitor“, specify an interface (typically the WAN). At “ Hostname“, specify the hostname (either one supplied by the provider or your own hostname) that you wish to associate with your network’s public IP. At “ MX“, set your MX record if you need one (thus allowing you to configure your subdomain for email routing) and if your service supports it. At “ Wildcards“, enable wildcards if desired. This is useful if the domain name specified is not a fully qualified domain name (FQDN); for example, if your DDNS address is myplace.dyndns.org and you enable wildcards, then x.myplace.dyndns.org will work as well (x is the wildcard). At “ Username” and “ Password“, specify your username (username is required for all types except Namecheap and FreeDNS) and password.

At “ Description“, enter an appropriate description. Then press the “ Save” button to save the settings and, on the next page, press “ Apply Changes” to apply the changes if necessary. If our DDNS service provider is not one of the pre-configured ones, we can still use pfSense to act as a client for the provider if it complies with RFC 2136.To make sure everything is working go back to Services - Dynamic DNS. If the cached IP is green then the hostname was successfully updated. It is also probably a good idea to ping the domain to make sure the domain name resolves to the correct IP address. Even with DDNS, it can take several minutes for the changes to propagate to other DNS servers.

The client will automatically update the dynamic host each time the WAN IP changes or every 25 days. You probably want to make sure your client is connecting to the service, since some providers will remove inactive hosts if they have not been updated for 30 days.This configuration will work in most cases; however, it is possible you may be using a DDNS service provider that is not on the list at “ Service type“. If this is the case, you can still use pfSense to to connect to your DDNS provider as long as the provider adheres to the RFC 2136 standard. To enable this, navigate to Services - Dynamic DNS as before, but select the RFC 2136 tab. Press the “ plus” button to add a new entry. Specify the “ Interface to monitor” and “ Hostname” as outlined in the instructions for the “ DynDNS” tab. You can also specify a time to live for data from our client at “ TTL“.

Pfsense Dynamic Dns Not Updating

You must also specify a “ Key Name” that matches the key name setting on the DNS server, a “ Key type” (zone, host, or user), and an HMAC-MD5 “ Key“. You must specify the server address at “ Server“. Check the check box at “ Protocol” if the DDNS provider uses TCP instead of UDP. At “ Description“, enter an appropriate description. Then press the “ Save” button to save the changes and “ Apply changes” to apply changes if necessary.External Links.