<dnsmasq_intro>
Dnsmasq is a lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server.[br]
 It is designed to provide DNS and, optionally, DHCP, to a small network.[br]
It can serve the names of local machines which are not in the global DNS.[br]
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.[br]
Dnsmasq supports static and dynamic DHCP leases and BOOTP/TFTP for network booting of diskless machines.[br]
Dnsmasq is targeted at home networks using NAT and connected to the internet via a modem, cable-modem or ADSL connection but would be a good choice for any smallish network (up to 1000 clients is known to work) where low resource use and ease of configuration are important. 
[H4]Dnsmasq provides the following features:[/H4]
[ul]
[li]The DNS configuration of machines behind the firewall is simple and doesn't depend on the details of the ISP's dns servers[/li]
[li]Clients which try to do DNS lookups while a modem link to the internet is down will time out immediately.[/li]
[li]Dnsmasq will serve names from the /etc/hosts file on the firewall machine: If the names of local machines are there, then they can all be addressed without having to maintain /etc/hosts on each machine.[/li]
[li] The integrated DHCP server supports static and dynamic DHCP leases and multiple networks and IP ranges.[br] It works across BOOTP relays and supports DHCP options including RFC3397 DNS search lists.[br]
Machines which are configured by DHCP have their names automatically included in the DNS and the names can specified by each machine or centrally by associating a name with a MAC address in the dnsmasq config file.[/li]
[li][b]Dnsmasq caches internet addresses (A records and AAAA records) and address-to-name mappings (PTR records), reducing the load on upstream servers and improving performance (especially on modem connections).[/b][/li]
[li] Dnsmasq can be configured to automatically pick up the addresses of it's upstream nameservers from ppp or dhcp configuration. [br]It will automatically reload this information if it changes.[br] This facility will be of particular interest to maintainers of Linux firewall distributions since it allows dns configuration to be made automatic.[/li]
[li]On IPv6-enabled boxes, dnsmasq can both talk to upstream servers via IPv6 and offer DNS service via IPv6. On dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) boxes it talks both protocols and can even act as IPv6-to-IPv4 or IPv4-to-IPv6 forwarder.[/li]
[li]Dnsmasq can be configured to send queries for certain domains to upstream servers handling only those domains. [br]This makes integration with private DNS systems easy.[/li]
[li]Dnsmasq supports MX and SRV records and can be configured to return MX records for any or all local machines.[/li]
[/ul]
</dnsmasq_intro>

<dnsmasq_DNS_cache_settings>DNS Cache settings</dnsmasq_DNS_cache_settings>
<dnsmasq_DNS_cache_settings_text>Parameters in order to drive the DnsMasq caching addresses </dnsmasq_DNS_cache_settings_text>


<domain-needed>domain needed</domain-needed>
<domain-needed_text>Never forward plain names (without a dot or domain part)</domain-needed_text>

