Alternative DNS – Router vs. PC

You may have heard of the ability to use alternative DNS providers. First I’ll explain what it is and then the different ways you can use it.

DNS is Domain Name Server. All web sites start as raw IP addresses and are then resolved into actual names. You know what an IP address looks like, such as 192.168.0.1. All web sites on the Internet also have publicly assigned IP addresses, and the only way these can be translated into names (such as pcmech.com) is by DNS.

Your ISP has its own DNS as all ISPs do. If you launch a command prompt in Windows and type ipconfig /all, you can see which DNS servers you are using, like this:

Your DNS servers will always be different than your locally assigned private IP assigned by your router, and they also will be different from what is shown above as they are particular to your ISP.

Why use an alternative DNS?

There are three primary reasons to use an alternative DNS:

1. To make web sites resolve faster. For example, it’s well known that Comcast has poor DNS resolution when it comes to resolving web server IP addresses into names. Changing to an alternative DNS may speed up resolution time significantly and result in faster loading web sites.
2. To add an extra layer of phishing protection. You have protection via your browser and search engine(s) you use, but the addition of a "family-friendly" DNS goes even further as the list of bad web sites is community-powered, meaning they’re more up-to-date compared to existing means of phishing protection.
3. To block sites outright on a DNS level. Using an alternative DNS is the absolute best way to block a site permanently. This is particularly useful for parents, because once you set up your blocked sites, the child will have an extremely difficult time circumventing it.

Using alternative DNS – Router vs. PC

The two ways to use an alternative DNS is either directly in the operating system or on the router.

The better of the two is the router. Why? Because it allows your computer to "think less" when loading a web site and let’s the router do the name resolution work.

Setting up an alternative DNS is different per router because administration programs for routers differ from model to model. However if you peruse the menus, you will locate it and be able to specify an alternative DNS easily.

My router happens to be a Linksys WRT54GL. In the menu Basic Setup is where an alternative DNS can be set:

I have the ability to specify three "Static DNS" entries, which is where the alternative DNS IP addresses would go. If I don’t use the third, I can simply leave it as zeroes.

Your router administration program will be similar to this, but obviously not exact as admin programs differ based on make/model of router.

I like the idea of using an alternative DNS – what do I need to know?

Alternative DNS is nothing but one to three IP addresses that you input into your router’s administration program where the DNS entries go, then restart the router, and you’re done.

The only information you need are the IPs.

OpenDNS

• 208.67.222.222
• 208.67.220.220

Note: It’s better if you actually sign up for an OpenDNS account (use the free version) so you can specify which servers you want to block, should you wish to have the ability to do so on a DNS level.

Google

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

ScrubIT

• 67.138.54.100
• 207.225.209.66

Will using alternative DNS really speed up web site loading?

There’s no guarantee that it will, but it’s worth a try especially considering it costs nothing.

Hang on.. does this mean I can use any public DNS in my router setup?

In fact it does.

Here’s how to look up the info:

Let’s say you wanted to use Yahoo.com’s DNS for the fastest possible resolution for Yahoo products like Y! Mail, Y! Messenger and so on.

1. Go to http://whois.domaintools.com, type in yahoo.com, and search.
2. On the next page, scroll to the bottom.
3. Under "Domain servers", note the first 3. They will bs ns3.yahoo.com, ns4, and so on.
4. PING those servers. Launch a command prompt and type (without quotes) "PING server-name-here". If you did "PING ns3.yahoo.com", the resulting IP address is 121.101.152.99.
5. Take the resulting IP addresses you get, and input those into your router for DNS use.

That’s all there is to it. You can use the DNS server listings for any web site you enter into DomainTools. Just look up the site, PING the name server addresses, get the IPs, and use them.

And no, there is absolutely nothing wrong or illegal with doing that whatsoever. It’s just DNS.