I want to undo some of my setup on my network so I can redo it in a different configuration on the same machine. The first thing I wanted to do was disable my Adguard server, making sure I could still use the internet after.
I thought I had cleared out all of the settings in my router that made it use Adguard for DNS, but when I shut down Adguard afterward, all outside connectivity fell apart. I could still get to websites if I knew their specific IP address, but nothing that needed DNS worked. When I booted Adguard back up, everything started working again.
I have tried several options in the DNS server settings in my Asus router (TUF-AX5400). Is there something I need to do in Adguard first to make this work? Or is this maybe something I need to reset in my Asus router and then give it time and a few reboots to work?
Are you sure you didn't set DNS directly on some/all of your devices? Because in that case they won't care about the router settings and will use whatever you set them to.
Also as the other commenter said, DNS changes might not propagate to other devices on the network until the next time they connect - a reboot or unplugging the cable from your computer for a few seconds is a dirty but pretty OS agnostic way to do that.