Have you heard of DNS servers ? No? Strange, but you use them every day! They are nothing more than the “translators” that allow you to connect to Internet sites by typing simple, easy-to-remember text addresses instead of long numerical strings, which would be the real coordinates that “find” that site, for example, and allow access to be granted. This means that the use of fast and free DNS servers makes connecting to websites faster than when DNS is slow, in addition to ensuring the possibility of connecting even to inaccessible portals in your region.
As a result, knowing how to change the DNS is more than legitimate. That is what we will deal with in this matter, if you want to know some DNS server options that you can use as an alternative to your provider's click here.
But where do these DNS servers need to be changed? Depending on what your preferences and needs are and based on what your devices are, you can take action from your computer, mobile devices or router. The end result is practically the same in all cases, the choice of which device to intervene depends on you
Some more details about DNS
Before we move on to the practical part, we separate some additional information about how the DNS works. DNS is first of all a protocol, these three letters that make up its name come from Domain Name System, or Domain Name System. This protocol works by assigning names to IP addresses. For example, the domain Hashsecure.in is carried out what is called Forward Lookup, direct queries. When you type this address in the search bar of your browser, the DNS server performs a direct search to find the IP address associated with that name. The reverse also happens, the user has the IP address and wants to find the associated name.
If you throw in the search bar of the browser the IP address associated with the name of that website you are trying to access, the page will normally redirect. To find out the IP of a website you can use the ping command in the Windows Command Prompt, for example. For a practical case, type in the ping prompt www.google.com and press enter. You will discover the IP address associated with that name, and when you type it in your browser, the conversion to the name associated with the address will happen automatically.
Depending on the Internet provider that provides the connection in use, different DNS servers are assigned, in order to guarantee the possibility of surfing the Internet and accessing the various websites for all users who use their services. However, some websites or online services, for various reasons, may not be accessible to standard DNS servers. In addition, standard DNS can always be slower when allowing access to this or that other web page. Consequently, replacing them with others from third parties can be advantageous.
The most popular are those offered by three companies: Google, OpenDNS and CloudFlare.
Google DNS
- Primary DNS server: 8.8.8.8
- Secondary DNS server: 8.8.4.4
OpenDNS
- Primary DNS server: 208.67.222.222
- Secondary DNS server: 208.67.220.220
Cloudflare
- Primary DNS server: 1.1.1.1
- Secondary DNS server: 1.0.0.1
The choice of which DNS to use depends on your needs and preferences. For example, Google's DNS server is known mainly for its speed and the fact that they are able to guarantee access to portals that perhaps your provider's DNS server blocks, OpenDNS's is famous for being able to configure filters on the network, while CloudFlare for the high degree of privacy offered.
How to change the DNS server in Windows 10?
If you are using Windows 10, click the Start button, located at the bottom left of the taskbar, select the Settings icon, located on the left in the menu that appears. In the new screen that opened click on the item Network and Internet and then on Change adapter options. Therefore, identify the network device currently in use, right-click on it and select the properties item from the context menu.
- Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections
- select your network adapter currently in use
- right click and select properties
- Double-click the item Internet protocol version TCP / IPv4 and then properties.
Your DNS settings are probably set to automatic mode. What we are going to do is switch to manual mode, click on the option to use the following DNS server addresses. You will now enter the preferred and alternate DNS string. You can follow, for example, one of the three options we recommend above, that of Google, OpenDNS or Cloudflare.
Recent DNS changes can cause some problems, such as page loading. That is why it is recommended that after you put a new DNS configuration in execution that the cache is cleared.
To perform this cleaning, follow these steps:
Type CMD in the Windows 10 search bar;
At the Command Prompt screen, type the following: ipconfig / flushdns. Hit enter later.
