thanks for the response. i found this. does it look like it would work? its basically the same thing you are saying but they put a bit more time into explaining it (i know you are not here to babysit me). but can you have a look and see if it will work? there are so many threads about things like this and so many apps\scripts for luci. i hope somebody writes one some day.
i would be willing to donate if anybody could do that. it doesnt even have to be a luci app. a shell script that accepted inputs would work. i have putty set up and winscp but i hate going through config files because i always screw something up.
i will look more into dsnmasq-full. and if i can figure something out i might try to write a script or something. i know a little bit of python but im not very familiar with linux\unix shell scripts.
thanks for the help though. i think you are right. dnsmasq-full is the way to go. i hope it doesnt hurt router performance.