We will briefly review the concept of Public DNS servers. You use DNS every day when browsing. DNS is one of the most used systems in the world. It’s used by everyone browsing the internet and not only limited to them, but it’s also being used by internet devices (Internet of Things) and many more.
Its main purpose is to be able to associate a service with a computer (server). Let’s say that you wish to open your favorite video and type in the address of the site. This site is hosted on a machine that uses a specific IP address. It’s way harder for us to memorize IP addresses so you remember the address of the site. DNS’s purpose is to find (resolve) the IP of the site and then give you that address so that you may go and ask the server for your video.
What is a Public DNS Server
A Public DNS Server is one that has a lot of information about which website is hosted on which IP. When DNS resolves a website to an IP address it might have to ask multiple servers. The Public DNS Servers keep information about which other servers down the lane needs to be asked.
Your computer uses a Public DNS Server (if your ISP does not interfere with this) to assist you with opening your favorite websites. Using a Public DNS Server is reliable and highly encouraged as it will also speed up (to a minor degree) your browsing experience. One of the most used Public DNS Servers is Google’s
Using Google’s Public DNS
Although Google’s DNS is spanned across multiple DNS servers you need to remember only two IP addresses which are associated with their DNS service, those are:
8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
You can also use the IPv6 ones as well
Google DNS ipv6
2001:4860:4860::8888 2001:4860:4860::8844
You can navigate to change the DNS in
Windows:
Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change Adapter Settings
For your Ethernet connection (cable from your ISP) right-click on Local Area Connection -> Properties
For your, WiFi right-click Wireless Network Connection -> Properties
From there click on
Networking -> Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties, then Advanced and in the DNS tab.
Replace the IPv4 IPs in therewith
8.8.8.8 8.8.8.4
Linux:
You can easily change the config on a Linux machine by editing the file /etc/resolv.conf
sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
The nameserver lines should read
nameserver 8.8.8.8 nameserver 8.8.4.4
