12.5. DNS

In the DHCP configuration outlined in the previous section, the clients are sent the upstream provider's DNS server IP addresses. This is the simplest way to set things up, but you might want to go to a step further and run your own DNS server.

There are two common reasons to run your own DNS server: caching DNS lookups for performance reasons or hosting a domain. DNS caching can improve performance by handling repeated DNS lookups locally. This probably won't make a very big difference unless your upstream DNS server has noticeable delays. The proper hosting of a domain is a more advanced topic; if you wish to do this, you should consult the DNS server documentation for information on configuration.