Windows 10 is full of features. One such feature is the ability to change the DNS of your internet. Every Internet Service provider has configured the DNS so that your computer/device can communicate with each other and ultimately able to browse any website. But if your ISP’s DNS server is not that fast, you can select other free DNS providers to get faster speed. In this article, I have explained, what is DNS and how to change DNS on Windows 10 computer.
What is DNS?
Domain Name System (DNS) is basically a simplified way to communicate your computer to a specific IP address. In other words, every website you visit have its specific IP address, but a human being can’t simply remember the IP address of any website. So, to simplify this problem Domain name is assigned to every IP address so that we can remember them easily.
When you type a website domain name in your browser, DNS converts it to its IP address and then the page loads to your browser. This process is very fast in milliseconds but to have really got page loading speed, these DNS servers have to be fast also.
If you feel that your ISP’s DNS server is not fast, you can change the DNS server. There are some free DNS server providers also which claims to be fast and secure. Some of such DNS providers are Google, Cloudflare, and Open DNS.
Free DNS addresses are –
- Google DNS – 8.8.8.8
- Cloudflare DNS – 1.1.1.1
- Open DNS – 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220
Google is most trusted and fast, free DNS provider while Cloudflare also launched their new DNS server which feels very promising.
Now let’s see, how to change it on your computer –
How to change DNS on Windows 10
There are three ways to change the DNS server on your computer. All the ways are simple and easy to perform. We will choose google DNS for this time as I used it for some time and I recommend you to use them.
Method 1 – change DNS on Windows 10 from the control panel
Step1: Click on the Cortana/Search button from the bottom of your taskbar.
Step2: Now, type Control panel in the search box and then select the Control panel option from the list of searches shown.
Step3: Under the Network and Internet option, select View network status and tasks option from the list shown in the control panel.
Step4: Now, from the left side menu, select change adaptor settings option.
Step5: A new window with all network adaptor list will be shown. Right-click on your active internet adaptor.
Step6: From the right-click menu, select the Properties option.
Step7: Now select the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPV4) and click on the Properties option.
Step8: From the new window of IPV4 option, select the Use the following DNS server addresses option.
Step9: Enter Google’s DNS address or Cloudflare DNS address which is mentioned above OR any other you know which is better.
Step10: You can use alternate DNS server in case 1st preferred server is working slow so that windows will automatically choose alternate DNS server to give you fast performance.
Step11: Click the OK button once you are done. In adaptor properties, again click OK button to save the changes.
That’s it, you have now changed the DNS server of your computer and you may already to feel the difference in page load speeds.
Method 2 – How to change DNS on Windows 10 from settings
This is certainly less popular method but works like charm.
Step1: Open the settings from your Windows 10 computer.
Step2: Go to Network and Internet option.
Step3: Click on a Status option from the left menu and then click on Change connection properties.
Step4: Scroll little below and under IP settings click on Edit button.
Step5: Select Manual option from the drop-down menu and turn on IPV4 setting.
Step6: In the Preferred DNS option, enter your DNS address and click on Save button.
That’s it, you can now use your browser with a new DNS server in place.
Method 3 – Change DNS from a command prompt.
Lots of work can be done with a command prompt. If you are smart enough and want to save some of your work time then command prompt tricks is the first thing to learn for you. Let’s check how to change the DNS using a command prompt.
Step1: Right-click on Windows icon from the bottom right corner of your computer.
Step2: Open the command prompt(Admin) option from the list.
Step3: If asked, press Yes button to grant admin access.
Step4: Type the following command to get your network adaptor ID.
wmic nic get NetConnectionID
remember to take note of the ID returned in the new line.
Step5: Now, type following command to call the DNS change program
netsh
Step6: Its time to type the actual line to change the DNS
interface ip set dns name="ADAPTER-NAME" source="static" address="X.X.X.X"
Here, change ADAPTER-NAME with the adaptor ID you just got in step4 and change X.X.X.X with the DNS address you want, for e.g – 1.1.1.1
Step7: If you want to add alternate DNS address, then type the following line make changes in X.X.X.X and ADAPTER-NAME field.
interface ip add dns name="ADAPTER-NAME" addr="X.X.X.X" index=2
That’s it, your computer will now automatically start using newly defined DNS addresses.
Summary –
Setting custom DNS server address on your computer is beneficial for you and you can get faster web page loading. This article explains how to change DNS on Windows 10 in three ways. You can follow any of these methods to get your job done for less than 5 minutes.
In case you have any difficulty, question, query feel free to write down in below comment section.
