Speed up web browsing with OpenDNS

When you type in a domain name such as wingeek.com in your browser the computer must resolve the friendly name into an IP address of the server to download the web page and supporting files. Windows uses a DNS (domain name system) server to lookup this information. By default, Windows uses your ISP’s DNS server. Depending on your provider, the performance of their DNS resolving server varies. Some large national providers are known to provide unreliable and slow DNS servers.

The performance of the DNS server you are using is one component that affects the speed of your internet browsing. Since each domain name you type in must be resolved into an IP address, the amount of time that takes will delay the loading of any web page. Some users with overloaded ISP DNS servers can see delays in multiple seconds before web pages start to load.

OpenDNS provides free alternative DNS servers that anyone can use with any internet provider. Unlike many national internet providers, OpenDNS’s DNS servers are very fast and reliable. Using OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP servers will help you speed up your internet browsing by cutting down on the delay between resolving a domain name and getting the IP address so your browser can start loading the web page.

Configuring your computer to use OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP’s is a simple change that works in both Windows XP and Windows Vista:

Click on the Start Button and type in ncpa.cpl and hit Enter. In Windows XP Click on the Start Button, click Run and then type in ncpa.cpl
Right click on your active network connection that you use to connect to the Internet and select Properties.
On the Networking / General tab, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) (version 4 on Windows Vista & 7) and hit Properties.
On the properties screen, select Use the following DNS server addresses and then type in 208.67.222.222 in the preferred and 208.67.220.220 in the alternate boxes.
Hit OK twice and you are finished.

Visit OpenDNS.com to learn more about some of the advanced features of OpenDNS on top of the speed benefits.

Free Computer Magazines

eWeek, RCR Wireless, Information Week, Business Week, Many More Free Magazines!

Comments

Stefan

Very proper.

319 days ago

454

didn't work

317 days ago

jan .k

inpressive good job works 150% faster

305 days ago

James

improved loading of webpages by much as 2 seconds. (and i live in the caribbean, not sure if that counts.)

275 days ago

Benjamin

Very nice :)
One thing that should be mentioned though.
Do Not do this at work as world dns will not be able to resolve your internal ressources if they are on a seperate Subnet

269 days ago

i dont get dns errors anymore, my browsing is also so much faster!!!!

255 days ago

tRaCeR

It Works, Thanks!!

233 days ago

Works ! my ISP DNS server was sooooooo slow to resolve web pages , after doing the above pages load so much faster ......Thanks !

221 days ago

Willem

Wow that's so awesome it actually worked!!

216 days ago

tknking

this tweak is awosome ty and for the one that say it does not work either you did not do it right or u just dont need to utilize this tweak

215 days ago

Brendon

Nice tweak, works well :)

213 days ago

Kelly

This works really well, thanks Wingeek and OpenDNS!!

198 days ago

unknown

ppl..im usin a dial-up n its freakn sloow..! any way i kan spped up my connection n speeds..?

182 days ago

Jim

Works nice but seems to "freeze" certain logins.

156 days ago

randomataxia

or you can use 4.2.2.1 for the primary and 4.2.2.2 for the secondary.

123 days ago

Doug

Amazing, how come I never heard of this :O

99 days ago

MadMike

You guys are crazy. I'm on ADSL in New Zealand. Ping times to OpenDns DNS servers are 178ms and higher. Ping times to my ISP's DNS servers are 50ms and under.
Unless your ISP's DNS server is slower to respond than the OpenDNS ones, you will not see a difference.
If your ISP's DNS server ping time is over 100ms its probably time to find a decent ISP anyway.

98 days ago

frizz

great tip my browser is a ton faster now! Thanks a lot!

89 days ago

Steven

This true MadMike, however alot of these people are probably in the US. But totally agree if your ISP DNS server ping time is over 100ms its time to find a decent ISP.

85 days ago

chris

thanks windows 7 browsing seems a bit faster

79 days ago

Ryan

If it's not working for you, you may be behind a firewall whose policy does not allow DNS udp traffic.

78 days ago

rover3500

I've been using opendns for ages.It doesn't just speed ur browsing,it adds alot of security aswell.It has blocked 172 attacks and malware in the last month,which would have got to my computer.Lots of other benefits aswell.It is unlikely most isp dns does as much as well.

69 days ago

tdogg

It's seems to have worked. Should I enter this into my router too? Thanks.

20 days ago

matrix86

Here's something people need to keep in mind. You can't just do one speed test and compare results. I did 6 tests (alternating each time between my ISP DNS and Open DNS), and after the comparison, they each came out about the same. ISP DNS pings were 55, 52, and 57. Open DNS pings were 56, 54, and 56. So basically, you need to do more than one ping test to get your actual results. That is unless your pings are very far apart...then I think your results will be quite obvious with only one test, lol.

2 days ago

Steve Sinchak

matrix86 and others: I think it is important to measure DNS performance not only with PING response time but with the actual DNS resolution time. I used that data in my comparison of Google DNS to OpenDNS and Comcast DNS located here: http://wingeek.com/articles/40447/google-public-dns-makes-the-web-slower/

1 day ago