Linux / UNIX set the DNS from the command line
Q. I just got Linux installed on my system. I'm able to connect to internet via IP address only. I'm not able to find out information about setting up new DNS sever ip under Linux. How do I configure primary and secondary DNS via terminal / shell prompt?
A. Under Linux / UNIX / BSD operating system, you need to edit the /etc/resolv.conf file and add the line:
nameserver {IP-OF-THE-DNS-1}
nameserver {IP-OF-THEISP-DNS-SERVER-2}
Login as the root, enter:
# vi /etc/resolv.conf
OR
$ sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
Modify or enter nameserver as follows:
nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220
Save and close the file. To test DNS configuration type any one of the following command:
$ host google.com
$ dig google.com
$ ping google.com
$ nslookup your-domain.com
Output:
google.com has address 72.14.207.99 google.com has address 64.233.187.99 google.com has address 64.233.167.99 google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp4.google.com. google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp1.google.com. google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp2.google.com. google.com mail is handled by 10 smtp3.google.com.
If you see valid output such as actual IP address or able to ping to remote server via hostname, it means that the dns is working for you. Also make sure you have valid default gateway setup, if you see the time out error.
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Tags: /etc/resolv.conf, bind nameserver, debian nameserver, dns server, etc resolv conf nameserver, nameserver change, ping nameserver, primary dns server, redhat nameserver, resolv conf nameserver, secondary dns, set name server, time out error, unix dns ~ Last updated on: December 20, 2007
December 19th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
you’re easily sliding to the point where your tutorials will be as complex as ‘how to start your computer? press the power button!’
haha
December 19th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Typo:
nslookup
December 20th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Ping is a tool to send ICMP echo requests to machines, not to check if resolving works. nslookup, dig and host can be used to check resolving, as you perfectly describe in this article.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
> http://www.google.com
Server: 208.67.222.222
Address: 208.67.222.222#53
Non-authoritative answer:
http://www.google.com canonical name = google.navigation.opendns.com.
Name: google.navigation.opendns.com
Address: 208.67.219.230
Name: google.navigation.opendns.com
Address: 208.67.219.231
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Using nslookup you can query different name servers.
nslookup http://www.google.com XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the ip adress or name of the name server you are trying to query.
Doing :
nslookup http://www.google.com localhost
will query your local dns server if you have one.