{"id":204,"date":"2026-02-12T02:23:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/?p=204"},"modified":"2026-02-12T03:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:42:21","slug":"watching-the-dns-wheels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/?p=204","title":{"rendered":"Watching the DNS Wheels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For several years, I utilized Pi-hole with Unbound for internal Domain Name System (DNS) and Network-wide Ad Blocking. However, as my DNS requirements evolved, I found myself outgrowing Pi-hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No longer ridin&#8217; on the Pi-hole merry-go-round<br>I just had to let it go<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why I chose Technitium DNS Server<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Primary Purpose<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Pi-hole<\/strong>: Network-wide ad blocker first, DNS server second. Built specifically for blocking ads and trackers at the DNS level.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Technitium<\/strong>: Full-featured DNS server first, with ad blocking as one of many capabilities. Functions as both authoritative and recursive DNS server.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>DNS Capabilities<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pi-hole.net\/\">Pi-hole<\/a><\/strong>: Forwards DNS requests to upstream servers (like Google, Cloudflare) and caches responses. Requires&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlnetlabs.nl\/projects\/unbound\/about\/\">Unbound<\/a>&nbsp;or similar tools for recursive DNS.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/technitium.com\/dns\/\">Technitium<\/a><\/strong>: Built-in recursive DNS that queries root servers directly, plus authoritative DNS capabilities. Can manage multiple DNS zones and serve as a complete DNS infrastructure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>My favorite Technitium DNS Server features<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Native clustering introduced in v14 for high availability (eliminates need for sync tools)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Supports DNS zones for managing internal services and split-horizon DNS<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Better compatibility with Apple Private Relay<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Built-in support for DoH (DNS-over-HTTPS), DoT (DNS-over-TLS), and DoQ (DNS-over-QUIC)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Role-based access control and API-driven management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Runs on .NET (cross-platform: Linux, Windows, macOS, Raspberry Pi)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>For the past three months, I have been successfully managing a two-node cluster consisting of separate Proxmox LXC containers (Debian) and several Zones.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Technitium is worth a look!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For several years, I utilized Pi-hole with Unbound for internal Domain Name System (DNS) and Network-wide Ad Blocking. However, as my DNS requirements evolved, I found myself outgrowing Pi-hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vicnunes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}