Change your DNS Server in Windows 7 [How to]

21 Jan 2010

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With Google launching their new DNS Server not long ago, aptly named; Google Public DNS, I’ve been playing around with my DNS server to see which is the quickest!

This guide will show you how to change your DNS server and verify the settings in Windows 7.

Step 1.

Open the Network & Sharing Center by either clicking on your network icon in the Notification Area and clicking Open Network and Sharing Center (1), typing network in the start search box (2) or through the Control Panel (3).

(1)

(2)

(3)

Step 2.

Once Network & Sharing Center is open, in the left hand pane, click on Change adapter settings.

Step 3.

Right click your network adapter and choose Properties (if you get a UAC prompt, accept).

Step 4.

In the following window, under “This connection uses the following items”, click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.

Step 5.

Under the General tab check the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button, and enter your prefered DNS server address, in the guide we’ll be using Google’s DNS server address which is 8.8.8.8 /8.8.4.4

Make sure that Validate settings upon exit is also checked and hit OK.

Windows Network Diagnostics will now attempt to detect any problems with the addresses you’ve specified, leave it to work and hopefully it’ll report that troubleshooting couldn’t identify the problem.

Close the troubleshooter and that’s it done!

So, why change your DNS address?

“The DNS protocol is an important part of the web’s infrastructure, serving as the Internet’s phone book: every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may be performing hundreds of lookups a day.”

By using a faster DNS server, your browsing speeds can increase, security can be improved and you get the results you expect with absolutely no redirection.

Return to default.

Returning to default is as easy as changing the DNS address. Repeat Step 1 – 4, in Step 5. Check the Obtain DNS server address automatically. Hit OK.

Changes are made straight away, either way, no need to reboot.

There are hundreds of different DNS server addresses you can use. OpenDNS is preferred by many and considered one of the best out there. As always, experiment as YMMV.

Enjoy!

The DNS server is a computer, or router, most likely if this issue is on a home network that assigns IP addresses to computers on the network. Usually it is 192.168.1.1 Just go to connection properties, Local Area Connection properties, click on TCP/IP, click on properties, and at the bottom of the properties page, there is a dialog box to either find the DNS automatically(recommended) or to manually type in the address. If you know what the IP address for the DNS server is(at home it's usually 192.168.1.1), you can either type it in if it's not the normal one, see above, or just select automatic.

CodeMaster 3.0

March 11th, 2010 at 5:01 am

Everything seems to be normal. Do a complete scan of system using updated anti-virus.
Target of connection is a local address(safe).
Process is windows kernel, one of the most trusted process(safe).
It may be infected according to first line.

Rachel

March 20th, 2010 at 2:11 pm

I hear you. Are we really supposed to think that all those tubes arranged themselves in a series by random chance?

efflandt

March 22nd, 2010 at 2:07 pm

If you are going to create your own custom protocol, you would need to write the program, driver, or module that would communicate in that protocol, that would work in the OS of whichever devices you want to communicate in that protocol. For example Windows is not going to know about that protocol unless you write a proper Windows driver.

It is not really clear what you want the protocol to do. If it is just a matter of changing network settings on the fly, there are utilities for that (like if you need different static IP, netmask, gateway, DNS for different networks). Or there are broadband routers available that can automatically trigger forwarding of a group of ports to a LAN IP based on opening a specific outgoing port (like for gaming).

But that would only work for one machine at a time. For some internet games that need forwarded ports, if you want to play them on more than one local machine at a time, you would need an ISP plan with more than one public IP address.

earthman

March 24th, 2010 at 11:50 pm

Right click on screen Click on Properties. Select The Settings tab.

Look for the options in the drop down menus.

If they are not there…you need a better video card.

All the best

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