Hello all!
I have my network behind both Surfshark and IVPN VPN and wanted to know if I HAVE to use their DNS servers?
Surfshark didn’t specify on their pfSense manual but IVPN wanted me to set their DNS servers as well as forward all queries to their servers.
I would like pfSense to do the legwork when it comes to DNS queries and keep them ‘in home’, I’d just like for the VPN to route all my traffic.
Thank you! 
You can use the DNS server of your choosing, including using pfsense.
Awesome, thanks Tom!
Once pfSense Plus 24.03 comes out, I’ll do a fresh start and omit any VPN DNS servers from the steps.
Have an awesome day!
If you’re tunneling all of your traffic through the VPN then it doesn’t matter which you use.
If you’re using policy routing to only send certain devices through it you probably want to set those devices to use a public DNS resolver, to avoid leaking your DNS lookups.
Awesome, thank you for your reply friend!
I went ahead and removed all VPN DNS and set the 'Use local DNS, ignore other DNS. I also unchecked the DNS forward.
I am having an issue that when I reboot, I have to restart the unbound service due to it not starting during pfSense boot.
Any reason as to why this would happen?
It should auto start, if it does not check the logs.
I’m with NordVPN and I starting having problems with my PfSense DNS resolver resolving from the root servers. As I’d just enabled PfBlockerNg I assumed it was my problem so backed my changes out until I was back to base yet still had the issue. I raised this on the PfSense forum and some smart people performed some tests which suggested that Nord is intercepting these DNS requests.
I’ve emailed Nord and the admit there is an issue with custom DNS addresses but have no eta on the fix. I asked if they intercepted the requests and they ignored that question and another on exactly what the issue is which makes me a bit worried. I’ve re-asked and waiting for a reply.
Networking is my weak area. I know the basics and can set things up but when it goes wrong it is clear I didn’t sacrifice enough small furry animals to dark gods when I was learning it.
Just found another thread on NordVPN specifically so will repost there.