This article is outdated goto Disable DNS Caching on Ubuntu for the updated version

Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 ubuntu sets the dns resolver to 127.0.1.1 and proxies dns querries through dnsmasq. If you want a more classic behavior follow these steps to disable the local dns server.

1. Edit /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
2. Comment out dns=dnsmasq
3. save and exit editing NetworkManager.conf
4. restart Network Manager

   sudo restart network-manager

/etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile,ofono
#dns=dnsmasq
 
[ifupdown]
managed=false