DNS Cache/timeout setting?

[Frunobulax 0]

Hi - I apologize if this is a dumb question, or if it can be done already and I just don't know how to do it.  I have checked the settings and don't see anything like this, but I don't understand all the options.

 

Is it possible to change a setting somewhere so that AirVPN caches DNS lookups for a longer time?  I am of course worried about my privacy and security, but doing DNS lookups as often as AirVPN does seems a bit excessive.  I seem to spend half my time waiting for lookups, especially for sites that I use a lot, even when I just accessed them a couple minutes ago.  Does AirVPN it have to do it quite so often?  Can I tell AirVPN "only do a new hostname lookup if I haven't accessed that site in 20 minutes"?

 

I appreciate the solid security, and I know DNS issues can be security problems, but all the waiting is really making me frustrated and I"m start to think of not using the VPN at all..  Clearly AirVPN caches the lookups *somewhere* for *some* period of time because it doesn't literally do a lookup for each instance of the domain, say, on a web page.  Is it possible to add a user-configurable option to cache for longer?  For example, I use DuckDuckGo for searches.  And I do a LOT of searches.  But if I don't access it for a few minutes, then for every search I do I have to wait for another lookup, which can take 3-6 seconds.  Doesn't sound like much, but it's annoying when you have to wait 15 times an hour.

 

Thanks for any tips!

[OpenSourcerer 1359]

Is it possible to change a setting somewhere so that AirVPN caches DNS lookups for a longer time?

 

That's not a feature of Eddie/OpenVPN. Your local DNS cache does it. On Windows, the cache is enabled automatically. On Linux, you need to install and configure it. To help you further: What is your OS?

[Frunobulax 0]

 

Is it possible to change a setting somewhere so that AirVPN caches DNS lookups for a longer time?

 

That's not a feature of Eddie/OpenVPN. Your local DNS cache does it. On Windows, the cache is enabled automatically. On Linux, you need to install and configure it. To help you further: What is your OS?

 

Well, it has at least *something* to do with OpenVPN *somewhere*, because this issue didn't happen before I installed it.  I use Linux Mint 18.3/Sylvia.  I am happy to hear your solution and try it, but I'm curious - doesn't Mint have at least *some* kind of DNS cache by default?  I haven't (AFAIK) installed any special DNS caching software, and yet when I use the system without having installed anything extra, it seems to cache fine - i.e., when I go to a site multiple times, it doesn't look up the site each time.  It certainly doesn't look up the site for each element on a web page, for example - it would take an hour to load every page.

[OpenSourcerer 1359]

doesn't Mint have at least *some* kind of DNS cache by default?

 

Mint = Ubuntu = dnsmasq-base, which does not cache DNS by default. This is for everything before 18.04 because with 18.04 Ubuntu started using systemd-resolved for DNS resolution and I have no idea whether this module caches its results. Further, I have no idea whether Mint changed Ubuntu's behavior like Ubuntu changed Debian's (which, by default, does not come preinstalled with such things).

 

when I go to a site multiple times, it doesn't look up the site each time.

 

How do you tell?