Dnsmasq: HASS can't seem to find domain

My dnsmasq is set up as follows:

defaults:

  • 8.8.8.8
  • 8.8.4.4
    forwards:
    hosts:
  • host: xxx. duckdns. org
    ip: 192.168.1 .25
    services:

And the log doesn’t have any errors or warnings. But yet when I try and test things using nslookup to see if the duckdns url will return a local ip (HASS IP is 192.168.X.X) I get the following:

C:\Users\a34>nslookup xxxx. duckdns. org 192.168.X.X
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.25

*** UnKnown can’t find xxxx. duckdns. org: Server failed

I am following the following step in a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK5E2T5tWyM&t=835s

PS I had to put spaces in my URLs as as a new user the forum does not allow me to post multiple links.

Worked it out. I have ProtonVPN running with NetSheild. This was causing the issue.