Using pdnsd on OS X Yosemite to redirect DNS lookups to avoid DNS hijacking and use unlocator

If you have found your way here you will be using a Mac computer with OS X and have no doubt been trying to redirect your DNS lookup to an alternative port!

unlocator.com provides an excellent service which allows you hide your location by fooling your application such as iplayer, 4od, netflix etc into thinking it is somewhere else in the world via DNS.  All you have to do is change the address your computer looks for its address information from to one of the unlocator servers.  Namely 185.37.37.37 and/or 185.37.37.185 and it works like magic

However your problems start if you are in a hotspot that hijacks your DNS lookups, what hijacking DNS means is the lookups never make it to the unlocator servers despite you specifying your DNS server the hotspot hijacks that request and redirects it forcing you to use its own DNS server.

Your Mac computer makes a DNS request traditionally on port 53 to the address you specify in /etc/resolv.conf or via the preferences panel, however if its hijacked it goes where the hotpot provider wants it to go.  unlocator provides a solution to this, if you have a router and you can modify its iptables to reroute the requests on port 53 to port 54 unlocators servers will respond as normal.  Most hotel hotspots are not looking for your DNS requests on port 54 so they pass through uninterrupted.

This is all well and good but most of us dont have access to a router when in a hotel and want a simple method of redirecting the requests to port 54.  The following guide should help in installing the various bits of software to allow you to do this.

You will need Homebrew and pdnsd installed

Home brew is a package manager for OS X that gives access to a variety packages available in the nix world which will in turn allow us to install pdnsd  To quote the Homebrew website 'Homebrew installs the stuff you need that Apple didn't

pdnsd is a Caching DNS server that provides a DNS server on localhost 127.0.0.1


Install Homebrew with the following command

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Once Homebrew is installed be sure to read the screen and run 'brew doctor' after the install is complete and before continuing.

Then install pcnsd with the following command

brew install pcnsd --universal




Once pcnsd is installed cut and paste the following config file and save it using your favourite text editor into /usr/local/etc/pcnsd.conf

//Define Various Variables used throughout // Read the pdnsd.conf(5) manpage for an explanation of the options. // Add or remove '#' in front of options you want to disable or enable, respectively. // Remove '/*' and '*/' to enable complete sections. global { perm_cache=999999; cache_dir="/usr/local/var/cache/pdnsd"; # pid_file = /var/run/pdnsd.pid; run_as="nobody"; server_ip = 127.0.0.1; # Use eth0 here if you want to allow other # machines on your network to query pdnsd. status_ctl = on; # paranoid=on; # This option reduces the chance of cache poisoning # but may make pdnsd less efficient, unfortunately. query_method=udp_tcp; min_ttl=1d; # Retain cached entries at least 1 day. max_ttl=2d; # Two days timeout=10; # Global timeout option (10 seconds). neg_domain_pol=on; } # The following section is most appropriate if you have a fixed connection to # the Internet and an ISP which provides good DNS servers. server { label= "Google Public DNS"; ip = 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, 4.2.2.2; # Put your ISP's DNS-server address(es) here. proxy_only=on; # Do not query any name servers beside your ISP's. # This may be necessary if you are behind some # kind of firewall and cannot receive replies # from outside name servers. timeout=4; # Server timeout; this may be much shorter # that the global timeout option. uptest=ping; # Test if the network interface is active. ping_timeout=100; #interface=eth0; # The name of the interface to check. interval=10m; # Check every 10 minutes. purge_cache=off; # Keep stale cache entries in case the ISP's # DNS servers go offline. } source { owner=localhost; # serve_aliases=on; file="/etc/hosts"; } rr { name=localhost; reverse=on; a=127.0.0.1; owner=localhost; soa=localhost,root.localhost,42,86400,900,86400,86400; }

Change the ownership of /usr/loca/etc/pcnsd.conf with the following command

sudo chown root /usr/local/etc/pcnsd.conf

If you want to test pcnsd now before making it startup automatically then execute the following command

sudo /usr/local/sbin/pdnsd

Change your DNS server in preferences to 127.0.0.1 and try loading a webpage, if you followed all the above steps it should load correctly.  If you go to your account page on unlocator you should get three green ticks if you have updated your IP address with them.

Press ctrl C to stop the above copy of pdnsd from running and continue as below.

Cut and past the following text into a file and save it as /Library/LaunchDaemons/homebrew.mxcl.pdnsd.plist

//Define Various Variables used throughout <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Label</key> <string>homebrew.mxcl.pdnsd</string> <key>Program</key> <string>/usr/local/sbin/pdnsd</string> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/> <key>ServiceDescription</key> <string>pdnsd dns caching daemon</string> </dict> </plist>

Set the ownership of the above file to root with the following command

sudo chown root /Library/LaunchDaemons/homebrew.mxcl.pdnsd.plist

Then finally set the script to load at startup with the following.

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/homebrew.mxcl.pdnsd.plist

Finally having done all of the above successfully and rebooted you will have a cacheing DNS server running on your machine which will accept DNS requests to port 127.0.0.1 on port 53 and send them out to the unlocator servers on port 54 thus hopefully bypassing any DNS hijacking.