Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | <HTML> |
| 2 | <HEAD> |
| 3 | <TITLE> Dnsmasq - a DNS forwarder for NAT firewalls.</TITLE> |
| 4 | </HEAD> |
| 5 | <BODY BGCOLOR="WHITE"> |
| 6 | <H1 ALIGN=center>Dnsmasq</H1> |
Simon Kelley | 3d8df26 | 2005-08-29 12:19:27 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 7 | Dnsmasq is a lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 8 | server. It is designed to provide DNS and, optionally, DHCP, to a |
| 9 | small network. It can serve the names of local machines which are |
| 10 | not in the global DNS. The DHCP server integrates with the DNS |
| 11 | server and allows machines with DHCP-allocated addresses |
| 12 | to appear in the DNS with names configured either in each host or |
| 13 | in a central configuration file. Dnsmasq supports static and dynamic |
Simon Kelley | 832af0b | 2007-01-21 20:01:28 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 14 | DHCP leases and BOOTP/TFTP for network booting of diskless machines. |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 15 | <P> |
| 16 | Dnsmasq is targeted at home networks using NAT and |
| 17 | connected to the internet via a modem, cable-modem or ADSL |
Simon Kelley | 1b7ecd1 | 2007-02-05 14:57:57 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 18 | connection but would be a good choice for any smallish network (up to |
| 19 | 1000 clients is known to work) where low |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 20 | resource use and ease of configuration are important. |
| 21 | <P> |
Simon Kelley | feba5c1 | 2004-07-27 20:28:58 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 22 | Supported platforms include Linux (with glibc and uclibc), *BSD and |
| 23 | Mac OS X. |
Simon Kelley | de37951 | 2004-06-22 20:23:33 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 24 | Dnsmasq is included in at least the following Linux distributions: |
Simon Kelley | 4011c4e | 2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 25 | Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, Suse, Fedora, |
Simon Kelley | 7cebd20 | 2006-05-06 14:13:33 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 26 | Smoothwall, IP-Cop, floppyfw, Firebox, LEAF, Freesco, fli4l, |
| 27 | CoyoteLinux, Endian Firewall and |
Simon Kelley | 4011c4e | 2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 28 | Clarkconnect. It is also available as FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD ports and is used in |
| 29 | Linksys wireless routers (dd-wrt, openwrt and the stock firmware) and the m0n0wall project. |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 30 | <P> |
| 31 | Dnsmasq provides the following features: |
| 32 | <DIR> |
| 33 | |
| 34 | <LI> |
| 35 | The DNS configuration of machines behind the firewall is simple and |
| 36 | doesn't depend on the details of the ISP's dns servers |
| 37 | <LI> |
| 38 | Clients which try to do DNS lookups while a modem link to the |
| 39 | internet is down will time out immediately. |
| 40 | </LI> |
| 41 | <LI> |
| 42 | Dnsmasq will serve names from the /etc/hosts file on the firewall |
| 43 | machine: If the names of local machines are there, then they can all |
| 44 | be addressed without having to maintain /etc/hosts on each machine. |
| 45 | </LI> |
| 46 | <LI> |
Simon Kelley | 26128d2 | 2004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 47 | The integrated DHCP server supports static and dynamic DHCP leases and |
| 48 | multiple networks and IP ranges. It works across BOOTP relays and |
| 49 | supports DHCP options including RFC3397 DNS search lists. |
| 50 | Machines which are configured by DHCP have their names automatically |
| 51 | included in the DNS and the names can specified by each machine or |
| 52 | centrally by associating a name with a MAC address in the dnsmasq |
| 53 | config file. |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 54 | </LI> |
| 55 | <LI> |
| 56 | Dnsmasq caches internet addresses (A records and AAAA records) and address-to-name |
| 57 | mappings (PTR records), reducing the load on upstream servers and |
Simon Kelley | 26128d2 | 2004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 58 | improving performance (especially on modem connections). |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 59 | </LI> |
