Choice of router

So after a long wait Openreach tells me Fibre is available to order plus BRSK have been in the planning phase for my area for the last 6 months. I have no great hopes for BRSK since my line is direct in ground. BRSK has already gone live in streets around me where they are supplied from telephone poles.
Now my question relates to choice of routers. I am used to running my own DNS server for IPv4 and IPv6 clients behind a router running dd-wrt which is unlikely to be able to keep up with a 900 Mbps connection. Which routers allow me to define my own local IPv6 DNS server?

BRSK use Openreach PIA, which involves renting access to their poles and ducts.
They do primarily use poles where available but they can and do deploy via Openreach ducts.
If Openreach FTTP is available to you then you can't be DIG any more.
BRSK also install their own poles to bridge gaps so that's also an option.

I've not used a non ISP router that didn't allow me to pick my own IPV6 dns server for some time.

Edited by j0hn83 (Tue 06-Feb-24 22:23:43)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

<snip>.
If Openreach FTTP is available to you then you can't be DIG any more.
<snip>

Be very careful as that's what I was informed. Long story short - I am DIG, BT informed FTTP available, So ordered. Install day JCB arrived and starting digging up footpath. VDSL service was terminated. BT arrive to install FTTP. Oh, no ducting from Cab? Oh, digging from Cab to the area has left out my neighbour and myself, about 20 metres of footpath ducting. So, no FTTP and no VDSL. BT can't switch on VDSL as the property has been marked as Stop Sell.
Fast forward some three months of emails and phone calls. Eventually Openreach dig the duct and FTTP installed. Shambles really. So be aware of the pitfalls over ducting and DIG.
In fairness BT did supply me with free 4G mifi and compenstation, but I would have preferred a smooth FTTP install.

If you are happy with the features of dd-wrt, then buy a faster box which is compatible with it, and you're done.

It's unclear to me what you mean by "your own local IPv6 DNS server". Firstly, do you mean a DNS cache running on the router itself, or do you have a separate server or VM running as your DNS cache?

Secondly, all DNS caches can return both A and AAAA records; it doesn't matter whether the cache itself has an IPv4 address, an IPv6 address, or both.

If you want your DNS cache to have an IPv6 address, *and* you want your local clients to query it on its IPv6 address, then you will need to tell the clients that address. There are two mechanisms for this:
* Router Advertisements with the RDNSS option (and DNSSL for domain search list)
* Stateless DHCPv6

For maximum compatibility you'd run both. For example, I'm pretty sure that some versions of Windows are unable to use RDNSS and can only get the DNS server addresses from DHCPv6.

what does the btwholesale checker says for your install type

For instance over head would look like this

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential OH Feed joint user pole.

hopefully my fellow villagers won't mind me borrowing that detail😁

I run my own physical DNS server. If I were to use BRSK as an example IPv4 would be CGNAT. If I could not use my own IPv6 DNS server then I would feel the need to disable IPv6 on my network. My dns server provides ad, tracking and malware blocking through the use of dns block lists. A router advertising its own IPv6 dns servers would circumvent any protection I provide with my own dns server.

There are ducts in the street. I am DIG through my garden. This has been confirmed by the team digging up nearby gardens for fibre installations. It looks like BRSK are avoiding areas that are DIG.

If I were to order BT fibre I assume they would bury a duct through my garden but that would not necessarily enable me to order from BRSK when the contract expired because BRSK would probably have not fibre enabled my cabinet if the rest of the cabinet customers were DIG.

Reading other forums the inability to configure a local IPv6 dns server seems quite common. TP-link routers come to mind.

In reply to a post by Moto:

I run my own physical DNS server.

Great. Then all you need to do is distribute the IP address(es) of your DNS server to your local clients.

In reply to a post by Moto:

If I were to use BRSK as an example IPv4 would be CGNAT. If I could not use my own IPv6 DNS server then I would feel the need to disable IPv6 on my network.

A DNS server may have an IPv4 address, an IPv6 address, or both. It will still give the same answers to the same queries, regardless of whether those are received on its IPv4 interface or its IPv6 interface.

In reply to a post by Moto:

My dns server provides ad, tracking and malware blocking through the use of dns block lists. A router advertising its own IPv6 dns servers would circumvent any protection I provide with my own dns server.

Then the issue is simply how your clients learn the correct DNS server address(es) to use.

I think what you're concerned about is that you don't want the router to be announcing *itself* as the DNS server, via either protocol. Hence you need to make sure that the router configuration for DHCP gives out your DNS server's IPv4 address, and the configuration for RA RDNSS and/or stateless DHCPv6 gives out your DNS server's IPv6 address (assuming it has one).

The clients don't actually need to learn an IPv6 address for DNS at all. They could still query your DNS server over IPv4, and get AAAA records with IPv6 addresses to connect to.

However, if clients learn both an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address for DNS, they should both point to the same DNS server. Otherwise, it's indeterminate which one the clients will use - although typically they will try contacting the DNS server over IPv6 first.

I use a TP-Link ER605 Router with my PiHole DNS servers for both IP4 and IP6.
The Raspi have both IP4 and IPv6 addresses and the ER605 can be configured to publish their addresses to my clients, DHCP for IP4 and RA with RDNS for IPv6..

Note this router does not have WiFi access point, I have a separate Ubiquity WAP cabled into the router.