Fixing Snow Leopard (10.6) to use a Local Leopard (10.5) DNS Server
After updating my computer from Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 to Mac OS X Leopard 10.6 I had an issue with using the local DNS server which has not been updated. I was able to use the external Open DNS servers for normal domain name resolution and the network configuration listed the correct IP address for the local DNS server which responded normally as well as the configured services but only when using the IP address instead of the private/custom top level domain name.
greenbot:~ nroyer$ sudo killall -INFO mDNSResponderUsing the command above, which I saw listed in a thread in the Apple Support discussions, was able to "jiggle the handle" on my computer's DNS issue. While I am not completely sold that the issue was bonjour related (mDNSResponder == multicast DNS) I did find it interesting that the local DNS service was interrupted while the public DNS service continued without a hiccup. Makes one wondered if there is now a more definitive "line in the sand" between local IP addresses and public IP addresses for Leopard (20.5) vs Snow Leopard (10.6).
And update ...
Snow Leopard (10.6) has continued to ignore the order of DNS servers configured at the router and/or is not receiving and storing the information correctly from DHCP. Running the networksetup -getdnsservers "AirPort" command I was greeted with a troublesome message of: There aren't any DNS Servers set on AirPort.. After running networksetup to explicitly set only the local DNS server, I was able to once again use my private top level domain name (*.apt). This by no means solves the underlying issue but limps towards a work-around.
greenbot:~ nroyer$ sudo networksetup -listallnetworkservices
An asterisk (*) denotes that a network service is disabled.
Ethernet
AirPort
greenbot:~ nreoyer$ sudo networksetup -getdnsservers "AirPort"
There aren't any DNS Servers set on AirPort.
greenbot:~ nreoyer$ sudo networksetup -setdnsservers "AirPort" 10.0.2.11
greenbot:localhost nroyer$ ping -c 1 hoss.apt
PING hoss.apt (10.0.2.11): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.0.2.11: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=2.853 ms
