How to change DNS Windows 10

Having navigation problems on your PC, you asked your friend for advice and he advised you to change the DNS, also explaining quickly how to do it. Back home, you then tried to carry out the operation in question but you did not succeed and now, to avoid making a bad impression with your friend, you are looking for an online guide to reach your goal and understand a little more. on the topic.

Did I guess? Well: if things are exactly this way and you would like to understand how to change DNS Windows 10, let me clarify your ideas about it. If you dedicate a few minutes of your precious free time to me, in fact, I can show you in detail how to succeed in this “enterprise”; I will also explain what exactly these DNS servers are, what they are for and which are the best ones you can turn to.

If you are ready to “get to work”, position yourself comfortably in front of your trusted computer and read with the utmost attention everything reported below. I am sure that, in the end, you will be able to say that you are very happy and satisfied with what you have learned. Enjoy the reading!

Index

  • What are DNS
  • What are the best DNS
  • Change DNS on Windows 10
    • Standard procedure
    • Alternative procedure
  • How to change DNS Windows 10 IPv6
  • How to change Windows 10 DNS from router
  • In case of problems

What are DNS

As anticipated at the beginning, to begin with I would like to explain to you what exactly these DNS are, or rather DNS servers. Without going around it too much, they are a kind of “intermediaries” between us and the Internet sites we want to visit.

It is in fact thanks to them that we can visit, for example, Google by simply typing google.it or google.com in the browser’s address bar instead of the IP address of the search engine, which would be a very long string of numbers (which would then be the real coordinates of the reference site. ).

Typing each time the IP address of a website would be practically impossible to remember as well as definitely an impractical operation to do a search “on the fly” on the net. In short, as you can see for yourself, they have their great utility!

DNS servers are not unique, there are tons of them available in the world, and each of them offers different performances. Changing them, choosing faster ones and perhaps respectful of privacy, can be useful to reduce the response times of Internet sites, thus speeding up their opening. It also allows access to those portals for which the local provider may have imposed blocks.

What are the best DNS

But what are the most popular IPv4 DNS servers currently on the market? The answer is soon given! There are those of Cloudflare, those of Google and those of OpenDNS. You will find them all listed below.

Cloudflare DNS server

  • Default DNS Server: 1.1.1.1
  • Alternate DNS Server: 1.0.0.1

Google DNS server

  • Default DNS Server: 8.8.8.8
  • Alternate DNS Server: 8.8.4.4

OpenDNS DNS server

  • Default DNS Server: 208.67.222.222
  • Alternate DNS Server: 208.67.220.220

Those of Cloudflare and Google are famous above all for their speed and for the fact that, being international, they also allow access to sites that are blocked by Italian providers. Furthermore, those of Cloudflare promise a greater degree of privacy, not keeping the data of the sites visited by users stored.

Even those of OpenDNS are fast enough and allow you to access blocked sites in Italy, but are used primarily for their parental control function through which you can inhibit the display of specific categories of sites (e.g. sites for adults only, sites dedicated to betting etc.). Read more here.

However, considering that, as already mentioned a few lines above, there are many DNS servers and that in addition to those mentioned there are also others that can prove to be very valid, if you want advice to find more you can rely on those that you I indicated in my guide dedicated to the topic. In this article of mine I have in fact provided you with a bunch of additional special tools that can help you identify the best performing DNS servers.

Change DNS on Windows 10

Now that you finally have a clearer idea of ​​the nature of DNS servers, I would say that we can finally get to the very heart of the matter and try to figure out how to change them on Windows 10.

To do this, you can take two different paths based on what your preferences are. You can choose to act from the Windows settings or from the Command Prompt. The final result will be identical in both cases.

Standard procedure

If you have chosen to change the DNS on Windows 10 by acting from the system settings, the first step you must take to succeed in your intent is to click on the Start button (the flag icon located on the taskbar) and then select the item Settings (marked with the gear icon) in the menu that is shown to you.

In the Windows 10 settings panel, select the Network and Internet> Change adapter options and choose the name of the connection in use in the screen that is shown to you. For example, if you want to change Windows 10 DNS to Wi-Fi choose the network named Wi-Fi; for that LAN, however, it is generally named Ethernet.

After locating the network card, right-click on it and choose the Properties item in the context menu. Now, locate the wording Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP / IPv4) in the screen you see: make sure that the relevant box is checked (if not, you can do it yourself), click on the Properties button at the bottom and activate the Use box the following DNS server addresses.

Finally, type the address of the DNS servers you intend to use in the fields located next to the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server items, put the checkmark on the box that you find in correspondence with the words Validate settings on exit and click on the button OK to save and apply the changes made. Done!

For example, to change Windows 10 DNS with Cloudflare, in the Preferred DNS Server box type 1.1.1.1, while in Alternate DNS Server it indicates the value 1.0.0.1; Check the box Validate settings on exit and click OK.

