porges

Important Update!

Don’t use this method any more! I have a much easier way to do it in a more recent post.

But for posterity…

First install resolvconf and pdnsd: sudo apt-get install pdnsd resolvconf. Resolvconf handles the messy interaction between different programs fighting over the /etc/resolv.conf file, and pdnsd provides a persistent DNS daemon, which will cache the DNS lookups on your machine in order to make browsing faster.

Next, you just need to edit pdnsd’s configuration file, /etc/pdnsd.conf as root. Edit it to look like this:

global {
        perm_cache=512;
        cache_dir="/var/cache/pdnsd";
        max_ttl=604800;
        run_as="pdnsd";
        paranoid=on;
#       next setting allows ppp/ip-up update the name servers -- ABa / 20040213
        status_ctl=on;
        server_port=53;
        server_ip="127.0.0.1";
}

#Edit these to be your own servers if wished:
server {
        label = "OpenDNS";
        ip=208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;
        proxy_only=on;
        timeout=10;
}

# if you installed resolvconf, and status_ctl=on
server {
    label="resolvconf";
}

source {
        ttl=86400;
        owner="localhost.";
#       serve_aliases=on;
        file="/etc/hosts";
}

And finally, restart pdnsd with sudo /etc/init.d/pdnsd restart to use the new settings. In the example above, I've used OpenDNS's servers, but you can change these to whatever you want. As far as actual results go:

~$ dig example.com

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> example.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 17447
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com. 172800 IN A 192.0.34.166

;; Query time: 513 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Oct 5 15:24:19 2006
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 45

$ dig example.com

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> example.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 19338
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com. 172799 IN A 192.0.34.166

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Oct 5 15:24:20 2006
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 45