Installing Dnsmasq for wildcard local domains on Debian

Install

sudo apt-get install dnsmasq

Configure

sudo vim /etc/dnsmasq.conf

Add this:

address=/example.com/127.0.0.1
listen-address=127.0.0.1

This maps *.example.com to 127.0.0.1 – replace with the domain you want to use. It also makes dnsmasq only respond to local requests for security – this is optional.

Restart to load the new configuration:

sudo /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart

Test it:

nslookup abc.example.com 127.0.0.1

It should say something like:

Server: 127.0.0.1
Address: 127.0.0.1#53

Name: abc.example.com
Address: 127.0.0.1

Override the nameserver to use for lookups

sudo vim /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf

Add:

prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;

Restart the network:

sudo ifdown eth0; sudo ifup eth0

Adjust as necessary if your interface is not named eth0. Run ifconfig to get the interface name if you’re not sure.

Check that it worked:

cat /etc/resolv.conf

It should say something like:

domain home
search home
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 192.168.32.254

Note that 127.0.0.1 is the first nameserver.

Test:

nslookup abc.example.com