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Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 10:29 pm
by hentzau
Long story short, I have a need to have my iPhone connect to a different IP than the published DNS entry for that network (it's for testing a new set of servers before I turn them on for the corporation.) I can't see how I can do that on my router (Linksys E4200)...and I've never done any work with a secondary DNS server, but apparently I can set it up to use a secondary DNS. Anyone have any brilliant IDs about how I can do this?

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 11:10 pm
by Smutly
I'm probably not the best person to answer this, but maybe use a VPN or proxy service? I have a VPN (ExpressVPN) app on my IPhone and it changes my IP depending on which server I connect to. The downside is that is would cost money, but there are services that you subscribe on a month-to-month basis.

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 11:12 pm
by Rip
Is IP connectivity to this location not an issue?

If not just add the entry to your hosts file, it will override any DNS entries.

Which btw can be fun to send someone to somewhere seemly if they try to go to say espn or facebook....

:twisted:

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 11:17 pm
by hentzau
Not sure I explained what I need to do properly. Right now, I have software that connects to then DNS entry alpha.beta.com at IP 1.2.3.4. I'm setting up a new set of servers that these devices will connect to, with new IP addresses 1.2.3.5 Before I switch the DNS to point to that, I would like to test the mobile device connectivity and what behavior we have once it is on the new servers. So I want to be able to, from my iPhone, connect to alpha.beta.com at 1.2.3.5. On a windows or a mac, I could just set up a hosts entry to do this, but I don't know how to do that on a mobile device. I was hoping that the router would allow me do something like that, but I can't see how to do it.

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 11:18 pm
by hentzau
Rip wrote:Is IP connectivity to this location not an issue?

If not just add the entry to your hosts file, it will override any DNS entries.

Which btw can be fun to send someone to somewhere seemly if they try to go to say espn or facebook....

:twisted:
Right, if it was a standard windows or mac, that would work. I don't know how to set up a hosts file on an iphone...

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 12:02 am
by Rip
I think you can only edit the hosts file on an iPhone if it is jailbroken.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2028 ... -change-it

Otherwise look for the ability to add local entries in your local router if it does DNS forwarding.

If the router defaults for using it's own address as DNS server when it issues IP addresses it supports DNS forwarding. Not all router that support it allow you to add custom DNS entries though before it forwards requests to the ISP DNS servers.

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 2:56 pm
by Punisher
Can you setup static DNS in the IPhone?

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:56 pm
by hentzau
Punisher wrote:Can you setup static DNS in the IPhone?
I can set up a static IP configuration on the phone, which would allow me to choose a DNS server.

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 4:10 pm
by Rip
Well there you go. Just setup a Linux box on a BootCD or something and give your iPhone a local static IP and point iPhone DNS to the linux box. Boom, you can make whatever DNS entries you want.

Lot of a PIA but should work like a charm.

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 4:30 pm
by hentzau
Yeah, I've been thinking about that as well. Unfortunately I can barely spell Linux.

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 1:04 am
by Tao
This site has everything you need for a Linux Live USB setup; https://www.pendrivelinux.com/ I directed my sister, who is a Luddite, to that site a while back and she managed to make it work so it's pretty simple.

Re: Someone help me with a networking quandary?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 4:13 am
by Anonymous Bosch
BTW, for a rock solid distro aimed at Linux noobs, you won't find much better than Zorin OS IMO (if memory serves, you can use the aforementioned Pendrive Linux to convert the ISO file to a Live USB version):
Zorin-OS.com wrote:Why Zorin OS?

Linux is an extraordinary computer operating system. It powers everything from the U.S. Department of Defense, to the International Space Station, to most of the world's Internet servers and supercomputers. The reasons for this aren't difficult to find: it's fast, reliable, versatile and super secure, so it doesn't get viruses. Because it's Open Source, it's infinitely flexible and gives everyone the power to do anything with their computer.

Despite the enormous advantages it has over traditional operating systems, we recognized that the biggest barrier to the success of Linux on desktop computers was that it wasn't user-friendly enough. Linux-based operating systems were generally designed for engineers by engineers, with little consideration for regular users. We decided to fix this.

We've designed Zorin OS to have the perfect blend of power and usability for everyone. We built Zorin OS to be as easy as possible, so you won't need to learn a thing to get started, thanks to its familiar user interface. Zorin OS comes loaded with all the apps and tools you need out of the box for browsing the web, working, playing and everything in between.

By bringing together the power of Linux and making it possible for anyone to use it, we've created an operating system that makes your computer better so you can achieve more than you could ever before.