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Forum Discussion
Solved
RBR850 DNS Masquerade
I have a new RBR850 with fw V4.6.14.3_2.3.12. I have configured the DHCP dynamic address pool to be 192.168.1.50 thru 192.168.1.254. I'm using the address reservation feature to assign 'static' IP ad...
I installed the dnsmasq package on a linux server I have and relieved the Orbi of DHCP and DNS duties. Its working great, and I'm happy.
Masquerading is not possible on stock NETGEAR firmware. I don't know on Orbi devices, but using a "normal" router (RAX43 and R7800) it serves both as a DHCP server and DNS resolver for my devices. On my desktop/laptop, all I have to do is add 192.168.1.1 to /etc/resolv.conf and don't worry about DNS. The router takes care of that (I use NextDNS on the router)
Alas, Orbi routers DNS do not resolve "local hosts", much less automatically add devices to a table. It appears there are only two work arounds:
- Create host files on local machines. (Probably not very many will need a host file. 99% of the devices in the home do not even have a user interface.)
- Point the Orbi DNS at a local DNS server which has the capability. Pi-hole, for example, provides the ability to create DNS records and CNAME records. Here's a sample:
Thanks for the information, I was pretty sure the Orbi didn't support Masquerade, but thought I'd ask in case I was missing something. This is my first mesh router system and in the past I've always bought routers that would run OpenWRT so I've gotten a little spoiled. I'll probably set up a local DNS server then and be happy.