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A DNS server resolves domain names into IP address by looking up DNS tables. A DNS server is usually provided by your ISP. Before contacting the destination you type in your browser’s address bar, it is first resolved to IP address by your DNS Server.
A slow DNS server may impact your browsing speed to a large extent which is usually the case with most ISP’s. OpenDNS helps you to resolve that problem by providing faster DNS resolving service.
OpenDNS maintains huge cache of DNS addresses at various servers located globally. As its user base is very large, in most cases, the site you are requesting has already been resolved to IP address and present in OpenDNS’s cache which will speed up DNS lookups.
To use OpenDNS as your DNS Server, you need to set up your Internet Connection properties. The steps below explain the whole set up you need to use OpenDNS:
1. For Windows Vista users, Go to Start Panel > Connect To. Now right click on your internet connection and select Properties. XP users can open Properties by right clicking on their network connection in Control Panel > Network Connections.
2. Then select Networking tab and select Internet Protocol Version 4 and click on Properties. For Windows XP users, select Internet Protocol(TCP/IP).
3. Now select Use the Following DNS Server Address and type in 208.67.222.22 and 208.67.220.220 as your DNS Servers. These are addresses of OpenDNS server.
4. Click on Ok and again on Ok. You’re now using OpenDNS as your DNS server.
Though slow connection users like those on dial up connection may not experience any noticeable change but for DSL or Cable connection users, there will be a noticeable increasing in your page load time as DNS is resolved faster than before.
Restrict Websites
You can also use OpenDNS to block specific sites from your network easily by signing up with OpenDNS and installing OpenDNS Client on your machine. After that via OpenDNS web panel, you can select preset categories to block or you can also add your own list of domains to block.
As a result, OpenDNS will not resolve DNS address of those blocked domains and those sites will not open.
I experienced a significant increase in site loading time after using OpenDNS as my ISP’s DNS server was overloaded and responded slowly.
PS: Some of you may not experience noticeable change if your DNS server is already responding faster or it may be the case that you are at such far away place from nearest OpenDNS server that lag time is more.
