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work2play

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Cisco Router as DNS Server

Hi All,

I'm trying to figure out if this is possible... I've read that you can take a cisco router and set it to cache/forward DNS.  So, I've done that with my home router (An 881W) - and it's working great; what  I'm hoping to accomplish though is to have the PC's in the house register their names dynamically to the Cisco DNS server just as they would if I were using a Windows DNS server.

Is that possible?  Basically I'm trying to get it working so I have DNS resolution of all the PC's in the home - by automatically appending the home DNS name (say Billspalace.com) - so if I try to ping officepc (and dhcp appends the suffix billspalace.com) the router should try to look for officepc.billspalace.com and know the IP because officepc registered itself via dynamic dns during the dhcp process.

I hope this is making sense; It's 4:00AM and I've been in IOS all day.

Thx!
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Istvan Kalmar
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Hi,

I advise to set a PC to a WINS server, and enable netbios on your network!
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ArneLovius
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rfc1180: dyndns won't provide internal short name resolution, which is what the OP requested " PC's in the house register their names dynamically"
>dyndns won't provide internal short name resolution

well of course not; DNS is not what provides short name resolution, and it really is not resolution. The DNS client just appends the domain suffix to send a FQDN query (The Fully qualified domain name) to the name server for resolution.

how to get it to work; append the dyndns.org  DNS Suffix in TCP/IP properties
uncheck the box for Register this connection's addresses in DNS (As the client will need to use dyndns client to register the IP.)

The clients will need to install the DYNDNS client, but surely does meet the requirements.

C:\Users\evilbit>ping rfc1180 -n 1

Pinging rfc1180.dyndns.org [192.168.1.50] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.50: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.50:
    Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 21ms, Maximum = 21ms, Average = 21ms

C:\Users\evilbit>ping rfc1180.dyndns.org -n 1

Pinging rfc1180.dyndns.org [192.168.1.50] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.50: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.50:
    Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 22ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 22ms

C:\Users\evilbit>

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : MSSucks
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : dyndns.org

If this is not an option, then the author is left to updating and using the local hosts file which might not be a bad idea if the network is relatively small.
Billy
I was under the impression that the dyndns clients were designed to use external address not the internal one

C:\>ping rfc1180.dnydns.org -n 1

Pinging rfc1180.dnydns.org [62.116.130.8] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 62.116.130.8: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 62.116.130.8:
    Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 44ms, Maximum = 44ms, Average = 44ms

nope, there are ways around that:

http://www.kanasolution.com/index.php?fid=20&pid=8

Billy
nifty :-)

however I don't understand how you got the internal address and I got an external address unless you were doing "something else" like doing a DNS re-write on an ASA...
>however I don't understand how you got the internal address and I got an external address unless you were doing "something else" like doing a DNS re-write on an ASA...

Is your network 192.168.1.0/24?

I think 62.116.130.8 is your IP (possibly), maybe you were doing the DNS re-write.

debian:~# dig rfc1180.dyndns.org @ns1.dyndns.org +short
192.168.1.50
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work2play

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Thanks Guys - to elaborate, WINS isn't an option and neither is running a windows server really; NETBIOS works great with windows, but what's actually sparking this is trying to make sure every device on the network can find each other (including the MAC clients and the hardware devices).  I'm also trying not to hard-code IP's because I don't want to reconfigure PC's as they leave the house for the day to be used at work or school.

At this point I may have to do static IP assignments through DHCP so clients always get the same IP - then mostly they should be able to resolve I suppose; definitely not ideal so I'm very open to ideas!

>At this point I may have to do static IP assignments through DHCP so clients always get the same IP

Then what you can do is just use the local hosts file for local resolution

Billy
well I definitely don't see a point in maintaining hosts files on each individual client device rather than managing all the hosts in a central location.  
>well I definitely don't see a point in maintaining hosts files on each individual client
Well of course, but none of the solutions that have been provided are an option for you, so your options are getting very limited.

If you have a single flat network, then NetBios name query will work and you will not have to worry about dns resolution,  but if you have different subnets, this will not work for you.
gardening took priority...

@billy, the 62 address was returned by dyndns...

@work2playIf you do static DHCP reservations, you cold use static DNS on the router and avoid host filles on the clients. alternatively, if you havea computer that is on all of the time, how about running Bind on it ?
Hey guys - I appreciate the ideas/suggestions; I'm going to do my best to award the points fairly and close this out.  

It sounds like there's really no means for Cisco to handle this as I was hoping; but it happens that I do run one of those little HP MediaSmart Windows Home Servers, and it looks like you can put DNS on it, accomplishing the Windows DNS that was suggested above; so I'm doing that and setting the Cisco router to assign that as the DNS server.  That should give me what I need.

For those that may have missed it, I needed DNS because I use several non-windows devices on my network, including copiers/printers, MacBook, a Security panel, Cameras, etc; and I wanted them all to function with name lookups rather than IP's; so managing hostfiles was never an option; the closest second would've been static IP's and static DNS entries in the router.  Host files would've never worked.