dnsmasq – DNS and DHCP for the rest of us

dnsmasq site

So, you’ve got that old dust-covered computer set up with a UNIX clone, got it to work as a router, figured out the syntax for the packet filter (firewall), and maybe even got a DHCP server working. What next?

How about a DNS setup that works perfectly with any version of Windows (not Multicast DNS), doesn’t take a paid sysadmin to set up and maintain, and works as both a forwarding proxy and a local DNS server?

For those who don’t get out much, I’m talking about dnsmasq. Since the page is a little verbose, I’ll highlight the (apparently) unique things it does:

• Automatically reads your ISP’s DNS servers out of /etc/resolv.conf when functioning as a DNS cache.
• Setting up custom DNS entries for inside your LAN is as simple as adding them to the /etc/hosts file
• You can specify more than one /etc/hosts file so that it’s easy to drop in new versions of the ad-blocking hosts file. Heck, if you trust the site, you could make it automatic using a simple wget cronjob.
• DNS and DHCP in one tool, and all the associated features. Most notably, it can automatically add DNS entries for machines as they arrive. Optionally, using whatever name the machines ask for.
• If you’re on dial-up and the connection is down, DNS lookups time out immediately.

There are more features, but they’re things other DNS or DHCP servers can do. I just wish I’d found this thing sooner.

As a side-note, if your My Network Places isn’t working properly, chances are you don’t have a proper WINS setup. Just run a copy of Samba and set it’s WINS server up as the domain master browser. Then you’ll really have a network where you just plug things in and they work.

dnsmasq – DNS and DHCP for the rest of us by Stephan Sokolow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.