Using OpenWrt as a DNS Server

[manton]

Hi,

I am new to OpenWrt and want to use it to setup a DNS Server, but not sure if it has this capability. I can find lots of info about using custom DNS and re-directs etc. but nothing pertaining to using as the server itself.

Any ideas?

Thanks

See below screenshot for context.

[psherman]

OpenWrt can certainly be used as a DNS server -- it has the dnsmasq service for this purpose.

The typical use-case for this is to do the following:

• A local DNS server for your network. It will get queries from hosts on your network and will use whatever specified upstream DNS servers you choose for queries that are not local or otherwise cached.
• Provide local DNS resolution for hosts on your network
• Allow the use of additional DNS entries to override normal DNS operations... for example, if you want to block an entire domain, you can just resolve it locally and point it to a null address (0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 or a host on your network) so that the real IPs are never actually resolved.
• In conjunction with Adblock or Adguard home, you can use this as an adblocking DNS service.

That said, if your goal is specifically DNS, you may actually want to look at pihole as an option instead.

[manton]

Hi, thank you for your prompt reply. This is good news! Do you know if it can have a SRV entry called _mcal.? (See screenshot above). I tried the Simple DNS server application for Windows and it did not have the mcal option.

[psherman]

I don't know about it... but you can check dnsmasq documentation for all your DNS questions.

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/base-system/dhcp
https://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/docs/dnsmasq-man.html

[manton]

It looks like you can create a custom entry in the dnsmasq settings, thanks!

[psherman]

You're welcome.

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Thanks!

[manton]

Hi again,

I have been able to create an SRV record successfully.

With an "A" record, I assume that it's the "Hostnames" tab, as A record just means pointing a hostname to an IP address.

However, I can't see any reference to creating an "SOA" record (start of authority) in the documents. No mention of SOA specifically. Is there anything else I should be looking at?