Changing DNS settings

What is the recommended way to change the DNS settings on RISC OS?
There does not seem to be an option in the Internet section of Network configuration.
For the moment I am using the command line.:

SET Inet$Resolvers : 192.168.1.55 212.104.130.9

If doing a temporary change, you need to follow that up with a

*ResolverConfig

To make it permanent, put the primary and secondary name servers in !Configure → Network configuration → Internet Configuration → Host names

What is the recommended way to change the DNS settings on RISC OS?
There does not seem to be an option in the Internet section of Network configuration.

!Boot
Network Configuration
Internet Configuration
Host Names

Thanks David and Bryan for shedding a bit of light into this murky corner, however there is still some mystery.

When I started on this exercise the Domain Name Server fields in the InternetConfiguration Host Names window were not writable.
Currently they are writable. I can only assume this is a consequence of setting the Inet$Resolvers variable from the command line.
Looking at another RISC 5 machine confirms that the DNS fields are greyed out normally.
But RISC OS 6 is a clear winner here. It has a much improved Configuration interface for Networking, with writable fields in the Host Names window.

Firstly the you did click on the option in the Hosts section to “Try name server too” after the hosts file?

This will ungrey out the required sections as normal practice.

Secondly I agree the RISCOS 6 configuration window is a lot better and adds a lot and thats why I suggested the model should be used when updating to for the new internet stack at the London Show.

Update. Talking about new stack then are you not running this and have you tried all this without the new stack which is still in Beta and not everything is fully functioning from a configuration point of view.

Firstly the you did click on the option in the Hosts section to “Try name server too” after the hosts file?

This will ungrey out the required sections as normal practice.

Thanks Doug, another piece of the jigsaw falls in place.
I just tried that on a Pi running 5.27(16 Mar 19).
The good news is that it ungreyed the DNS fields. I was able to type in the new addresses and set, saved, and rebooted.

The bad news is that the changes were ignored.
The new values show up in the configure, but have not been picked up by Resolver.
show inet
displays the original values before the attempted change.
I am beginning to suspect that something is broken here.

I think they’re being over-ridden by those received by DHCP? Can’t remember the thread.

Did you reboot the system after making the changes?

The bad news is that the changes were ignored.

Lets take a step back.

Firstly if you are using DHCP then it does ignore the secondary elements as you are getting the information provided by your router.

That is after all what DHCP is for , to make it simple :-)

Secondly to get it to work you need to set it to Static IP addressing in Interfaces, either manual or via host name, and then it will pick up the secondary and tertiery DNS settings.

If you use host name then you need to have it set up in your hosts file as well.

On the subject of DHCP there was a discussion about expanding the configuration setup and DHCP to have an option to over rule the DHCP information seent back , like DNS etc, and I think Dave Higton? was looking at something as I remember trying out some of his configuration chnages but can’t find them at the moment.

think Dave Higton? was looking at something

OK found the thread and it was to do with altering the configuration setup to grey out Gateway when DHCP was used.

Inetsetup discussion

Firstly if you are using DHCP then it does ignore the secondary elements as you are getting the information provided by your router……
Secondly to get it to work you need to set it to Static IP addressing in Interfaces,

That looks broken to me.

All the machines on my LAN and WLAN have fixed ip addresses allocated by the router. It gets a bit messy if the RISC OS machines have to be configured independently to have fixed IPs.
DNS on the Mac mini, Android, and a linux machine have been set while keeping DHCP. I havent tried yet but suspect the windows laptop will be ok too.
I think my best solution for RISC OS is to add a line to the post boot obey file to override the DHCP values for Inet$Resolvers.

Unless you specifically need different DNS settings for different machines, there’s no reason not to use a DHCP-assigned reserved IP address for each machine that includes the DHCP-set DNS server(s). That way, it is simple to update all machines centrally at the router if you need to set new DNS servers.

That looks broken to me.

What is broken or not clear is that the configuration setup does not grey out certain options when DHCP is set and that is what Dave Higton was looking to improve.

I think my best solution for RISC OS is to add a line to the post boot obey file to override the DHCP values for Inet$Resolvers

Firstly why do you need to overide the DHCP provided settings and manually altering things that way has the potential to go badly wrong if you are unsure of what to do or forget you did it and then wonder why an update or new ROM fails badly.

Secondly if you are a Beta tester for the new IP stack I would suggest that you keep things as standard as possible or at least ensure they are as intended if you encounter any IP related issues as that may give a false impression of issues with the new stack.

I would also say that it might be good to drop RISCOSDev some feedback to say in any updated configuration setup could the option be there to manually overide DHCP delivered options in the configuration set up as that way we all benefit from a universal delivered and supported way of doing things.

That way, it is simple to update all machines centrally at the router if you need to set new DNS servers.

Lots of ISP supplied routers don’t allow that but the good ones do though if you do alter the settings then be prepared to be on your own if you have issues and try getting support of your ISP.

Firstly why do you need to overide the DHCP provided settings and manually altering things that way has the potential to go badly wrong if you are unsure of what to do or forget you did it and then wonder why an update or new ROM fails badly.

:)

That’s a philosophy I’ve been pushing at equipment supplier installers for about 18 years now. I’m currently running at about 75% success rate on the first reaction.

Reading the older thread again (it seems such a long time ago that I did that stuff!), I asked for reactions, but very few people seem to have told me any.

The !RunImage file is still there if anyone would like to try it. It replaces

!Boot.Resources.Configure.!InetSetup.!RunImage

Here is why I want to change the DNS settings independently from the ones inherited from DHCP.
I have a Raspberry Pi running PiHole. It is a malware and ad blocker program which you set up as primary DNS server. If it gets a web request for an address in its blacklist it blocks it. This leads to quicker loading and cleaner web pages.
Originally I was going to set my router’s primary DNS to PiHole, but this will affect every device in the house and might not be such a great idea.
So I have been changing machines one by one and testing for problems. By and large there have not been many but some quite innocent pages are blocked. It is also useful to have some machines filtered and others not for comparison.

By the end of the week I may be ready to take the plunge and push all traffic through PiHole.
This will include smart tv, laptop, tablet, and mobile phones.

PiHole. Just Do It.

Then set the Pi as your DHCP & DNS server!

I have a Raspberry Pi running PiHole

Ah, sounds interesting.

As Stuart says once you are happy with things then just turn off DHCP in your router and enable it in PiHole and then you only have one change to remember in one location.