DNS Addressing - How to Change in Windows 7

Introduction​

   Information

This tutorial is to guide you, the user, in changing your DNS address to (hopefully) a better alternative. OpenDNS, one of said alternatives, will be used as our main example but there are many others out there. Now while OpenDNS is great, it isn't for everyone: The best way to find the best one for you is to consult the link in the tutorial for a list of alternatives and choose the best (testing one yourself first hand here is key).

OpenDNS is a free, powerful, and easy to use DNS alternative best suited for people in the US and London areas.

Here is a direct quote from their site:

OpenDNS is the leading provider of free security and infrastructure services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content filtering, anti-phishing and DNS. OpenDNS services enable consumers and network administrators to secure their networks from online threats, reduce costs and enforce Internet-use policies. OpenDNS is used today by millions of users and organizations around the world.

Now the question that you may ask is how this may benefit you? Well the default DNS server provided by ISPs tend to be slower than OpenDNS because of promotional offers included in said servers or the ISP doesn't have a good quality server to begin with (would Verizon please stand up?). This means that by using OpenDNS not only will your surfing be generally faster but any promotional offers that said ISP might try to spam you with or any phishing attacks will be blocked. To summarize, OpenDNS provides an all around better web experience PLUS its free so why not give it a try? Now with all good stories there are two sides. With the advantages that I have described, there are disadvantages. Now while I could myself describe what these are, I felt that a fellow member by the name of Charles Kane did it better than I could have with his scenario given. Please read this quote given and all credit goes to him for this part:

1. Anyone can use OpenDNS safely.
2. Free optional registration with OpenDNS enables the control panel which allows you to use preset content filtering, whitelisting and blacklisting of websites.
3. OpenDNS claims surfing speed and stability improvements. Speed may be enhanced with the centralized caching of internet addresses. The benefits of this claim should be weighed against your location (OpenDNS has 8 servers in the US and one in London with one planned for Hong Kong), the quality of your own ISPs caching, and particularly whether your ISP is using any particular servers to provide improved speeds in the seving of content.

As an example, for an Australian, the OpenDNS resolvers are at least 12 hops away (roughly 200ms) and the local server a maximum 4 hops (about 40ms) so the benefits may be reduced. Speed improvements for sites cached by your ISPs servers, especially common sites, are likely to be insignificant as network latency dominates DNS resolution time. The Pacific Ocean is the problem.

High quality ISPs (such as many of those in Australia), especially those that provide additional benefits such as Akamai delivered content delivered from servers within the local network will also be a major consideration. Akamai delivered content may be particularly important with streaming video and audio and big downloads (including Microsoft Download and Microsoft Update).

OpenDNS may give the greatest benefits if you are with a crappy ISP, relatively close to OpenDNS servers, if you want the benefits of their user control panel (filtering), or mainly access addresses unlikely to be cached by your ISP. OpenDNS server provision in North America makes OpenDNS particularly attractive for North American users.

Now to setup OpenDNS (or your other alternative) is rather easy and can be accomplished in less than a couple of minutes...

   Tip

You may also elect to sign up for an account at their website. It is also free and you will able to customize web site filtering and ad management....quite a handy control panel for your internet browsing experience (especially businesses that need content control).

   Tip

If you feel that OpenDNS is not for you than please consult this comprehensive list PortForward.com - Free Help Setting up Your Router or Firewall to find one near you! Just replace the numbers given here with the numbers given for your DNS server of choice from that page or anywhere else; these steps still apply.

Here's How: 1. Open the Control Panel.

2. Open up Network and Internet and go to the Network and Sharing Center.
3. Click on Change adapter settings on the left hand panel.
4. This will bring up a list of adapters present on your computer. Most people will have a Local Area Connection while laptop users will add a Wireless Network Connection and possibly a Bluetooth Network Connection...go ahead and right click on Local Area Connection and click on Properties.
NOTE: These steps do not change if you are modifying the Wireless Network Connection instead
5. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.

6. Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on properties.
7. In the properties window you will see a few radio boxes with both of them saying Obtain an IP/DNS Address Automatically....we will leave the IP address alone and will change the Obtain DNS....to use the following: In the Preferred DNS server boxes enter this sequence: 208.67.222.222

In the Alternate DNS server boxes enter this sequence: 208.67.220.220

8. Check the validate settings upon exit (Optional) check box, click OK, and then Close to finish. (See screenshot above)

9. Windows will check your settings (if you checked the option above) and you will be finished! Now start surfing to feel the effects of a quicker and more secure browsing experience!

   Tip

For more info on OpenDNS don't hesitate to ask here or visit their website at OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster Internet

   Tip

If you happen to be managing a network under a router, this tip will save you some time. If you change the router's DNS settings instead of each computer on the network than as long as each computer is set to Obtain a DNS Address Automatically, your choice of a DNS server will be applied to all the computers. Please consult the manual of your router or their respective website to do this.

