Technitium as Primary DNS and Router DHCP Setup

February 22, 2026

This tutorial ties everything together: Technitium on your VM becomes the primary DNS for your network, and your router is configured so that every device that gets an IP via DHCP also gets Technitium as its DNS server. No need to set DNS on each VM or device by hand.

The Big Picture

    flowchart TB
  subgraph Router
    DHCP[DHCP server]
    DNS_Setting[Primary DNS = 172.100.12.112]
  end
  subgraph VM
    Tech[Technitium DNS - 172.100.12.112]
  end
  Client1[Devices and VMs]
  Client2[Get IP + DNS via DHCP]
  DHCP --> Client1
  DNS_Setting --> Client2
  Client2 --> Tech
  Tech --> Internet[Internet DNS / Cache]

Technitium runs on the VM at 172.100.12.112 (from Create VM and Technitium in Docker).
Router: Primary DNS is set to 172.100.12.112. The router’s DHCP server tells clients to use that DNS.
Result: All DHCP clients use Technitium for DNS without extra configuration.

Two Stages

Stage	What you do
1. Primary DNS on the VM	Technitium is already the DNS server on the VM (port 53). No extra step if you followed the Technitium Docker tutorial.
2. Router changes	On your router: set Primary DNS to 172.100.12.112 (your Technitium VM). Optional: set a secondary DNS (e.g. router itself or another DNS) for redundancy.

Stage 1: Confirm Technitium is Your Primary DNS on the VM

You already did this when you:

Created the VM 112-Technitium-DNS_Server with static IP 172.100.12.112.
Installed Docker and Technitium and started Technitium with port 53 exposed.

So on the VM, Technitium is the service listening on 53. The VM itself can use 127.0.0.1 or 172.100.12.112 as DNS; other machines will use 172.100.12.112.

Stage 2: Router Changes (Primary DNS = Technitium)

Here we update the router so that its primary DNS is your Technitium server. Then the router’s DHCP will hand out this DNS to all clients.

Step 1: Log in to Your Router

Open the router’s admin page (e.g. http://192.168.1.1 or http://172.100.12.1).
Log in with your admin credentials.

Step 2: Find DNS / WAN or LAN DNS Settings

Different routers use different names. Look for one of:

WAN / Internet: “Primary DNS”, “DNS server 1”, “Use custom DNS”.
LAN / DHCP: “DNS server handed out to clients”, “DHCP options”, “DNS for DHCP”.

You want to set the DNS that the router uses and/or gives to DHCP clients to 172.100.12.112.

Step 3: Set Primary DNS to Technitium

Primary DNS (or DNS 1): 172.100.12.112
Secondary DNS (optional): Your router’s IP (e.g. 172.100.12.1) or another DNS (e.g. 8.8.8.8) for fallback if the VM is down.

Save and apply. The router may restart its DHCP server; clients may need to renew (reboot or ipconfig /renew / dhclient) to get the new DNS.

Step 4: Confirm DHCP Clients Get the New DNS

On a client that gets IP from the router:

Windows: ipconfig /all — check “DNS Servers”.
Linux: cat /etc/resolv.conf or resolvectl status — should show 172.100.12.112 (or the router if the router forwards, depending on setup).

If the router is set to hand out 172.100.12.112 as DNS, you should see that on the client.

Optional: Router as Secondary DNS

Some setups use:

Primary DNS: 172.100.12.112 (Technitium).
Secondary DNS: Router (172.100.12.1) or 8.8.8.8.

Then if the Technitium VM is offline, clients can still resolve via the secondary. Configure this in the same router DNS/DHCP section if your device supports two DNS servers.

Summary

Item	Value
Technitium VM	112-Technitium-DNS_Server @ 172.100.12.112
Router primary DNS	172.100.12.112
DHCP	Router gives clients IP + DNS; clients use Technitium for DNS

Full Tutorial Chain

#	Tutorial	Link
1	Create VM 112-Technitium-DNS_Server	Create VM
2	Docker, Docker Compose & utilities	Docker and utilities
3	Technitium DNS in Docker	Technitium in Docker
4	Primary DNS and router	You are here

After this, all devices that get DHCP from your router will use Technitium at 172.100.12.112 for DNS. For more on Technitium, see the official site and blogs/tutorials.