While this address resolution mechanism is transparent to the average internet user, it can sometimes be the main reason for slow internet access if the DNS servers of your ISP are acting choppy or not working at all.
To overcome these problems, you can consider changing your DNS server name to a more reliable but free service called OpenDNS. There's no software to install, just a small tweak in your internet connection settings.
We just replaced the default DSN server address of our ISP with the OpenDNS servers which are :
208.67.222.222The DNS server can be changed from the TCP/IP Properties section. [Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Local Network Connection -> TCP IP Properties]
208.67.220.220
Why OpenDNS is good ? Your domain resolution request to OpenDNS is executed from the nearest physical location and the address are also cached at their end. Therefore you notice faster internet browsing.
Second OpenDNS would auto-correct misspelled domain names [or typos]. For instance, if you type www.gooogle.com by mistake, you'll be redirected to www.google.com without any interventation. The other advantage is that you have a much safer browsing experience since OpenDNS would prevent you from visiting a scam website by error.
Some precautions before using OpenDNS
1. In the extreme situation when OpenDNS servers go down, you should keep the address of your ISP DNS servers handy.
2. You can turn off the phishing protection or auto typo correction by visiting the OpenDNS preferences page.
3. Some users might have privacy concerns with OpenDNS while some dislike seeing ads when they mis-spell domain names. The choice is completely your's here.
Related: Tweak Windows Hosts File
OpenDNS Tutorial | OpenDNS CEO Interview
Find this article at: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/09/speed-up-your-internet-connection-with.html
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Nice tip! One prob tho. I've been looking for a way to make manual entries on my Win2kPro machine for more than two DNS addresses. Nix. If anyone knows how, it would be nice to know as I can then also add my ISP's DNS addresses (run>cmd>ipconfig /all - will show you all) as the third and fourth alternative. So if both OpenDNS servers go down my machine will automatically fall back to the ISP's DNS. The hard way of course is to manually switch back to automatic DNS hunt :-(
Written on 18/9/06 6:39 AM
Hi Amit, Love the stuff your post. Didn't know that u were from Hyderabad and had worked for ADP, I too was there for a while.
Written on 23/4/07 9:08 PM
Check the typo in the screen shot- it should read 208.67.220.220 for the alternate DNS
as in the text indicated below the image.
Written on 22/6/07 9:47 PM