
HomeKit DNS order bug
I think it is the case that Eero is not honoring the order of the DNS servers presented by the custom DNS feature. Perhaps it uses them in reverse order? I enter two addresses - my local PiHole DNS server and then cloudflare (1.1.1.1). That means clients should use the first address. When HomeKit was turned it added the Eero as the first DNS server returned by DHCP. DNS clients (iPhone, Mac/PC, etc) then use the Eero for all the DNS queries. The Eero then has to forward requests somewhere after making some decisions about the DNS request (is it on the approved whitelist, for example).
What I saw was that no queries were going through my PiHole DNS server. I removed cloudflare from the custom list and then started seeing DNS requests going through my PiHole server. I didn't try reversing the order so cloud cloudflare was first to test this idea but that's my only guess without more testing. Since I disabled HomeKit (because it takes over all DNS requests for ALL devices) I can't easily test.
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I've been noticing a similar issue with my HomeKit-enabled eero Pro - I have not defined ANY fallback DNS server so all DNS requests _should_ be going to the PiHole. Despite this, I can't seem to see very much. Also ensured that Local DNS Caching has been disabled (via Settings > Advabced > eero Labs)
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This must be a bug, but it is has more severe issues. I lose full DNS functionality at random times, making it appear as if everything is offline. I’m concerned about disabling HomeKit if that means I have set up ~50 Homekit devices again. Will they really be removed from HomeKit? Can I remove eero via the Home app without affecting other HomeKit devices?
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I did eventually disable HomKit in eero and it resolved the headache from apparent drop-offs. It could be a combination with safety filters causing it, which also "hijacks" DNS to protect against content you want filtered out. I now see a huge speed improvement in loading content after setting up 1.1.1.2 and 1.0.0.2 as a custom DNS and disabling HomeKit and safety filters. I still have safety filters enabled for the kids in the house which may impact their perceived performance. 1.1.1.2 is CloudFlare's new DNS which also "protects" against sites you want to avoid. (I am running pi-hole for ad filtering, with 1.1.1.2 as the upstream DNS, on one laptop as an experiment--it has been working well so far.)
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Turned on Homekit integration as soon as I noticed that my Pro 6 got the update and BAM! Network down across the board until I stopped using my local Pi-hole server pair as the custom DNS addresses on the eero. I was running pi-hole locally passing thru DNScrypt out to NextDNS - thankfully I was able to use the NextDNS servers instead but they're only good until my external IP changes and then I gotta relink it. Or set up DDNS but man. Homekit integration broke my local pi-hole setup real bad. Not super happy about it.