<html><head></head><body><div>On Sat, 2016-11-26 at 15:01 +0100, Joachim Zobel wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div>Hi.</div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div>Is there a way to have address configuration entries with wildcards.</div><div>I tried address=/alt#-mtalk.google.com/127.0.0.1</div><div>but it did not work with e.g. alt8-mtalk.google.com</div><div><br></div></blockquote><div>Hi Joachim, </div><div><br></div><div>I'm not sure if I'm off topic (if so, excuse me). Whether I am or not depends on what you are trying to achieve with such configuration.</div><div><br></div><div>If your purpose is to "filter-out" unwanted connections, there is another very performing way to achieve this. Right at system level, without dnsmasq or any other DNS tool. You can filter out unwanted connections by having those entries in the "/etc/hosts" file (Linux) or in the "c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" file (Windows). BUT AGAIN NO WILDCARDS.... :-/ </div><div><br></div><div>Your system (whether Linux or Windows) will first look into the "hosts" file <b>before</b> (unless otherwise configured, which is uncommon) asking any resolver. Details at this address: <a href="http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm">winhelp2002.mvps.org</a> There, you'll also find a precompiled "hosts" to add to your hosts file. You can add or remove what you want. Or simply have your own "hosts" file (as of today alt#-mtalk.google.com entries are not in the provided pre-compiled hosts).</div><div><br></div><div>IT DOES NOT FIX your issue with wildcards,</div><div><span style="text-align: center;">if there are ten "alt#-mtalk.google.com" in the hosts file you'll have to define all of them like in:</span></div><div><span style="text-align: center;"><br></span></div><div>0.0.0.0 alt0-mtalk.google.com alt1-mtalk.google.com alt3-mtalk.google.com bla...bla...bla alt9-mtalk.google.com</div><div><br></div><div>BUT</div><div>it's very performing, the system will resolve to 0.0.0.0 all by itself in a handful of CPU cycles, no DNS involved at all</div><div><br></div><div>AND</div><div>I can think of half a dozen ways to script so that "alt#-mtalk.google.com" as input string can generate the example line above.</div><div>(Actually that applies to dnsmasq config as well, but it might deteriorate perfomances if too many configuration lines are generated this way)</div><div><br></div><div>Again, pardon me if Off Topic (that is, your purpose is not what I think it to be).</div><div><br></div><div>-- </div><div><b>Alessandro</b> </div><div><i>NOT connected in any way with mvps.org</i></div><div><i>Just a fan of the "hosts file" method, and they happen to be the ones (afaik) who documented it well.</i></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></body></html>