You may already have a local dns caching mechanism on your computer. I think by default Ubuntu uses systemd-resolved (it does on my desktops anyway). If you check dig it’ll show lookups coming from 127.0.0.53. With that in place, your local machine is caching lookup results and anything it doesn’t know, it’s forwarding to the network’s resolver (which it gets via dhcp, usually).
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Thank you for this comment. So Unbound does only DNS caching, without really resolving? I think I've completely misunderstood its purpose.
Unbound can query the root dns servers, but it’s also commonly used as a recursive resolver, which just uses a server upstream, similar to systemd-resolved. I use unbound network-wide, but I have it querying 9.9.9.9 to take advantage of their filtering.
Now I understand, thank you for the explanation!
I use unbound as an upstream resolver for Pi-hole, not directly on my machines. Be aware that resolving new domains can incur some delay (about 1s), but once cached, it's pretty quick, even for additional entries on the same domain.
Thank you for the warning! I'll know it's expected then :) In my case I'd like to use it more or less independently of the network I'm in, that's why I'd like to take a single-machine approach.
there's nothing wrong with not using systemd-resolvd, but i'm curious as to why for a laptop; wouldn't infrequent caching make it slow?
I'm starting to think that I've misunderstood what Unbound does. I thought I'd be a replacement for a DNS resolver (like CloudFlare). But from the replies here I'm starting to think it isn't?
oic, i was under the impression that you wanted it use it on your laptop; not as a service like cloudfare.
It's worth putting a single caching DNS resolver in the network for everything to use, but I don't see an advantage on a single device.
The first DNS query will take as long as it takes, then the tiny few mSec it saves on subsequent "1st" queries for everyone else makes the difference
Also, but blocklists in that DNS Resolver and you'll improve your entire network from trying to lookup crazy sites.
Thank you, I see the advantages of a network approach. In my case it's just two laptops in my network, and I'm also thinking of the case when I'm using the laptop in some other networks.
If you only have 2 laptops and they are both going to search externsl DNS, then there's probably still no point in local DNS
To refer to each other - presuming they have static IPs - just update their /etc/hosts with the other device's IP address and that will speed things up