Local DNS server
You can do this with dnsmasq
.
Dnsmasq accepts DNS queries and either answers them from a small, local, cache or forwards them to a real, recursive, DNS server. It loads the contents of /etc/hosts so that local hostnames which do not appear in the global DNS can be resolved and also answers DNS queries for DHCP configured hosts.
Installing dnsmasq
is just a case of using apt-get.
sudo apt-get install dnsmasq
Setup dnsmasq as DNS DHCP
Looking at the file /etc/dnsmasq.conf
first. The lines are listed are those that I changed from their defaults. Just uncomment and amend them as necessary. (Remove the ‘#’ from the beginning of the line).
sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf
domain-needed
bogus-priv
no-resolv
no-poll
server=/example.com/192.168.0.5
server=8.8.8.8
server=208.67.220.220
local=/example.com/
address=/doubleclick.net/127.0.0.1
no-hosts
addn-hosts=/etc/dnsmasq_static_hosts.conf
expand-hosts
domain=example.com
dhcp-range=192.168.0.20,192.168.0.50,72h
dhcp-host=mylaptop,192.168.0.199,36h
dhcp-option=option:router,192.168.0.1
dhcp-option=option:ntp-server,192.168.0.5
dhcp-option=19,0 # ip-forwarding off
dhcp-option=44,192.168.0.5 # set netbios-over-TCP/IP aka WINS
dhcp-option=45,192.168.0.5 # netbios datagram distribution server
dhcp-option=46,8 # netbios node type
What these lines will do for you.
domain-needed This tells
dnsmasq
to never pass short names to the upstream DNS servers. If the name is not in the local/etc/hosts
file then “not found” will be returned.bogus-priv All reverse IP (192.168.x.x) lookups that are not found in
/etc/hosts
will be returned as “no such domain” and not forwarded to the upstream servers.no-resolv Do not read
resolv.conf
to find the servers where to lookup dns.no-poll Do not poll
resolv.conf
for changesserver=8.8.8.8 Set one or more
DNS
servers to use when addresses are not local. These are openDNS
servers.local=/example.com/ Our local domain, queries in these domains are answered from
/etc/hosts
or the static-hosts files.address=/doubleclick.net/127.0.0.1 Use this force an address for the specified domains. e.g to block adverts force
doubleclck.net
tolocalhost
no-hosts This options stops
dnsmasq
using the local/etc/hosts
file as a source for lookups .addn-hosts=/etc/dnsmasq_static_hosts.conf Force
dnsmasq
to use this file for lookups. It is in the same format as/etc/hosts
.expand_hosts So we can see our local hosts via our home domain without having to repeatedly specify the domain in our
/etc/hosts
file.domain This is your local domain name. It will tell the
DHCP
server which host to give out IP addresses for.dhcp-range This is the range of IPs that
DHCP
will serve:192.168.0.20
to192.168.0.50
, with a lease time of 72 hours. The lease time is how long that IP will be linked to a host.dhcp-host=mylaptop,192.168.0.199,36h Any machine saying they are
hostname = ‘mylaptop’
gets thisIP
addressdhcp-option=option:router,192.168.0.1 When a host is requesting an
IP
address viaDHCP
also tell it the gateway to use.dhcp-option=option:ntp-server,192.168.0.5 When a host is requesting an IP address via
DHCP
also tell it theNTP
to use.
In the file /etc/dnsmasq_static_hosts.conf
you can add a list of local machines with static IP addresses in the same format as the hosts file. It is also an easy way of creating aliases or CNAME records.
192.168.0.8 mail mail.example.com
192.168.0.9 smtp smtp.example.com
192.168.0.120 mythtvbox mythtvbox.example.com
Starting and stopping the service
sudo service dnsmasq start
sudo service dnsmasq stop
sudo service dnsmasq restart
And one more thing to do. Terminate all other DHCP
servers on local network. Your DHCP/DNS
server must be only one.
Related videos on Youtube
A Gold Man
A lover of Linux, TeX, Perl, and all things effective and free.
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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A Gold Man over 1 year
I am currently trying to set up an ad-hoc network for passing notes while I'm in class. The idea is to run a chat server on my laptop (I'm using prosody, that's up and running), so we can share information.
I have also set up a BIND DNS server on my laptop so my friends can just log in using my hostname instead of manually setting up their accounts to point to my IP address.
I am having two seperate issues in this regard. 1) I can't really figure out how to make their computers use my laptop as their DNS server. Should I install a DHCP server too? 2) My computer refuses to use my own DNS server. I think it's because of the dnsmasq that networkmanager runs. I can work around it by editing /etc/hosts, but I do want to use my server locally.
I am running 16.04.
For future generations: in regards to number 2, i just went to NetworkManagers config file and removes the line including dnsmasq. Otherwise dnsmasq refuses to use a dns server on localhost.
In addition, i set up my ad-hoc network to do manual ip address for me, because automatic didn't work for me at all. So i used NetworkManager to give me a static IP and then all my clients use the DHCP from dnsmasq just fine.
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bistoco almost 7 years
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A Gold Man almost 7 years1) it's hostapd, and 2) i'm using an ad-hoc network b/c my card doesn't support master mode
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A Gold Man almost 7 yearsEh, my friends are running windows, and are very non-technical. Not an option so much.
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jones0610 almost 7 yearsIn that case you should probably take total control over the environment and employ a DHCP and DNS server for your own little LAN.
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A Gold Man almost 7 yearsSounds great. Does this also allow my own computer to do lookups through the full instance of dnsmasq, or will the one owned by networkmanager continue jacking my requests?
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2707974 almost 7 yearsYes. If
dnsmasq
can not resolve locali will redirect request to8.8.8.8
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A Gold Man almost 7 yearsThere's a typo in your posted config file, it should say dhcp-host, not hcp
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2707974 almost 7 yearsYes you are right.
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A Gold Man almost 7 yearsDo you have a word on what I should set in NetworkManager for my network to make it use my server for dhcp and dns?
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2707974 almost 7 yearsPut any public accessable dns aka 8.8.8.8