DNS without a Server

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 10:00:00 +0000

A few days ago I’d decided to configure Raspberry PI as a weather station to check temperature, humidity, and pressure. So I need to access it on the network with SSH and a web browser. The easiest way of solving this problem is using a static IP address. In this case, I have to set static IP for Raspberry PI and then use this address in a browser. For me, it’s more convenient to use a human-readable hostname than remembering an IP address. I can modify /etc/hosts to associate Raspberry PI IP with custom hostname but I have to perform this action on all of my devices. It’s a bit monotonous work if you have several computers and for some mobile devices, it’s impossible to configure.

In the case of complicated enterprise networks, it’s common to configure a name server to perform hostname resolution, but for a small home network with several computers, it can be a bit overkill to configure and support a dedicated DNS server. Searching through the Internet I’d found an article about connecting Raspberry PI to an iPad with a USB cable. The author accessed a device with the address raspberrypi.local without any additional DNS configuration. So it should be a more lightweight alternative than a dedicated DNS server for home networks.

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DNS without a Server