#What dns servers mac install
#What dns servers mac manual

The part of the commands instructs dig to query your local DNS server. In the case of gateway.lan, the result should be 192.168.0.5 according to the routing rule set up in /etc/hosts. dig gateway.lan of these commands should show an IP address in the ANSWER SECTION.

#What dns servers mac install

You might need to install the dnsutils package first.

#What dns servers mac manual

You can make manual DNS lookup attempts with the dig tool. If you don’t, check the log lines at the bottom of the status information to work out what’s wrong. You should see active (running) displayed in green.

Restart Dnsmasq to apply all your changes: sudo service dnsmasq restartĬheck the server’s running correctly: sudo service dnsmasq status Save and close the file when you’ve finished mapping your devices. These lines mean any request to will be directed to 192.168.0.101 while will end up at 192.168.0.5. To set your upstream DNS server, add a new line to your config file: server=8.8.8.8 Not enabling this could unintentionally leak the architecture of your internal network to your upstream provider. It means internal IPs like 192.168.0.101 will never be exposed to Google.

bogus-priv – Prevents forwarding DNS reverse-lookup queries to the upstream DNS server.

It reserves dot-less names for your local network. In our installation, it means will be eligible for resolution via Google but example or web-server will not.

domain-needed – This stops Dnsmasq from forwarding local names without a domain part to the upstream DNS server.

Remove the # character from the start of each line. Run sudo nano /etc/nf to open the file, then use the Ctrl+W keyboard shortcut to find and uncomment the following lines: #domain-needed Some changes need to be made for Dnsmasq to work effectively in a local network scenario. This is pre-populated with initial settings. Make sure Dnsmasq is installed: # Assuming a Debian systemĭnsmasq’s config file is usually located at /etc/nf. From hereon, the IP 192.168.0.1 refers to the Dnsmasq server. Your host should have a static IP assigned. Dnsmasq is not particularly resource-intensive – if you’ve got few client devices, it will easily run on a Raspberry Pi. We’ll assume you’ve already got a functioning Linux machine ready to host Dnsmasq. However, it is worth noting that all popular desktop and mobile operating systems support setting a DNS server, so you could configure individual devices to use Dnsmasq without enabling it at the router level. Everything behind your router will end up making DNS queries via Dnsmasq. You won’t need to make any config changes on your client devices. This ensures you can still reach the wider web when using your own DNS.

When Dnsmasq has no matching route, it will forward the DNS request to Google’s 8.8.8.8, enabling resolution on the public internet.

If the request was for it will send 192.168.0.101 back to the router.

Dnsmasq will check whether it has a defined route for the domain name, such as web-server to 192.168.0.101.

The router will be configured to use the Dnsmasq host as its DNS server.

Network router receives a request from one of your connected devices.

In this guide, we’ll look at setting up Dnsmasq with local caching, some custom domain routes, and Google’s 8.8.8.8 as our upstream DNS provider. It’s also refreshingly simple to configure.īefore starting out, it’s worth thinking about what functionality you need your DNS server to provide. DNS With Dnsmasqĭnsmasq is a lightweight DNS server that’s included with most Linux distributions.

Wide-scale DNS outages are not unheard of using a custom server with a long-lived cache for critical services you interact with could help you ride out downtime at your selected upstream provider. They’ll apply to everything you connect to your network, including embedded hardware which provides no other way to customize its routing stack.Īn in-house DNS server can also improve performance and provide an extra layer of resilience. Configuring your router to use your DNS would result in any of your connected devices being able to access 192.168.0.101 via Having your own DNS server lets you centralize settings into one location instead of applying them individually in /etc/hosts on each device. One common motivation is being able to configure network-level domain mappings, such as web-server to 192.168.0.101. Running your own DNS server gives you more control over your network. Other public DNS servers are available from providers such as Cloudflare and Google. You’re probably relying on your ISP’s server if you’re using default settings on your router and devices.