dnsmasq requires restart randomly now and then in order to access random URLs

[Sadi Yumuşak]

I use dnsmasq along with a long list of domains blocked in order to prevent spyware, malware, etc. on my personal computer.

I've begun having frequent DNS problems after upgrading my Ubuntu (64 bit) system from 16.04 to 16.10.

From time to time a random URL address suddenly becomes unreachable with varying error messages, most common one that I remember is some sort of a DNS ERROR.

I've found that the only remedy is this "sudo /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart".
After that, the problem disappears - for some time.

Such URL addresses cannot be accessed system-wide until dnsmasq service is restarted, but they can be accessed via Tor Browser only, which bypasses dnsmasq I guess.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Vincenzo Pii (vinc-pii)]

I am affected by the same issue when I am connected to the office VPN.
NetworkManager is using dnsmasq (as in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf).

If I comment out the line

dns=dnsmasq

in that file, things work fine, but I prefer to use dnsmasq.

I have to restart the service every now and then when DNS resolution stops working :(.

sudo service dnsmasq restart

[Sadi Yumuşak (sa-yu)]

A temporary workaround I've found more practical than running "sudo service dnsmasq restart" when such a problem occurs is using this Chrome extension and switching to some other DNS server:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/browsec-vpn-privacy-and-s/omghfjlpggmjjaagoclmmobgdodcjboh

Isn't weird to have such a problem with certain DNS servers only, and only in Ubuntu?

[Robie Basak (racb)]

I wonder if this is related to bug 1631241?

[Sadi Yumuşak (sa-yu)]

I've finally managed to find a better alternative to the Chrome extension, which bypasses my blocklist of unwanted domain names:

pdnsd - a proxy DNS server with permanent caching

Although its latest version "1.2.9a-par" dates back to 2012, and it can be found on Launchpad with some difficulty if you use Ubuntu later than Wily or Xenial, it still works just fine!

[Sadi Yumuşak (sa-yu)]

Hmmm, the same issue with pdnsd also...
It seems the root cause is somewhere else, and it affects any proxy DNS server with caching :-(
Maybe this bug report should be deleted then???