If you then wish to change the DNS servers set on Windows 10 again, you can change them at any time and as often as you want by simply carrying out the procedure that I have just reported to you from scratch.

If, on the other hand, you have second thoughts and you want to make sure that your PC with Windows 10 installed automatically acquires the DNS servers of the Internet provider of the connection you use (or in any case those set in the modem/router), simply check the item Obtain DNS server address automatically after selecting Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP / IPv4) and after clicking on the Properties button after choosing the connection in use in the system’s connection center.

Alternative procedure

If, on the other hand, you prefer to change the DNS on Windows 10 by acting via Command Prompt, first of all access it by clicking on the magnifying glass attached to the taskbar at the bottom left.

Now, type the terms “command prompt” in the search box that is shown to you and right-click on the relevant result, then select Run as administrator from the context menu. This will start the Prompt with higher permissions.

Once the Command Prompt window appears on your desktop, type the netsh command and hit the Enter key on your keyboard. Next, type the following command.

interface ip set dns name=“nome interfaccia di rete” static [server DNS]

Instead of the network interface name, you must enter the name of the reference network interface. Instead of [DNS server] you have to type the primary DNS server you want to use. Then press the Enter key on your keyboard to set the primary DNS server to the desired one. Then type the following command.

interface ip add dns name=“nome interfaccia di rete” [server DNS] index=2

Again, replace the network interface name with the reference network interface name and the secondary DNS server you wish to use for [DNS server]. Press the Enter key to set the secondary DNS server as well.

The changes you make will be applied instantly. So close the command prompt window and you can immediately start surfing the net from your Windows 10 PC using the set DNS servers.

How to change DNS Windows 10 IPv6

What I explained to you in the previous chapter is related to the IPv4 protocol. If your network provider supports the IPv6 protocol and has been enabled on your line, then you must use DNS servers in IPv6. You may be wondering what the difference is between the two protocols. The answer is soon said!

To simplify the discussion, you need to know that IPv4, being 32-bit, allows you to generate about 4 billion unique addresses. You can understand that, given the websites and portals generated around the globe, you don’t have a lot of IPs to assign. In this case, IPv6 comes into play, which exponentially increases (2¹²⁸) IP addresses (there are so many!).

As for the best DNS services that I mentioned in this chapter, you can always refer to those mentioned, but taking care to use the correct DNS servers, which you find below. You can check if your Internet line is in IPv6 by reaching this link and viewing the response that is given to you on the screen.

Cloudflare DNS server

  • Default DNS Server: 2606: 4700: 4700 :: 64
  • Alternate DNS Server: 2606: 4700: 4700 :: 6400

Google DNS server

  • Default DNS Server: 2001: 4860: 4860 :: 8888
  • Alternate DNS Server: 2001: 4860: 4860 :: 8844

OpenDNS DNS server

  • Default DNS Server: 2620: 119: 35 :: 35
  • Alternate DNS Server: 2620: 119: 53 :: 53

That said, to change the DNS servers you have to proceed in the same way as I explained to you in this chapter regarding the standard procedure on Windows 10.

Therefore, in the configuration panel of the network card, select instead Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP / IPv6) and then type, in the editable boxes by ticking the option Use the following DNS server addresses, the DNS servers in IPv6 mentioned above.

How to change Windows 10 DNS from router

You must know that it is not necessary to change the DNS by acting on your computer settings, but you can also proceed directly from the router. In this way, you will not only change the DNS for your Windows 10 PC, but also for any device that you connect to your local network.

Obviously, this procedure is valid only if your router supports DNS management and, therefore, I invite you to check the user manual of your network device. That said, log into your router’s admin panel (if you don’t know how to do this, see this article ) to proceed!

I warn you that each router has its own web interface and, therefore, the procedure that I will show you may differ depending on the network device in your possession. For this tutorial, I relied on my ASUS RT series router.

After logging into the router, select the WAN item from the main menu and locate the WAN DNS Setup section. Now what you have to do is type the DNS servers in the boxes below or select them from the appropriate drop-down menus.

In the case of an IPv6 network, select the IPv6 item from the drop-down menu and locate the IPv6 DNS Setup section to fill it in with the IPv6 DNS servers of your choice.

In case of problems

If you have changed the DNS from your Windows 10 computer, you may also need to clear the system’s DNS cache for the settings to be taken over. In fact, in some cases errors may occur that do not allow you to see improvements while browsing the Web despite the changed DNS.

To solve this problem, you need to open the Command Prompt: from the search bar in the taskbar, type “command prompt” and right-click on the appropriate result, then selecting Run as administrator, from the menu that views.

At this point, in the screen that is shown to you, type the command ipconfig /flushdns, followed by pressing the Enter key on the keyboard, to execute it. By doing this, the system’s DNS cache will be emptied and rebuilt with the new DNS data previously entered.

 

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