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Is there any way to use pfsense as caching DNS server. It will resolve domains starting from root servers and will cache them for consequent hits.

I tried DNS servers package on pfsense 1.2.2, which I guess uses WAN dns serversby default.

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2 Answers

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pfsense has a DNS cache, it is called dnsmasq. It doesn't start from the root servers. By default, it will take the DNS from the WAN DHCP server, but you can override that from the web page. I would point the box to an open DNS server, like

Google's at 8.8.8.8, Level3 at 4.2.2.1, 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS at 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220

The root servers are busy, so I wouldn't suggest starting with them. Use the addresses above and you should get better performance.

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this is a workaround, but not suitable for my situation. btw thanks. – dereli Jan 21 '10 at 9:18
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A pfSense forum thread suggests installing the DNS package for tinydns, and then adjusting the cache size to suit your needs.

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This did not work for my case. – dereli Nov 23 '09 at 6:42
Why did it not work? – Zanchey Nov 23 '09 at 7:26
By "did not work", I meant DNS server did not resolve host names. – dereli Nov 24 '09 at 14:49
TinyDNS is an authoritative DNS server only. The DJBDNS package that it came from has a separate program that does recursive DNS called dnscache. A 'caching DNS server' is usually what people call something like BIND without any local domains. – Walter Dec 30 '09 at 22:03

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