Solid DNS Server

Technitium DNS Server is an open source authoritative as well as recursive DNS server that can be used for self hosting a DNS server for privacy & security. It works out-of-the-box with no or minimal configuration and provides a user friendly web console accessible using any modern web browser.

Nobody really bothers about domain name resolution since it works automatically behind the scenes and is complex to understand. Most computer software use the operating system’s DNS resolver that usually query the configured ISP’s DNS server using UDP protocol. This way works well for most people but, your ISP can see and control what website you can visit even when the website employ HTTPS security. Not only that, some ISPs can redirect, block or inject content into websites you visit even when you use a different DNS provider like Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS. Having Technitium DNS Server configured to use DNS-over-TLS or DNS-over-HTTPS forwarders, these privacy & security issues can be mitigated very effectively.

Be it a home network or an organization’s network, having a locally running DNS server gives you more insights into your network and helps to understand it better using the DNS logs and stats. It improves overall performance since most queries are served from the DNS cache making web sites load faster by not having to wait for frequent DNS resolutions. It also gives you an additional control over your network allowing you to block domain names network wide and also allows you to route your DNS traffic securely using encrypted DNS protocols.

Block Ads At DNS Level

Technitium DNS Server allows you to configure Block List URLs that gets automatically updated daily to block ads on your network. The Quick Add option lists popular block lists available for you to choose from.

Privacy & Security

Technitium DNS Server supports using DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS protocols for forwarders allowing you to use popular public DNS resolvers like Cloudflare, Google & Quad9. These protocols provides privacy by encrypting your DNS traffic on the network and protects you from man-in-the-middle attacks.

Features

  • Works on Windows, Linux, macOS and Raspberry Pi.
  • Docker image available on Docker Hub
  • Installs in just a minute and works out-of-the-box with zero configuration.
  • Block ads & malware using one or more block list URLs.
  • High performance DNS server based on async IO that can serve millions of requests per minute even on a commodity desktop PC hardware (load tested on Intel i7-8700 CPU with more than 100,000 request/second over Gigabit Ethernet).
  • Self host DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS DNS service on your network.
  • Use public DNS resolvers like Cloudflare, Google & Quad9 with DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS protocols as forwarders.
  • Advanced caching with features like serve stale, prefetching and auto prefetching.
  • Supports working as an authoritative as well as a recursive DNS server.
  • DNSSEC validation support with RSA & ECDSA algorithms for recursive resolver, forwarders, and conditional forwarders.
  • DNSSEC support for all supported DNS transport protocols including encrypted DNS protocols (DoT, DoH, & DoH JSON).
  • DANE TLSA [RFC 6698] record type support. This includes support for automatically generating the hash values using certificates in PEM format.
  • SSHFP [RFC 4255] record type support.
  • CNAME cloaking feature to block domain names that resolve to CNAME which are blocked.
  • QNAME minimization support in recursive resolver [RFC 9156].
  • QNAME randomization support for UDP transport protocol [draft-vixie-dnsext-dns0x20-00].
  • DNAME record [RFC 6672] support.
  • ANAME propriety record support to allow using CNAME like feature at zone apex (CNAME flattening). Supports multiple ANAME records at both zone apex and sub domains.
  • APP propriety record support that allows custom DNS Apps to directly handle DNS requests and return a custom DNS response based on any business logic.
  • Support for features like Split Horizon and Geolocation based responses using DNS Apps feature.
  • Support for REGEX based block lists with different block lists for different client IP addresses or subnet using Advanced Blocking DNS App.
  • Primary, Secondary, Stub, and Conditional Forwarder zone support.
  • Static stub zone support implemented in Conditional Forwarder zone to force a domain name to resolve via given name servers using NS records.
  • DNSSEC signed zones support with RSA & ECDSA algorithms.
  • Zone transfer over TLS (XFR-over-TLS) [RFC 9103] support.
  • Dynamic DNS Updates [RFC 2136] support with security policy.
  • Secret key transaction authentication (TSIG) [RFC 8945] support for zone transfers.
  • EDNS(0) [RFC6891] support.
  • EDNS Client Subnet (ECS) [RFC 7871] support for recursive resolution and forwarding.
  • Extended DNS Errors [RFC 8914] support.
  • DNS64 function [RFC 6147] support for use by IPv6 only clients using the DNS64 App.
  • Multi-user role based access with non-expiring API token support.
  • Self host your domain names on your own DNS server.
  • Wildcard sub domain support.
  • Enable/disable zones and records to allow testing with ease.
  • Built-in DNS Client with option to import responses to local zone.
  • Supports out-of-order DNS request processing for DNS-over-TCP and DNS-over-TLS protocols [RFC 7766].
  • Built-in DHCP Server that can work for multiple networks.
  • IPv6 support in DNS server core.
  • HTTP & SOCKS5 proxy support which can be configured to route DNS over Tor Network or use Cloudflare’s hidden DNS resolver.
  • Web console portal for easy configuration using any web browser.
  • Built-in system logging and query logging.
  • Open source cross-platform .NET 7 implementation hosted on  GitHub.

How To Get Started

  1. Download and install the DNS server. You can use the portable zip/tar.gz file too by extracting and run the DNS Server app.
  2. Open http://localhost:5380/ on your favourite web browser.
  3. The web console will auto login using default username ‘admin’ and password ‘admin’. Don’t forget to change the password to disable auto login!
  4. Optionally, configure forwarder DNS server IP addresses or URLs in DNS Settings so that the DNS Server uses them to resolve requests instead of doing recursive resolution by itself. You may configure any public DNS server like Google DNS, Cloudflare DNS or OpenDNS.
  5. Configure the DNS server’s IP address in your network configuration and on other computers on the network if needed. You can use the built-in DHCP server to assign IP addresses and the DNS servers automatically on your local network.
  6. ???
  7. Profit!

API Documentation

The DNS server HTTP API allows any 3rd party app or script to configure the DNS server. The HTTP API is used by the web console and thus all the actions that the web console does can be performed via the API. Read the HTTP API documentation for complete details.

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