| 60 | <LI> |
| 61 | Dnsmasq can be configured to automatically pick up the addresses of |
| 62 | it's upstream nameservers from ppp or dhcp configuration. It will |
| 63 | automatically reload this information if it changes. This facility |
| 64 | will be of particular interest to maintainers of Linux firewall |
| 65 | distributions since it allows dns configuration to be made automatic. |
| 66 | </LI> |
| 67 | <LI> |
| 68 | On IPv6-enabled boxes, dnsmasq can both talk to upstream servers via IPv6 |
| 69 | and offer DNS service via IPv6. On dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) boxes it talks |
| 70 | both protocols and can even act as IPv6-to-IPv4 or IPv4-to-IPv6 forwarder. |
| 71 | </LI> |
| 72 | <LI> |
| 73 | Dnsmasq can be configured to send queries for certain domains to |
| 74 | upstream servers handling only those domains. This makes integration |
| 75 | with private DNS systems easy. |
| 76 | </LI> |
| 77 | <LI> |
Simon Kelley | 4011c4e | 2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 78 | Dnsmasq supports MX and SRV records and can be configured to return MX records |
Simon Kelley | 26128d2 | 2004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 79 | for any or all local machines. |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 80 | </LI> |
| 81 | </DIR> |
| 82 | |
| 83 | <H2>Download.</H2> |
| 84 | |
Simon Kelley | de37951 | 2004-06-22 20:23:33 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 85 | <A HREF="http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/"> Download</A> dnsmasq here. |
Simon Kelley | 4011c4e | 2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 86 | The tarball includes this documentation, source, and manpage. |
Simon Kelley | 832af0b | 2007-01-21 20:01:28 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 87 | There is also a <A HREF="CHANGELOG"> CHANGELOG</A> and a <A HREF="FAQ">FAQ</A>. |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 88 | Dnsmasq is part of the Debian distribution, it can be downloaded from |
| 89 | <A HREF="http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/dnsmasq/"> here</A> or installed using <TT>apt</TT>. |
| 90 | |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 91 | <H2>Links.</H2> |
Simon Kelley | 3d8df26 | 2005-08-29 12:19:27 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 92 | There is an article in German on dnsmasq at <A |
| 93 | HREF="http://www.linuxnetmag.com/de/issue7/m7dnsmasq1.html">http://www.linuxnetmag.com/de/issue7/m7dnsmasq1.html</A> |
Simon Kelley | dfa666f | 2004-08-02 18:27:27 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 94 | and Damien Raude-Morvan has one in French at <A HREF="http://www.drazzib.com/docs-dnsmasq.html">http://www.drazzib.com/docs-dnsmasq.html</A> |
Simon Kelley | 26128d2 | 2004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 95 | There is a good article about dnsmasq at <A |
| 96 | HREF="http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/article.php/3377351">http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/article.php/3377351</A> |
Simon Kelley | 0a85254 | 2005-03-23 20:28:59 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 97 | and Ilya Evseev has an article in Russian about dnsmasq to be found at <A HREF="http://ilya-evseev.narod.ru/articles/dnsmasq"> http://ilya-evseev.narod.ru/articles/dnsmasq</A> |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 98 | <H2>License.</H2> |
| 99 | Dnsmasq is distributed under the GPL. See the file COPYING in the distribution |
| 100 | for details. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | <H2>Contact.</H2> |
Simon Kelley | 26128d2 | 2004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 103 | There is a dnsmasq mailing list at <A |
| 104 | HREF="http://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dnsmasq-discuss"> |
| 105 | http://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dnsmasq-discuss</A> which should be the |
| 106 | first location for queries, bugreports, suggestions etc. |
| 107 | Dnsmasq was written by Simon Kelley. You can contact me at <A |
| 108 | HREF="mailto:simon@thekelleys.org.uk">simon@thekelleys.org.uk</A>. |
Simon Kelley | 9e4abcb | 2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 109 | </BODY> |
| 110 | |