How to setup dnsmasq on a network that already has a router?

[Matt44]

Hello all,

I am trying to get more control of my small office network.

It consists of several windows workstations, a debian box, and a ZyXEL P-660HW-D1 router

Right now, the only way to reach the debian box from other computers is to type in its ip address.

The goal is to be able to reach the box by just typing ://debianBox into my browser, though ideally I want to set it up to be something like ://debianBox.officenet,
and to also reach
other people's computers by typing ://mattBox.officenet and ://fredBox.officenet

The Zyxel router has a LAN page with a DHCP Setup tab with fields setup like so

DHCP (*)Server ()Relay ()None
IP Pool Starting Address 192.168.69.10
Pool Size 50
Remote DHCP Server disabled / 0.0.0.0
Primary DNS Server 80.10.246.2
Secondary DNS Server 80.10.246.129



In the past I was able to mange this using an Orange router, but now I have to use the ZyXel.
I have searched on how to do this through the Zyxel router but have found nothing

So I installed dnsmasq on the debianBox, but I do not know how to configure it to get the results
I want and still get internet fromthe Zyxel router

In the etc/hosts file of the debian box I added 192.168.69.15 debianBox,
and for testing on my windows machine I set the primary dns entry of the Ip4 connection to 192.168.69.15
as well, but typing ://debianBox in my browser still gives me not found

[Matt44]

From more experimentation, i have found a configuration that seems to work

local=/myoffice/
domain=myoffice
interface=eth0
expand-hosts
log-queries

Now I just need to figure out how to make this work with multiple sites on apache

[rcgreen]

Even if you don't yet have a local name server working,
you can get things working quickly. Your Windows workstations
have a hosts file too. It is in the

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc directory.
By default it is called hosts.sam, meaning it
is a sample of what a hosts file looks like. Edit it
by adding the addresses and names you want,
and rename it hosts without the file extension.

If you have an http or ftp server running on the Debian
box, you can browse it with Windows explorer, or a web browser
as you hoped

[Matt44]

That would have been fine when we were only 3 workstations, but now we are at 9, so I'm really hoping I can get this to work.

So right now i have where each host can know the network name of the server, because it has a static ip,

So my next question, is how can I have the dns server on the debian box resolve something like mattBox.office to may machine, when may machine gets its ip from the dhcp of the router?

[Matt44]

And the answer to this one for anyone else interested:
"
If you want dnsmasq to resolve WHATEWER_YOU_PUT_HERE.yourmachine.yourdomain to the same ip (maybe for apache vhosts) just add
address=/.yourmachine.yourdomain/192.168.2.58
to dnsmasq.conf
"

found by googling "dnsmasq wildcard", then clicking "Just my stuff"

Now I just need to tame DHCP