Windows 7: DNS Addressing - How to Change in Windows 7

It's worth noting that if you sign up for an opendns account you are able to customize the filtering etc, I found the very handy at small companies to give them an effective web filters.

awesome guys thanks for the responses! I will include the bit about OpenDNS account memberships and expend a little on setting up for a router based DNS setup (can't go into all routers just because of complexity)

i like this DNS Advantage...

I've always used Open DNS... no problems but now i'll do some tests with this one..

gonna try out DNS Advantage...wish they had a dashboard like OpenDNS

Just out of interest if anyone wants to try an alternate DNS server this site has a good list of the listed servers for various ISPs world wide ....

PortForward.com - Free Help Setting up Your Router or Firewall

Also useful for those who want to manually enter the address for their own ISP as this information is not always readily available

Zidane2424: As you are writing for an international audience (not especially an American one) it is unclear to me what, if any relevance this has for non-US based use.
As you can see, I'm in Australia so i was wondering whether the same instructions apply to me or whether even if they do, I would get the benefits you describe?
Alternatively are their equivalent solutions that I might consider?

Having done some research and sought some comments from my ISP here in Australia (Internode), I'm going to have a go at answering my own questions. These answers are based on some pretty quick research none of which was very in depth. However because some of it is based on my Australian ISPs comments, I think it should be taken into account by anyone considering the move to openDNS (or any other DNS).

1. Anyone can use OpenDNS, OpenDNS actually recommends some easy changes to the router (rather than to the LAN settings, though that is fine too.
2. One of the benefits touted to OpenDNS is the control panel control it offers, especially the ability to block addresses. (i.e. content filtering say if you have kids). however to get these "advantages" you will need to register with OpenDNS - which seems a straightforward process. There are plenty of controls one can use through your control panel once you are registered.
3. OpenDNS claims speed improvements to your internet experience through the caching of internet addresses. However the benefits of this claim must be weighed against factors such as your location (I think their main servers are in Palo Alto in the US and maybe London), the quality of your own ISPs caching, and particularly whether your ISP is using any particular servers to provide content.

This means that for me in Australia on Internode, the OpenDNS resolvers are at least 12 hops away from me (if its Palo Alto) - roughly 200ms and the NODE DNS servers are maximum 4 hops away - about 40ms so the benefits may be illusory.

Also, if If I only access domains that are:
- unlikely to have been accessed by anyone at my ISP recently.
- nameservers responding to those domain queries are further away in response time than the the OpenDNS resolvers then there might be a speed increase. A few milliseconds here and there, otherwise the speed benefits may not exist. Network latency dominates DNS resolution time. The Pacific Ocean is the problem here.

Perhaps more importantly is that at least in Australia, as much as we complain, many of our ISPs are of high quality and provide additional benefits (partly because of our distance from e.g. California). In the words of the Internode rep:
The Akami delivered content is particularly important with streaming video and audio, but generally things like big downloads and the like. (This includes Microsoft Download and Microsoft Update).

So it seems that if you are accessing addresses which are rarely used and therefore not cached with your ISP you may observe some speed benefits, but at least in Australia, these are going to be pretty marginal.

OpenDNS will give the greatest benefits if you are with a crappy ISP, relatively close to OpenDNS servers, or if you want the benefits of their user control panel (filtering), or only access addresses unlikely to be cached by your ISP or near to you (geographically).

May I suggest that some comment be made in the header of the tutorial which incorporates some of the issues raised here.

Fantastic post. Eventhough it would seem that this is a finished article, I love posts like this that supplement it so well and help me to "beef up" the tutorial to be a complete resource on the subject. Again fantastic and I will get the tutorial up to speed here shortly.

lol quoting myself

...anyways I did a major overhaul to the tutorial to "broaden the horizons" of it (we all tend to be self-centered aren't we)? This should cover the concerns of just recommending one particular DNS server instead of just alternative DNS servers in general. I hope you guys like the changes....please send me anymore suggestions you can think of so I can give it-it's final polishing (RTM anyone? )

two things i don't like about opendns. Try entering address CNN and you get an OpenDNS page not CNN.COM. This is if you have the option that adds .com to your address.

Secondly OpenDNS uses google.com for something. I often see it on my status bar before I get to my site.

Trying Advantage right now and CNN works just fine. Will keep an eye if it links out to Google.