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Monday, April 18, 2011

How to setup Google DNS on Windows 7 and Windows XP

What is a DNS server?
DNS stuff can get pretty complicated, and I don’t want to go into details, so I’ll just give you a general idea. A DNS server is like a phone book. If you want to call someone using your phone, you may need to look up their phone number. Every website on the net has a 12 digit number (IP Address) that your PC needs to know in order to contact it. When you type a website name into a browser, your PC queries it’s assigned DNS server (the phone book), the DNS server reports the IP address (the phone number) back to your PC, and the PC initiates a connection with the site you requested. This all happens automatically and you really don’t need to know about DNS to use it. Most people are using a private DNS server that’s assigned by their Internet Service Provider, however, there are many open (public) DNS servers out there that anyone can use. Google’s new DNS server is only one among thousands.

Why would you want to use Google’s Public DNS?
Google DNS service is faster, more secure and fairly private. Personally, I prefer OpenDNS, but that’s a topic for another time.

And now – on to the “How to” portion to setup google public DNS in xp and Win 7

Set up Google Public DNS on Windows XP
1. Print this out if you are concerned that you won’t remember the details. You could lose your internet connection if something doesn’t go well. You can reverse any changes you make here by following these steps.

2. Open up the Control Panel and click “Network and Internet Connections”.



2. Then click “Network Connections”.



4. Select your active internet connection and right click on it.



5. Select the TCP/IP service in the list and then click on the Properties button.


6. Look for the DNS section. If there are already numbers listed in there, be sure to write them down so that you can put things back the way they were if Google’s DNS doesn’t work out for you. If the “obtain automatically” button is filled, select the “use the following” button. Then enter in these two numbers – ( 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 ) – into the DNS section as shown. Click OK to finish up.


7. Open command prompt and run command "ipconfig/flushDNS" as shown in screenshot


8. Clear your browsers cache


9. Open up your web browser and surf around awhile. If you aren’t getting anywhere, try a reboot.

Set up Google Public DNS on Windows 7
1. Print this out if you are concerned that you won’t remember the details. You could lose your internet connection if something doesn’t go well. You can reverse any changes you make here by following these steps.

2. Open up the Control Panel, then select “Network and Internet”.




3. Select “Network and Sharing Center”.



4. Select “Change adapter settings”.



5. Right click on your current internet connection and choose “Properties”.



6. Select the “TCP/IPv4” service in the list, then click the “Properties” button.



7. Look for the DNS section. If there are already numbers listed in there, be sure to write them down so that you can put things back the way they were if Google’s DNS doesn’t work out for you. If the “obtain automatically” button is filled, select the “use the following” button. Then enter in these two numbers – ( 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 ) – into the DNS section as shown. Click OK to finish up.

8. Open command prompt and run command "ipconfig/flushDNS" as shown in screenshot


9. Clear your browsers cache


10. Open up your web browser and surf around awhile. If you aren’t getting anywhere, try a reboot.

3 comments:

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  2. Thanks for a massage!!!! This article is awesome... really help to me,,, Windows Network Setup

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  3. Hey Bala,

    I am glad this post was helpful.

    ReplyDelete