Forward from custom URL to IP on offline router (R7000)

[taylorbf]

  I have a Nighthawk AC1900 that I am using as a local network only (not connected to the internet).

My goal is to create a namespace like www.mydomain.com that forwards to a static IP that is on the network. So, anyone on the network who types in www.mydomain.com would be forwarded to the static IP automatically.

I saw that you can create a URL at mydomain.mynetgear.com, but I do not want a mynetgear.com domain. I am hoping to achieve a fully custom URL.

Tools like noip seem to be for online routers, because the DNS service that manages the namespace is online. Since my router is not connecte to the internet, it can't communicate with those services.

Is there any way to do this? Either within the router control panel settings, or using external tools?

[TheEther · Accepted solution]

Your use case isn't supported by stock firmware.  You will need to set up your own DNS server that can resolve www.mydomain.com to your static IP.

You can run a DNS server on a separate machine.  If you do this, then you will also have to disable the DHCP server on the R7000 and run your own DHCP server.  The reason is that the R7000 DHCP server will always advertise itself as a DNS server.  This will interfere with your DNS server.

Alternatively, you can install third-party firmware on the R7000, like Tomato, Asuswrt-Merlin or DD-WRT.  These firmwares have dnsmasq, which is a DNS server that can do what you want.

Note: The above options will only help with DNS. If you want to redirect URLs, then you'll need to set up a web server.

[TheEther · Accepted solution]

Your use case isn't supported by stock firmware.  You will need to set up your own DNS server that can resolve www.mydomain.com to your static IP.

You can run a DNS server on a separate machine.  If you do this, then you will also have to disable the DHCP server on the R7000 and run your own DHCP server.  The reason is that the R7000 DHCP server will always advertise itself as a DNS server.  This will interfere with your DNS server.

Alternatively, you can install third-party firmware on the R7000, like Tomato, Asuswrt-Merlin or DD-WRT.  These firmwares have dnsmasq, which is a DNS server that can do what you want.

Note: The above options will only help with DNS. If you want to redirect URLs, then you'll need to set up a web server.

[taylorbf]

Thanks so much for the detailed reply!

Two follow up questions:

1) Can you point me in the right direction for getting my router to use a separate DNS server? How do you tell the router to use a DNS server that is on a separate machine? I am hoping to avoid a dd-wrt install...  it sounds like there is a danger of bricking the router.

2) Is there any way to have a captive portal for the Guest network? I.e. how some guest networks forward all traffic to a static address automatically. This would be another way to accomplish my goal (forward users to a specific IP). I'm guessing this also requires dd-wrt but I wanted to double-check.

[TheEther]

1) Unfortunately, Netgear didn't provide a way to change the DNS server.  You may want to upvote this request to add the capability, but don't hold your breath.  Your only option is to completely disable the DHCP server on the router and run your own.  Yes, this means you have to run your own DHCP and DNS servers.  With your own DHCP server, you can configure it to advertise whatever DNS server you want.

2) You can't do a captive portal with stock firmware.  You'll need third-party firmware.

[taylorbf]

TheEther, thanks again for the detailed advice.

I ended up flashing DD-WRT onto the router and was able to accomplish my goal. The process was intimidating, but everything seems to be working fine and I have pretty powerful DNS configuration capabilities from dnsmasq in DD-WRT. Thanks --