When the cable guy or supplier sets up your broadband, they set up a standard DNS provider so you can get connected right away. Depending on who supplies your connection, this could be the ISPs own DNS servers. They work well enough but aren’t always the fastest or most secure. Did you know you can change your DNS server? I’ll show you how.
It isn’t always necessary to change your DNS server. The team here at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey have done it but only because we are tech geeks. The benefits of a new DNS server is speed and occasionally security. Otherwise it doesn’t impact your service at all.
What is DNS?
DNS stands for Domain Name Service and is the part of networking that translates the IP address of a web server into a URL that you type into your web browser. So when you type ‘davescomputers.com’, the DNS servers looks it up in massive IP tables, finds out the IP address and then sends your browser to that IP address.
DNS is invisible to users and intentionally so. We don’t really care how we get to the website, just that we get to the correct website quickly.
Change your DNS server in Windows 10
It takes less than a minute to change DNS server in Windows 10. Here’s how.
- Open Network and Internet settings in Control Panel.
- Select Change Adapter Settings.
- Right click your Network Adapter and select Properties.
- Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and then Properties.
- Toggle Use the following DNS server addresses and type in two DNS addresses.
- Select OK when done.
Servers you might like to try are:
- 1.1.1 = CloudFlare DNS
- 67.220.220 or 208.67.222.222 = OpenDNS
- 8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 = Google DNS
- 200.69.80 or 84.200.70.40 = DNS.Watch
- 6.64.6 or 64.6.65.6 = VeriSign Public DNS
Why change DNS server?
I mentioned at the top that your ISP’s DNS server may not be as fast as one of those above. This will have a minor impact on browsing speed but nothing huge. What is more important is the security improvements changing DNS server could have.
ISPs can now collect data on your browsing habits however they like. Every DNS query or every website you visit using their DNS server can be tracked. As the ISP also has your personal details, they can easily compile quite the dossier on you. They can use their for their own marketing or perhaps sell it to other marketing companies.
Moving from your ISPs DNS makes data collection much more difficult to do. It’s a small step but perhaps an important once, especially as CloudFlare promise they keep no records at all about your browsing habits.
If you need help changing DNS or troubleshooting any network issue, the computer repair guys at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey can help. Bring your computer to our store and we will see what we can do!
