Dnsmasq provides network infrastructure for small networks: DNS, DHCP, router advertisement and network boot. It is designed to be
lightweight and have a small footprint, suitable for resource constrained routers and firewalls. It has also been widely used
for tethering on smartphones and portable hotspots, and to support virtual networking in virtualisation frameworks.
Supported platforms include Linux (with glibc and uclibc), Android, *BSD, and Mac OS X. Dnsmasq is included in most
Linux distributions and the ports systems of FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. Dnsmasq provides full IPv6 support.
Dnsmasq is a lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP
server. It is designed to provide DNS and, optionally, DHCP, to a
small network. It can serve the names of local machines which are
not in the global DNS. The DHCP server integrates with the DNS
server and allows machines with DHCP-allocated addresses
to appear in the DNS with names configured either in each host or
in a central configuration file. Dnsmasq supports static and dynamic
DHCP leases and BOOTP/TFTP/PXE for network booting of diskless machines.
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Dnsmasq is targeted at home networks using NAT and
The DNS subsystem provides a local DNS server for the network, with forwarding of all query types to upstream recursive DNS servers and
connected to the internet via a modem, cable-modem or ADSL
cacheing of common record types (A, AAAA, CNAME and PTR, also DNSKEY and DS when DNSSEC is enabled).
connection but would be a good choice for any smallish network (up to
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1000 clients is known to work) where low
<LI>Local DNS names can be defined by reading /etc/hosts, by importing names from the DHCP subsystem, or by configuration of a wide range of useful record types.</LI>
resource use and ease of configuration are important.
<LI>Upstream servers can be configured in a variety of convenient ways, including dynamic configuration as these change on moving upstream network.
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<LI>Authoritative DNS mode allows local DNS names may be exported to zone in the global DNS. Dnsmasq acts as authoritative server for this zone, and also provides
Supported platforms include Linux (with glibc and uclibc), Android, *BSD,
zone transfer to secondaries for the zone, if required.</LI>
Solaris and Mac OS X.
<LI>DNSSEC validation may be performed on DNS replies from upstream nameservers, providing security against spoofing and cache poisoning.</LI>
Dnsmasq is included in at least the following Linux distributions:
<LI>Specified sub-domains can be directed to their own upstream DNS servers, making VPN configuration easy.</LI>
