Automatic discovery of DNS servers

[Biker]

I have always lived with the idea that the DNS server(s) must be defined by IP address, and from there it's possible to resolve any (valid) IP address to name and vice versa. The same would be true for any forward DNS servers.

Recently I learned that in the Windows world, there is some sort of "Automatic Discovery of DNS server(s)" available.

Could anyone point me to any HOWTO for me to read or some other RTFM to be able to do the same in Linux?


What I'd like to achieve is that my local DNS server (for my home LAN) might be able to automatically discover the external DNS servers at my ISP and therefore use my ISP's DNS servers as forwarding servers.

Currently I use my ADSL modem as a forwarder, where the ADSL modem does the "Auto discovery thing" with my ISP. I'd like to remove the ADSL modem from the DNS chain of forwarders.

Biker
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[Linki]

I can't think of any automatic "DNS discovery" with TCP/IP. Normaly the DNS Servers are 'made known' by the DHCP Service, so if you do a dhcp lookup for a new IP adress you also get you DNS Servers assigned (you can even assign more Servers like ntp, wins, etc.)

[splooge]

Sounds like someone was talking about a dhcp server to me, too. Probably got the two confused a little.

You don't just 'discover' name servers. You have to know their IP address.
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[Spooky Ghost]

In Windows the automatic discovery of DNS servers is only available when the IP is assigned by DHCP. If you statically set your IP, you must do the same for your DNS servers.

[smart]

But despite that, you should anyways be able to specify your ISPs DNS servers directly as forwarders for your internal one without making another hop by your router. See what your router uses as DNS server and use the same.