[TriLUG] dnsmasq

Alan Porter porter at trilug.org
Wed Nov 2 09:41:05 EST 2005


RD> My nameserver is primarily there to resolve names on the local
RD> subdomain.  The pseudo-business is really my home, two users and a
RD> small handful of client machines.

If you have a simple home network or a small office network,
I *highly* recommend a tool called 'dnsmasq'.  It is a simple
caching DNS server with an integrated DHCP server.

Basically, it resolves names within your network (either static
addresses from the server's /etc/hosts file or dynamically doled-out
DHCP addresses).  For names outside of your network, it goes out
to one or more 'real' DNS servers for answers.  And it caches the
requests to reduce further upstream requests.

All of the configuration is done through one simple config file.
It seems to hit a good balance between simplicity and usefulness.

I'm still kicking myself for not attending Aaron's DNS/bind class
a few months back.  I'd love to understand more about how that
stuff works.  But after trying (and failing) to configure bind to
play well with DHCP on my home network, I gave up and installed
dnsmasq.  And now I recommend dnsmasq for any small network.


Alan






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