What does DNS do on iPhone?

DNS (Domain Name System) is a protocol that enables computers on the internet to find the IP address of a host or a domain. For example, if I am trying to type google.com into my browser, the browser will first check the DNS server and if it can't find the IP address it will automatically type the IP address into the address bar. DNS enables you to type www.com in your web browser and it will work.

But what if I am not typing it into my browser? What if I am trying to find the name of an iPhone application on the App Store? What if I am not using the default web browser? What if I am not using Safari? What if I want to use Firefox instead? DNS is one of those things that I love about iOS, and one of those things I don't love about iOS. IOS has a really good DNS resolution system built in, but I am not able to use it on my Mac. I have to use the Mac DNS server built in OS X to resolve my DNS. It works for many people, but I don't like it.

Why do I have to use Mac DNS? Why can't iOS have its own DNS server? If you are reading this, I am guessing you are interested in why I use the Mac DNS server, rather than the built in DNS. This is probably because you are trying to use apps that don't support iOS 7's new built in DNS. The reason that these apps don't support it is because they were made to run on the Mac. If you are trying to use them on your iPhone or iPad, it won't work.

The only reason that these apps will work is because they were written for the Mac, and Apple only added built in DNS support into iOS 7 when it was completely ready. As of iOS 8.1, there is no more need to use a Mac to resolve DNS.

DNS works just fine on iPhone and iPad, but I really like that I don't have to use the Mac DNS server on my Mac and I can just rely on iOS to handle all of my DNS. Why can't I use DNS built in to iOS? DNS is an amazing protocol. It allows for the most powerful connectivity possible, because DNS resolves the name of a computer, web server, application, etc.

Should I configure DNS?

In order to connect to my home router, I have to add a new DNS server for it.

If I do that, will I be able to connect to the Internet through it? I am not sure how to set this up in Ubuntu.

If you want to use your router as a wireless bridge, all you need is to configure your router to forward DNS queries to your computer. This is probably what the default configuration of your router is, so you can skip that step and focus on configuring your computer.

There are several ways to configure your router to forward DNS queries. The easiest way is probably the DHCP options menu in the web interface of your router. It should contain options to set a static IP address for your computer and also to set a DNS server for your network. You can also set up forwarding on the connection that your router uses to connect to the Internet. Your router might offer this option, or you can enable forwarding on a port other than the default ones (80 and/or 443).

What should I set my DNS settings to?

nathanel: you have any more specifics to pastebin about what you are doing?

oerheks: I don't see why that would matter. It does affect apt oops. So I installed a few packages, then I ran "sudo -s" to have a bash like shell so I could install another couple of packages. When I exit and log back into a normal account after logging out, my terminal has become unusable no prompt, no tab completion, etc. nathanel: can you ssh to it? apt works with dns cache, yes but . nacc: I've never quite figured out what's different about that site; is it that they're going through the archives of release announcements for each release and manually summarizing them? oerheks: if theres any issue it shoudl not be with apt. sarnold: yeah, imo, it's just as much work as just reading the pages. I got an error: No ssh keys match the current state of the agent. sarnold: also, it's a bunch of 'rebuild'. nathanel: you might want to purge yoru key? and redo. So now I've lost history, I'm root, I can't run "command" because it opens in a split window (instead of opening a new terminal) I can't sudo the system because I have no ability to run commands in the regular shell. how would I purge keys? do I have to remove this file? anyone having trouble seeing this on youtube video

The sound cuts off. nacc: oh wow. Nice.

Should I change my DNS server on iPhone?

I am using dnsmasq on my Ubuntu server for the dns resolution of devices on my network.

I also use dnsmasq to change the IP address of the server. The server is hosted by Digital Ocean and I use the following config in /etc/dnsmasq.conf:
Address=/www.mywebsite.com

When I use the ip address of the server in my iPhone, it works perfectly. But when I use the dnsmasq address it does not work.

Should I change my DNS server on my iPhone? It is possible that you have some local DNS server on your Mac that is taking precedence over the DNS servers in your iOS device. You should be able to check this with a packet sniffer such as tcpdump.

You can either add your DNS servers to your local DNS server so that they take precedence, or you can add the following lines to your /etc/hosts file on your Mac. 0.1 www.com
This will override the default OS X DNS server and ensure that the request goes directly to your DNS server.