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Can't Reach the ASUS Router UI Under Pi-hole (asusrouter.com Refused)

The Problem

You point your network's DNS at Pi-hole, and suddenly you can't reach your ASUS router's admin page. Browsing to the router IP (e.g. http://192.168.1.1) bounces to http://asusrouter.com and dies with ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED.

The router web server is fine — the redirect target just doesn't resolve.

Why It Happens

ASUS routers 302-redirect their LAN IP to the hostname asusrouter.com (and router.asus.com) so the session matches their TLS certificate. Normally the router's own dnsmasq answers those names with the router's LAN IP. But once DNS is served by Pi-hole instead of the router, nothing on the network resolves asusrouter.com to the LAN — Pi-hole either returns the public record or NXDOMAIN, and the redirect dead-ends.

Confirm it in one line (from any host, or on the Pi-hole box):

dig +short asusrouter.com @<PIHOLE_IP>
# empty / a public IP  ->  this is your problem

The router itself is still listening (ASUS often serves the UI on port 80 and an alternate HTTPS port such as 8443, with 443 closed — a quick nc -z <router-ip> 80 8443 confirms it's up).

The Fix

Add a local DNS record in Pi-hole pointing the ASUS redirect hostnames back at the router's LAN IP.

Pi-hole web UI: Settings → Local DNS Records → add:

asusrouter.com    ->  192.168.1.1
router.asus.com   ->  192.168.1.1

Or on the box (Pi-hole v6), append to the local hosts file and reload:

echo "192.168.1.1 asusrouter.com router.asus.com" | sudo tee -a /etc/pihole/hosts/custom.list
sudo pihole reloaddns

Verify:

dig +short asusrouter.com @127.0.0.1   # -> 192.168.1.1

Now the redirect resolves and the login page loads. If your browser cached the earlier failure, use a fresh/incognito tab.

Making It Durable (Pi-hole v6)

In Pi-hole v6 the authoritative store for local records is pihole.toml's dns.hosts array, managed via the supported CLI — a hand-added custom.list line works but can be overwritten when you edit Local DNS Records in the UI. To pin it durably:

# read the current array, then set it back with your entry appended:
sudo pihole-FTL --config dns.hosts '["192.168.1.1 asusrouter.com router.asus.com", ...existing entries...]'
sudo pihole reloaddns

If you manage Pi-hole with configuration management (Ansible, etc.), put the record in your declared dns.hosts list so a rebuild restores it.

Notes

  • ASUS routers default to the 192.168.50.0/24 range (192.168.50.1); substitute your actual router IP throughout.
  • The same pattern fixes any appliance that redirects its IP to a vendor hostname (some NAS boxes, printers, and IoT hubs do this) — just add a local DNS record mapping the hostname to the device's LAN IP.
  • This is purely a name-resolution fix; it changes nothing about the router's DHCP or firewall.