@Sunshine The fact of the matter is it shouldn't matter if the DNS is in the same subnet or not. I don't want the DNS server to be the DHCP server. But, according to this router I either have to let the router be the DNS forwarder and DHCP server or I can't have it be the DHCP Server at all if I want to use an internal DNS server.

Reasons to use an internal DNS server are simple enough: Control. You can control everything happening and being queried, and block malicious sites and spam in a single spot.

Keep in mind that DNS servers can ALSO be set to have a secondary, tertiary (and so on) backup addresses.

Reasons to keep the router as the DHCP server is also simple enough: If I have wireless/ehternet networking and I have no DHCP the network won't work at all. On power on the DNS server may take longer to boot than the wireless/ethernet network would, and depending on it to be the DHCP server is not optimal since you may end up with devices on a 169.x.x.x subnet. DNS is not required for local network to work but DHCP is required. So moving secondary services should always be an option (which this router thinks it is not, obviously).

So, now that you know why DHCP should stay in the router and why DNS should be moved out. Why do you need to set the network dns to the main router and the router's dns to the internal ip? easy enough - So the router can answer for the ip of local dynamic and static leases. I already explained why this should not be moved outside of the scope of the main device. And I would argue if you were gonna have 4 access points that it makes sense to partition the dhcp servers in multiple locations so the networks can work independently of the main router but this would, in turn, mean that those devices can't use a device in their same subnet as the dns server which in turn makes this device really hard to use for custom configurations.

I hope this helps clarify why such a simple option should be possible and in fact preferable.

On the same topic, I wish OneMesh(tm) actually worked and that a reverse bridge was a thing that could be set up with those devices too. But that is a topic for another post.

I have a Deco X20 and facing the same issue.

I cant believe that TPLink is releasing this to the public.

Is this site read at any time by TPLink staff?

Please allow private DNS servers!