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Does NAT require DNS (named)?

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Gary Dunn

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Apr 8, 2010, 4:57:00 PM4/8/10
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Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?


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mikel king

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Apr 8, 2010, 5:05:12 PM4/8/10
to Gary Dunn, freebsd-questions

Depends on how your internal LAN is configured. Generally if there are
no internal servers then you can forgo deploying a DNS server. Simply
setup your firewall IPFW or pf or whatever you are using to allow
clients to go out to the net and look names up. You will likely need a
dhcp server though so that your wireless clients can auto-discover the
appropriate network settings, but you can elect to do that manually as
well if it's your desire.


Regards,
Mikel King
CEO, Olivent Technologies
Senior Editor, BSD News Network
Columnist, BSD Magazine
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Chuck Swiger

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Apr 8, 2010, 5:04:43 PM4/8/10
to Gary Dunn, freebsd-questions
On Apr 8, 2010, at 1:57 PM, Gary Dunn wrote:
> Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network?

Run a nameserver?

> Seems like all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

named is fine, although I was happier with it's security history in the prior millennium than I am recently. But, if you don't want to run your own nameserver, point them toward nameservers run by your upstream network provider...

Regards,
--
-Chuck

Darek M

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Apr 8, 2010, 5:05:52 PM4/8/10
to Gary Dunn, freebsd-questions
Gary Dunn wrote:
> Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?

I normally run a copy of djbdns on the private IP, having private
clients use that for DNS. Alternately, the private clients could just
use your ISP's caching servers, which should work without any other
configuration (possibly an allowance on the firewall).

- Darek

Gary Dunn

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Apr 8, 2010, 8:32:00 PM4/8/10
to freebsd-questions
On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 17:05:12 -0400 mikel king <mikel...@olivent.com> wrote:

> On Apr 8, 2010, at 4:57 PM, Gary Dunn wrote:
>
>> Continuing the saga of building a wireless access point, what is the
>> best way to provide DNS service to the dowstream network? Seems like
>> all I need is a simple pass-through. For that named seems like
>> overkill. Anyone have an /etc/named/named.conf that does that?
>
>

> Depends on how your internal LAN is configured. Generally if there are
> no internal servers then you can forgo deploying a DNS server. Simply
> setup your firewall IPFW or pf or whatever you are using to allow
> clients to go out to the net and look names up. You will likely need a
> dhcp server though so that your wireless clients can auto-discover the
> appropriate network settings, but you can elect to do that manually as
> well if it's your
> desire.

I failed to mention that the same FreeBSD box will provide file and printer services via Samba, all clients will be Windows Vista, and there will bo no other servers on the downstream network. I cannot rely on clients editing their LMHOSTS files ... I need plug and play. Do I need a DNS server on the downstream network for Windows clients to connect to Samba?

mikel king

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Apr 8, 2010, 8:56:12 PM4/8/10
to Gary Dunn, freebsd-questions

Gary,

Thanks for the clarification. In this case if it were my network then
I would roll out both DNS and DHCP on this server. Honestly it will
make your life a hell of a lot easier in the long run, especially if
you intend on using WINS resolution for the Windows client via samba.
However only allow the DNS and DHCP services to run on the internal
LAN, bind them to an internal IP address.

You should be fine.

Cheers,
Mikel King

Brodey Dover

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Apr 8, 2010, 9:33:50 PM4/8/10
to mikel king, Gary Dunn, freebsd-questions
Unfortunately, still 17MB. I am going to play around with the sticks
of RAM that I have installed to see if there is a chipset/motherboard
issue.

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Gary Dunn

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Apr 13, 2010, 1:10:56 AM4/13/10
to freebsd-...@freebsd.org
On Thu, 2010-04-08 at 20:46 -0400, Brodey Dover wrote:
> If you already have a name server on your network then no, the WAP
> will not need to use DNS. You can tell the clients of the WAP that a
> nameserver exists in the DHCPD.conf file.
>
> I believe you can also set router 10.0.0.1 for example in the dhchpd.conf.

>
> On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 8:32 PM, Gary Dunn <o...@aloha.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 17:05:12 -0400 mikel king <mikel...@olivent.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On Apr 8, 2010, at 4:57 PM, Gary Dunn wrote:
[snip]

Thanks for all the help with this! I got NAT working today by commenting
out my custom menu stuff and doing exactly what the handbook documents,
with adjustments for the outdated ipfw documentation. Now I need to
backtrack to get back to my menu design goals.

I got DNS working by placing my upstream DNS servers in dhcpd.conf.
Works fine as long as the router never moves. It is supposed to be
mobile, so I am working on a simple solution for that. Still might go
with a full DNS, as some suggest, but I need to learn a lot more about
managing those configuration files!

Performance was excellent. No visible delay pulling up oddball Google
image searches.

Sent from Slate001

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