Amplifi Alien constantly connecting to google services
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My Amplifi Alien router is constantly looking up google domains twice every 30 seconds. Why is this? I do not use any Google services aside from gmail and that certainly has nothing to do with this router. Can you please stop this behavior or advise on how I can stop this behavior? I'm using this device in bridge mode as just an AP (and teleport server) so there is NO GOOD reason for this device to be hammering connections to google domains. There should be zero lookups to the internet from this device outside of what is necessary for its operation as an AP and teleport server. If you disagree I'm sorry but you are wrong and really need to have an internal discussion about what your devices are doing and why.
Below are the last 100 queries the router has made to the internet:
2020-01-26 10:27:54 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:27:54 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:27:24 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:27:24 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:26:54 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:26:54 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:26:24 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:26:24 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:25:54 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:25:54 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:25:24 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:25:24 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:24:53 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:24:53 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:24:23 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:24:23 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:23:53 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:23:53 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:23:23 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:23:23 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:22:53 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:22:53 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:22:23 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:22:23 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:21:53 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:21:53 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:21:22 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:21:22 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:20:52 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:20:52 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:20:22 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:20:22 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:19:52 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:19:52 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:19:22 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:19:22 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:18:52 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:18:52 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:18:22 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:18:22 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:17:51 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:17:51 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:17:21 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:17:21 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:16:51 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:16:51 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:16:21 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:16:21 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:15:51 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:15:51 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:15:21 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:15:21 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:14:51 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:14:51 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:14:21 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:14:21 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:13:50 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:13:50 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:13:20 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:13:20 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:12:50 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:12:50 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:12:20 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:12:20 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:11:50 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:11:50 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:11:20 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:11:20 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:10:50 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:10:50 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:10:19 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:10:19 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:09:49 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:09:49 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:09:19 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:09:19 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:08:49 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:08:49 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:08:19 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:08:19 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:07:49 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:07:49 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:07:19 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:07:19 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:06:48 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:06:48 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:06:18 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:06:18 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:05:48 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:05:48 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:05:18 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:05:18 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:04:48 A www.gstatic.com
2020-01-26 10:04:48 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:04:17 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:04:17 A www.google.net
2020-01-26 10:03:47 A www.google.com
2020-01-26 10:03:47 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:03:17 A www.google.org
2020-01-26 10:03:17 A www.google.com
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Isn't google there everywhere? Why do you think you have to be using google for your devices to want to access their servers? All browsers probably go via their analytics services anyway!
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@ali-hadi
No, Google is not everywhere. I'm not even quite sure what you are trying to say there.Why do you think the device should be accessing Google if it's not using google? Should devices be connecting to Google when not using google? For what purpose is the Alien router reaching out to Google every 30 seconds when it in no way is using Google?
This has nothing to do with browsers.
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I was suggesting that it is all your devices connected to the router (computers, tablets, phones, smart devices... etc.) that are calling Google. What makes you think that it is the router itself that is actually trying to connect to Google services?
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@ali-hadi
Because it's the router that's making the DNS requests and not the devices connected to it. That's why. The router is in bridge mode and is not the DNS server for the clients connected to it.
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This isn’t really an answer, at least, I don’t think it’s the answer you’re looking for. But the original AMPLIFI itself also sends out DNS queries for various Google websites every few seconds. You’d have to search the archives, but I believe it’s intended as an overall Internet health check - I.e. if it can’t reach Google, then the “Check Internet connection” message lights up on the LED screen.
So if the question is, why Google and not some other domain, I’d imagine it’s because Google has the bandwidth to reliably handle millions of these hits a day.
As far as disabling these checks, I suppose you could set up a pi-hole to redirect Google queries from the router (and not attached clients). But then your router won’t know when the Internet is actually down.
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@thomas-chi
Thanks this does actually make sense. I think this health check functionality should be optional so the user can disable it and the target should be configurable so we may pick the IP/URL used for the test especially if the device is in bridged mode. I couldn't care less if my Amplifi Alien knows whether or not the internet is functioning as it's supposed to be just a dumb AP as configured.This health check is skewing the data I have on my Pi Hole as now the number of requests just grows endlessly even when there is no actual usage from my devices on my network. It's also not possible to deliver different results to different clients using the Pi Hole or to blacklist certain domains for specific devices. Even if you could I don't want the LCD display on my device to be telling me the internet is down and I should call my ISP.
I'm also not quite sure why it needs to check two domains every single time rather than just one and it could try a fallback target if the first one fails.
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I've created a feature request.
https://community.amplifi.com/topic/2526/configurable-internet-health-check
