Rethink - DNS slow?

schwim

Hi there everyone,

I've got a graphene install about a day old on a Pixel 6. I had a false start on ad blocking in apps with the Adguard app but after a lot of reading, I found that these types of apps are not compatible with Graphene and that I should use Rethink to handle this task so I installed it. It works fine but it suggested to me from the beginning to disable the Android setting for handling DNS so I did that. When I did that, the DNS widget in the app showed:

DNS
Very fast
IAD

but after just an hour or so, I noticed that it changed to:

DNS
Very slow
IAD

I'm not sure if something has reverted in settings, enabled filters could cause this change or if something else is happening. I'm not sure how to troubleshoot. I'm not noticing an issue with apps working, I'm just very curious why the swing from one extreme to the other.

Could someone explain to me what might cause this and how I would go about speeding the DNS back up?

Thanks for your time!

Novalissoide

schwim
This is how that meter usually behaves. I will ask in their forum about it.

Johnnyloans

schwim

DnsNet on fdroid is an option for ad blocking via dns

ignoramous

rdns dev here

schwim When I did that, the DNS widget in the app showed:

DNS
Very fast
IAD

but after just an hour or so, I noticed that it changed to:

DNS
Very slow
IAD

Very fast: If the predicted median (p50) DNS resolution time is within 20milliseconds.

Fast: Within 50ms.

Slow: Within 100ms.

Very slow: Beyond 100ms.

It isn't uncommon to observe that non-Google or non-Cloudflare DNS over HTTPS / DNSCrypt / DNS over TLS resolvers are "Slow".

It is also possible that Rethink's p50 prediction is off by a factor (but this prediction should correct itself over time).

It could also be that the network connection you're on is flaky.

It could be that the on-path routers are misconfigured and the client is being routed over congested and/or longer paths to the destination (which, in this case, is the upstream DNS resolver).

etc.

You can enable Configure -> DNS -> DNS Booster to see if that helps improve DNS resolution speed & latency. It implements a bunch of heuristic based techniques to perceivably "speed up" otherwise slower DNS responses.

schwim

Not smart enough to figure out the image display so clickie for panel in question in app.

https://i.postimg.cc/6QbcDVD6/dp5w1GGv-RSip-K7x-App-UZrg.jpg

schwim

Novalissoide Thank you so much!

bitestring

Why not use the Private DNS feature in Android? There are various DNS providers offering in-built ad and malware blocking. Goto Settings -> Network and internet -> Private DNS and configure one of the following providers.

https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

You get both DNS encryption and adblocking without using any third party app.

Novalissoide

bitestring Why not use the Private DNS feature

https://grapheneos.org/faq#vpn-support

If you're using a VPN, we recommended against having a Private DNS server configured. If you want to filter traffic while using a VPN, use a VPN service app able to do both such as RethinkDNS. Private DNS also interacts strangely with multiple profiles since each profile has their own VPN configuration but Private DNS is global. We strongly recommend fully disabling Private DNS when using a VPN on any secondary profile until it's overhauled.

schwim

ignoramous Thank you so much for your help, I found a page in the app that showed my current ping for DNS was 130 so that explains the display.

I'm not sure if the app might have been automatically misconfigured on install and since Rethink's avenues of support are all non-starters for me, I've been left searching the web and trying to find out if anything is misconfigured, which I've not succeeded in yet.