This is how the DNS protocol works for you to browse the Internet

What are DNS servers and what are they for

DNS is the acronym for the domain name system. It is a protocol that is responsible for linking the names of the websites that we visit with their corresponding IP address. Basically what it does is translate what we type. For example, if we enter SpeedNetz, it will translate the domain name speednetz.com by the corresponding IP address and will show us the content in the browser.

This allows users not to have to memorize numbers without much sense. You simply have to know what the name of the site is and automatically the DNS servers will link them to the IP address and allow you to navigate through them.

Resolving these names is done through the programs we use. For example the browser or an email application. We do not have to put the IP of an e-mail address or when entering Chrome put the IP of a web page. Automatically the DNS servers translate that for us.

If we put a practical example, we can see that when entering any web page on the Internet we are going to need a device and a browser. For example, a computer with which we enter Speednetz through Chrome. That would be the client that sends a request to the DNS servers, which will return the address that corresponds to that domain name.

DNS is cached

Once we have entered a website, our system will cache that information. For example, if we use Windows and enter SpeedNetz, from that moment on, the data corresponding to that site will be cached in DNS.

This will allow that in the future when we re-enter, the process will be faster. You will no longer have to make that request to the DNS servers, but you already know what the corresponding IP is. Logically this sometimes gives rise to problems and that is why sometimes it is convenient to empty that cache to renew it.

Can I change the DNS?

DNS servers are, as we can see, important to be able to surf the Internet. Therefore, we must use ones that work correctly and are fast. However, sometimes this is not possible and we can have problems. So how do we change DNS? It is a simple process.

Change DNS in Windows

To change the DNS in Windows we have to go to Start, go to Settings, go to Network and Internet, Change adapter options, select the corresponding network card, and click the right mouse button to click Properties. There we have to click on Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP / IPv4) and Properties.

We will see that two options will appear to use DNS servers: obtain the address automatically or use others manually. Ony the second option is the one that we have to mark and fill in the data with the corresponding DNS servers that we want to change.

Change DNS from the router

We have seen how we can change the DNS servers from the Windows configuration, but we can also do it directly on the router. Normally you will use the servers provided by the operator, but we can change them the same as at the system level.

In this case, you have to enter the router through the configuration. For this, we will have to put the default gateway in the browser, which is generally 192.168.1.1, and access the corresponding data. If we do not know what the address to access is, we will have to go to the Command Prompt and run the ipconfig command .

Once we are inside the router, it will depend on the model we use. The normal thing is that you have to go to Options, Advanced Settings, and look for DNS Servers there. We can change the ones that come by default. We will have to fill in the data and then click OK and restart the router so that the changes are made correctly. It is a process that we can always reverse and reuse the ones we had previously.

What are the best DNS

So what are the best DNS? This may be the question that many of us ask ourselves when we decide to change DNS servers to improve speed. However, not only must this be taken into account, but there are also security and privacy reasons. There are some options that are designed to protect your browsing data.

If we talk about popular DNS servers, which work well and offer good performance, we can name for example the public servers of Google or those of Cloudflare. They would be the following (primary and secondary):

• Google DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
• Cloudflare DNS: 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

But there are many more options. We can even use programs like Namebench, which helps to find the best DNS servers to achieve the highest speed according to the circumstances. Sometimes some DNS that we use can malfunction for some reason and that makes it necessary to opt for others.

At the end of the day, if we have problems with the DNS we use, we can always change them and test whether navigation improves in this way. We can try the ones from Google, Cloudflare, as well as any others we can find and see which one works best.

In short, DNS servers are very important to be able to navigate. This protocol is used to link domain names to the corresponding IP address. We have seen that we can easily change them both at the system level and also from the router. It is a process that can sometimes be interesting to make the connection work as well as possible.