[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Local hostnames without root/admin
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       Ask HN: Local hostnames without root/admin
        
       I'm looking for a simple way to locally define hostnames for
       internal use, think /etc/hosts, but without the requirement of
       superuser privileges. Running a resolver locally, or within the
       LAN, falls outside the realm of "simple". The subject is primarily
       the web browser, so a clever browser extension for Firefox and/or
       Chromium would work great. If resolution could also happen outside
       the browser that would be a nice bonus.  Thankful for any
       suggestions.
        
       Author : terry_hc
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2025-09-21 16:41 UTC (3 days ago)
        
       | terry_hc wrote:
       | I want to note that I mean to use such internal hostnames to
       | reach services inside a VPN. If solutions such as IPsec or
       | OpenVPN can somehow push and manifest host->IP correlations for
       | the OS, as an alternative to pushing an additional DNS resolver
       | living inside the VPN, that would also be a viable solution.
        
         | LorenDB wrote:
         | Tailscale is very easy to set up and provides resolvable
         | hostnames (at an OS level) for all connected devices.
        
           | Cheer2171 wrote:
           | Tailscale requires superuser/admin
        
       | sim7c00 wrote:
       | anything that could capture the traffic of another application
       | outside of that application is likely gonna need super user
       | privs. the ports it flows on need those to capture it, and
       | running a program which could capture it also likely needs it.
       | 
       | that being said: more context would thus help. what application
       | is making the request, and at what point do you expect to
       | intercept or get that request? is that outside the same app or
       | not?
       | 
       | edit: also, can you atleast set it up as root or does everything
       | need to happen as user? (and the OS might also matter)
        
         | terry_hc wrote:
         | As noted in the ingress, the web browser is the primary
         | application. It must work for an end-user lacking the technical
         | facilities or even sufficient administrative access to install
         | a resolver or edit the system's hosts file. A browser extension
         | would be a great solution.
        
       | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
       | > As noted in the ingress, the web browser is the primary
       | application.
       | 
       | In Firefox, about:networking and about:networking#dns are the
       | http cache and dns cache. I have never considered writing values
       | to these directly. Could there be a method for doing so within
       | the developer console? Perhaps someone knows.
       | 
       | There are replies in the below link that touch on it for Chrome.
       | The top suggestion, however, is using a socks 5 proxy server as a
       | workaround. https://superuser.com/questions/184643/override-dns-
       | in-firef...
        
       | galaxy_gas wrote:
       | 1. Buy domain for your service
       | 
       | 2. Make wildcard record to point to 127.0.0.1
       | 
       | 3. User can apply any.thing.here.yourcompanyinternal.xxx
        
         | DougN7 wrote:
         | _Someone_ must have already done this, right?
        
           | k1t wrote:
           | *.fbi.com
        
           | pacifika wrote:
           | Would it be a problem to disclose it, in terms of it getting
           | shutdown?
        
         | g4cg54g54 wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_rebinding protection will
         | stop this from working "hopefully" ;)
         | 
         | but `--host-resolver-rules` may work,
         | https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/net/ba...
         | @terry_hc
        
           | bawolff wrote:
           | > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_rebinding protection will
           | stop this from working "hopefully" ;)
           | 
           | Does anyone actually ban 127 resolution to stop dns
           | rebinding? I feel like that would probably break a lot of
           | things while not actually preventing dns rebinding.
        
             | galaxy_gas wrote:
             | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QQkqehw8umtAgz5z0um7THx
             | -... is in Beta channel now
        
       | ogig wrote:
       | Since you can't edit hosts, or setup a resolver, maybe bookmark
       | directly the ips on your browser? I understand you asked for
       | hostnames but given the context you might aswell internalize some
       | local ips.
        
       | moondev wrote:
       | https://nip.io/
        
         | lucgommans wrote:
         | Or if you need records other than A/AAAA, like MX for
         | delivering email: https://anyz.one
         | 
         | e.g. 10.2.3.4.anyz.one will refer the recursive resolver to
         | query 10.2.3.4 for the answer to the query. You can also buy a
         | domain and configure it to do that, but this is quicker
         | 
         | Disclosure: I wrote anyzone
        
       | ranger207 wrote:
       | This feels like an X-Y problem. What's preventing you from
       | running a local copy of Dnsmasq? It's really not difficult
        
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       (page generated 2025-09-24 23:01 UTC)