Hope it helps,
Chris

 

[Dwarf]

There seems to be a bug with this application - see Issue 27 - namebench - Windows version running locally will not save .csv data ( not responding.... ) - Project Hosting on Google Code

 

[Dwarf]

Here's an alternative benchmarking utility - testing now. GRC's|DNS Nameserver Performance Benchmark

Works OK. I ran the test whilst having 2 IE8 tabs and Outlook 2007 open. For best results, no other application that has access to the Internet should be running.

 

[Barman58]

Thanks Dwarf - The Steve Gibson one is the one I used to use - but it completely evaded my memory

and I'd filed it in network tools not internet tools in my tool-kit

 

[Dwarf]

It has the advantage of showing the addresses of all the DNS servers that it is querying, so you can update yours to the most responsive ones.

 

[xXSevenXx]

Google have just launched a new DNS service! Google Public DNS

I just changed mine to google, and a torrent I was D/L jumped from 40kbs to 450+kbs, is this a coincidence, or was my ISP throttling my D/L speed?

It was a fluke!
I was D/L at a rate of 450 kbs yesterday, but today it's back to normal 40 kbs or less.

 

[wjvision1]

I have Verizon VIOS & yep in helps my computer to surf faster

 

[Husker41]

Changing to OpenDns was a lifesaver for me. My new Dell Studio XPS 8100 would not consistently access the internet via our Kyocera KR-2 router, though an older Dell we have running XP would, and so would our Toshiba Notebook and our Acer netbook. The new Dell worked OK directly connected to the DSL modem, though. Now, using OpenDns, the connection via the router is rock-solid. Many thanks!

 

[Kliton x64]

Thank you,Nice!

 

[baccini]

33.5% Faster than my current DNS server now using Pipex 4gig server got to say if this true what a find great little program thank for that, much appreciated

 

[baccini]

33.5% Faster than my current DNS server now using Pipex 4gig server got to say if this true what a find great little program thank for that, much appreciated

had to change it back for now some pages on various sites not opening

 

[Sandra24]

A massive thank you!!
For the last 2 days I have had DNS errors and more and more websites were being affected I just completed a system backup to start restoring my computer back to 'new' when I stumbled upon your simple solution to fix my errors!
Thanks so much you saved me hours of work.

Just curious as to why this DNS error happened in the first place? Everything has been fine for years..

 

[Th3R4g3]

Wow, this tutorial was way more helpful than what the cretins at OpenDNS sent as removal instructions, it was driving me insane. This tutorial was short, concise and right to the point. I did in 2 minutes what was taking me hours to understand in that damned OpenDNS website, thank you so much.

 

[BloodRayne]

DNS Benchmark

Dns Benchmark By steve Gibson is a really great tool to help fint the optimal, fastest dns for your system. it is also completely free. i was using google's public DNS but found that covansys was much, much faster. i would say that this worth looking into.

GRC's | DNS Nameserver Performance Benchmark  

 

[lilith88]

tutorial

i tried but for me the ip is stated incorect

 

[Brink]

Hello Lilith, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Could you please provide some more details and screenshots about the issue you are having to better help us help you?

 

[Akip]

Hey, nice tutorial, but, I've changed my DNS to OpenDNS several weeks ago. It still runs fine until this evening. I don't know why, I can't access some of popular websites. Some of them are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even I can't access to Yahoo!. Why this is happen? After checking again, my DNS has get back to default automatically. I changed it again to OpenDNS, but still nothing.

Oh yeah, when trying to access Twitter, it says "This Connection is Untrusted" and technical details says: "Certificate is only valid for *.opendns.com , opendns.com .

But about the YouTube and Yahoo!, and Facebook, it says Error 403. What should I do?

Please, I need some help from some advanced users here.

 

[Shadowjk]

Hey, nice tutorial, but, I've changed my DNS to OpenDNS several weeks ago. It still runs fine until this evening. I don't know why, I can't access some of popular websites. Some of them are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even I can't access to Yahoo!. Why this is happen? After checking again, my DNS has get back to default automatically. I changed it again to OpenDNS, but still nothing.

Oh yeah, when trying to access Twitter, it says "This Connection is Untrusted" and technical details says: "Certificate is only valid for *.opendns.com , opendns.com .

But about the YouTube and Yahoo!, and Facebook, it says Error 403. What should I do?

Please, I need some help from some advanced users here.

What DNS servers were used? I can run a lookup on the sites and see if it provides a valid IP address. Have you tried to temporarily change to Google's Public DNS servers? If the issue still occurs then you may have an application issue. What browser are you using?

Google's DNS servers:

https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

Josh

 

[Firstlady1408]

DNS changes

Thank you for comprehensive and easy to follow instructions. I opened them on my tablet and used them on my laptop. When I opened Google Chrome and went back to websites I had problems with only minutes before.. Magic..all connecting and quickly too.

 

[jraju]

Hi, i know about enabling dhcp to use the following dns pref server. But nslookup command, produce unknown server. Is there any fix. Is it only for server OS and not for regular windows 7 OS machines