I have installed dnsmasq on my xubuntu 8.10 system using the standard ubuntu apt-get which gives me version 2.45 of dnsmasq. It seems to have installed a reasonable default configuration and dnsmasq has been started up.

However I can't get it to provide answers to any DNS requests.

As I understand it dnsmasq should read the contents of /etc/hosts and give out local network IP addresses in response to DNS requests, only passing requests on the the external server(s) in /etc/resolv.conf if the address requested isn't a local one.

I have dnsmasq running on 192.168.1.4 whose /etc/hosts has the following in it (after the standard default stuff):-

# # # Local additions # 192.168.1.1 vigor 2820n 192.168.1.4 home.isbd.net isbd 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net chris.isbd.net 192.168.1.5 home 192.168.1.6 maxine 192.168.1.7 nas garage 192.168.1.44 hp7310 HPEDDBB7 HP000D9D068F7D 192.168.13.254 2wire BT2700HGV gateway.2wire.net

I am attempting to use it from 192.168.1.7 which has no non-default additions to /etc/hosts and has the following in /etc/resolv.conf:-

# Generated by NetworkManager 192.168.1.4

... but if I do "host maxine" on 192.168.1.7 I just get:-

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

Sending signals to dnsmasq produces the expected responses in syslog so it is running and working, signal 1 reports "read /etc/hosts - 17 addresses". So it appears to have some addresses to respond with but the other systems on the LAN don't seem to be able to talk to it.

Any ideas what might be wrong, or ways to diagnose it?