Help to set up dnsmasq step by step

[Subkulture]

Hi guys & gals,

love the continued work on the project it’s awesome to see to such a good community around geeky stuff.

Anyway could someone please advise step by step how to set up dnsmasq for Merlin now from what I’ve read online is setting the LAN DNS and WINS server to router IP will have the router use dnsmasq but not sure if this is correct. I’ve also checked the option for “Wan: Use local caching DNS server as system resolver “ as it sounds like a function of dnsmasq and also checked “Forward local domain queries to upstream DNS” as my thinking is going n care of any issues with DNS cache it can reach to internet to get correct DNS.

Any assistance / advice will be grateful

Thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

The default settings are usually the best. Leave LAN DNS and WINS blank. You do not want to set “Forward local domain queries to upstream DNS”.

Hover your mouse pointer over the field name and a question mark will appear. Click for a description of that field.

 

[Subkulture]

The default settings are usually the best. Leave LAN DNS and WINS blank. You do not want to set “Forward local domain queries to upstream DNS”.

Hover your mouse pointer over the field name and a question mark will appear. Click for a description of that field.

I’m just looking for the best performance possible and thought the router accessing its own DNS instead of going out to internet would be better. So leaving the fields blank means a ASUS Merlin router uses dnsmasq by default?

 

[ColinTaylor]

So leaving the fields blank means a ASUS Merlin router uses dnsmasq by default?

It means LAN clients will use dnsmasq (for best performance) and their requests will only be forwarded upstream when necessary.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

It means LAN clients will use dnsmasq (for best performance) and their requests will only be forwarded upstream when necessary.

As ColinTaylor alludes to, dnsmasq is very flexible. To get best performance it is better to use default setup, and only define single forwarding rules when necessary. One size fits all forwarding should only be used if you are running a windows name service or something of the likes.

 

[Subkulture]

Cool thanks for the reply guys should I also turn off Wan: Use local caching DNS server as system resolver? Which is within the tools menu?

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Cool thanks for the reply guys should I also turn off Wan: Use local caching DNS server as system resolver? Which is within the tools menu?

Yes because the default is no.