How to Use Google Public DNS

As you may know, Google launched a Public DNS service in 2009. It is the largest public DNS service in the world and has more than 70 billion requests per day. Before I start with Google Public DNS, let me tell you a little about DNS.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a naming system or technique for computers and resources that are connected to the Internet. It is a standard protocol that used with Internet protocol TCP/IP. It acts as a database system to translate the computer’s domain name into an IP address.

According to Google, an average user on a daily basis needs to perform multiple DNS lookups to open a single page, and with the fast growing of the Internet the process becomes slow. So they came up with the idea that since Google’s search engine already crawls the web and caches DNS information, they can use a new way of addressing some of the existing DNS to offer the Internet users the Google Public DNS. Client can use this public DNS as an alternative to their current DNS service, reduce the load on ISP’s DNS servers and surf the web faster and more securely.

Google Public DNS is a recursive DNS resolver, similar to other publicly available services. We think it provides many benefits, including improved security, fast performance, and more valid results.

Now follow these steps to change your system network settings to the Google Public DNS:

Step 1

In Windows 7/Vista go to Control Panel>Network and Internet>Network and Sharing Center and from the left side panel, select Change adapter settings.

In Windows XP you have to go to Control Panel>Network and Internet Connections or Network Connections to see your system Network adapter/s.

Step 2

Right-click on the network adapter icon (for example Local Area Connection) and from the drop down menu select Properties.

Step 3

In Networking tab you can either change the setup for Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or Version 6 (TCP/IP) or both of them together.

TCP/IPv4

First select TCP/IPv4 and then choose Properties.

Tick Use the following DNS server address and then click on the Advanced button.

The Advanced TCP/IP Settings will be opened, go to DNS tab and check there are any DNS server addresses defined or not. If the answer is yes select them and click on the Remove button, otherwise cancel the window.

Now enter the amounts below for Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server (refer to the image), then OK the windows:

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

TCP/IPv6

Select TCP/IPv6 and then choose Properties. Tick Use the following DNS server address and then click on the Advanced button.

Now enter the amounts below for Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server (refer to the image), then OK the windows:

2001:4860:4860::8888

2001:4860:4860::8844

In Windows XP you have only one option for the Internet protocol, which is the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). So you need to enter

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

For DNS server addresses

Step 4

You are done. Now open your Internet browser and go to any website to see the result.

Step 5

To remove the Google Public DNS IP address and go back to previous status, just follow steps 1 to 3 and in Advanced TCP/IP Settings window, select the addresses and hit the Remove button.

You should know when you use Google Public DNS IP addresses, Google keeps your IP address record for only 24 hours and it keeps your ISP and location information permanently.

You can download the Google Instruction to configure the network setting from the link below:

Google Instruction (114.7KB)

or download from the official website:

Google Public DNS