Can I setup my Raspberry PI 3 with a DNS server that responds natively on Windows

Question

I am pretty sure this has already been answered but I couldn't find any answser yet.

My Raspbery PI 3 acts as a web server with Nginx, and the native WIFI is configured as a WIFI hotspot.

So from my Windows 10 machine, I can connect to the Raspberry WIFI hotspot, then I can access a website served by Nginx using the Raspberry PI IP address.

But now I would like to access my Raspberry PI using a domain name. I know that I can access it via raspberrypi.local, and it is working if I try from a Linux machine, but it is not from a Windows machine. I understood I need to install something (called "Bonjour"?) on my Windows machine. I don't want it, I would like to just be able to type raspberrypi.local on my browser in Windows 10 and access my Rasp.

Can I set up something like a DNS server in the Rasp that will be used by Windows 10 when connected through the Rasp WIFI hotspot?

Answer 1

Yes. you can setup bind9, the most widely-used name server software on the Internet. You will find it and some useful additions in the Raspbian repository with:

pi ~$ sudo apt install bind9 bind9-doc dnsutils

Then you have to setup your local domain and tell windows (and other clients) to use your local dns-server for domain name resolution. Usually this is done with the DHCP-server that tells its clients what nameserver to use.

Search with google. You will find many examples how to do this.

Answer 2

Yes, if you setup a DNS server (Domain Name Server) you can create you own little internal network. However, you will need to make sure that the server rolls over onto an outside DNS so that you can find outside machines (like amazon.com. google.com, tvtropes.org, and other such important sites). I have a Synology NAS that has the option of having a DNS run on it.

It is a fairly tedious process. I've only done this on unix/linux machines, but there must be something that runs under windows.

I will be setting this up on my Synology NAS because I don't have a Linux machine that it up all the time.

Then you have to have your central router (usually that machine that runs WiFi in your house) to give your internal machines specific internal ip-addresses. This is so that the DNS server can associate each address with each name.

And then you have to go to all the machines and tell them about this new nameserver and not to use DHCP to get their addresses and names. And also inform the machine about their new fixed ip-address. This is usually under settings in a setting called "Network."

It's easier than I make it sound. Here is a recent article on how to do the setup under Linux.

One further suggestion: decided on an unique domain name. I use my first name because it's short and I can remember it easily.

Sometimes people have a theme in naming their individual machines. I've seen machines with the names of science fiction characters and one with the name of small towns in Pennsylvania. Go wild. I may name my machines after cinematic superhero names. :)