Linux Format forums

kvonh · Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:46 pm Posts: 19

I've just bought a Draytek Vigor 2830n router. Mostly very pleased so far BUT ... The Draytek is happily doling out IP addresses to local clients using its built-in DHCP server, however those address allocations are not accessible (i.e. names are not resolved to the issued IP) via the draytek's DNS service.

Now all the words I've read suggest that the the DNS within the Draytek is a proxy, and not a "proper" DNS service in & of itself. But I wondered whether anyone has had any joy setting it up to fulfil locally-allocated IP-address DHCP name-resolution requests. It seems odd to me that such a key function should be absent from an otherwise very sophisticate and capable router, which makes me think I may be missing something?

If I'm right, I fear I will have to connect through to a different machine in order to do DHCP allocations and local-address-DNS-resolution, which would be a shame - so any top tips would be most welcome.

Thanks

James

paulm · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:05 pm Post subject:

I've never seen any router DNS setup that will resolve local names. I doubt its possible.

To enable that sort of service, you have two choices - set up and maintain /etc/hosts on each machine (a bit of a pain, since you need to keep them in sync when any changes are made), or set up a local server which runs bind, dnsmasq or similar software.

I currently use an old Amahi server which runs bind, but that really is gross overkill for a small local network. The Amahi box is being replaced with a box running SMS, using dnsmasq for DHCP/DNS services. All I need is time to get the SMS box completed...

Paul.

Rhakios · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:13 pm Post subject:

I don't have too many computers to use a custom hosts file, so that's what I do, but I keep on running across the term "zeroconf" when ever I read about networking. It seems that when Avahi (which provides zeroconf for Linux networks) is "run in conjunction with nss-mdns it offers host name resolution". But then, I've never read a tutorial on how to set up Avahi and as I don't really need it, I'm unlikely to.
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wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:07 pm Post subject:

bobthebob1234 · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:30 pm Post subject:

I got some rubbish netgear thing/router that doesn't do local DNS, but I have an openwrt switch/wifi box that does dhcp and dns automagically Very Happy

If you kvonh/James set up static (dynamic) ip addresses (or reservations) does that help? I have noticed that before, where if I don't add a reservation then no dns, but if I set a reservation and give it a name then I can ping that reservation by name
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