DNS Server Settings

Question

Level 1

9 points

DNS Server Settings

Hi,

I plan to run VNC and VPN over the internet from my mac mini. I got confused by so many DNS settings I need to do on different devices.

I think my DNS setting is wrong either in my mac mini or in my router.

On the Mini, 127.0.0.1 was given to me as default value. But none of my devices use this range. My router's IP is 192.168.0.1. All my other devices use this range too.

My router uses google dns on WAN profile page, and on "DHCP Server" profile page I use my mac-mini's IP as Primary DNS Server Address and Google's 8.8.4.4 as "Secondary DNS Server Address"

How do I find out if any of the settings is wrong? Log or something.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 13, 2012 1:09 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Newbie-2-macs

Level 1

15 points

Mar 13, 2012 3:50 AM in response to HRMUser

The 127.0.0.1 address is simply the localhost address. It tells the computer to use itself to resolve DNS entries. If you have set up the Lion Server DNS to use a forwarder address, perhaps the google 8.8.4.4 address, then if it cannot resolve the DNS query it will send it to the forwarding IP 8.8.4.4. You could use your routers IP address for the forwarding address too.

I think that when using VPN you will need to connect to the public address of your router. The 192.168.0.1 address is your private router address and this is used internally by your client machines to get out to the Internet.

Reply

Answer 2

HRMUser Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 24, 2012 9:45 PM in response to Newbie-2-macs

Do you know what search domain means? It is right under the DNS server in the first screenshot I posted. How should I set it up please?

Thanks,

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 25, 2012 12:32 AM in response to HRMUser

Take a look at the following article. Remember google is your friend ;)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/14127.html

Reply

Answer 4

Camelot

Level 9

55,569 points

Mar 25, 2012 3:19 PM in response to HRMUser

Unless you're playing more games in your router, you shouldn't be running your server under DHCP.

That's especially true if you're running services such as a directory server on your server.

If you use DHCP then, by definition, your server's address could change over time. This will wreak havoc for anyone trying to get to your machine since it's no longer where it was.

This is also true if you have external clients connecting to your server via port forwarding in your router. If your server's address changes then that port forwarding will no longer map to your server - it could even map to some other device that you really don't want exposed to the outside world.

So my first recommendation would be to change the server's address from DHCP to Manually defined. Then you can give it a static address in your LAN and avoid all kinds of problems.

Additionally, for what it's worth, the Google DNS numbers are probably not something you want to use, either, especially if you have multiple systems on your LAN. Google knows nothing of your internal LAN addresses (e.g. the 192.168.0.x range) so all of your clients will have trouble finding resources in your LAN.

Instead you should be running DNS on your server (which it sounds like you are), and the clients should be using that server for name resolution, not some external server.

Reply