In normal everyday internet browsing, it may happen that a site that was functioning in the previous days is no longer reachable. Unless the site in question has serious technical problems, it may be that this is no longer reachable as it is blocked at the DNS level. For the less experienced, these words may be incomprehensible, but instead everything boils down to a problem that can be easily solved in a few minutes and with easy steps.
In this article we will explain, in simple words, what DNS are and what they are best DNS to be set on your computer or modem / router, to navigate by bypassing the blocks imposed on some sites.
What are DNS
DNS are computer systems, which every day allow us to easily connect to an internet site, through your name, for example www.forinformaticslovers.com, instead of using, as happened in the past, a series of 4 blocks of numbers which constitutes the ip address of a site.
In the past, to reach the forinformaticslovers site, on your browser you had to type, instead of www.forinformaticslovers.com, its respective ip address, or 149.202.199.30, a number certainly much more thefficult to remember than a name.
You can therefore understand how much the Dns have made it easy to surf the internet, translating a complicated number for us to remember, into a simple textual name.
I DNS or better DNS server, are able to carry out this type of conversion in real time and to give an answer to all the devices requesting access to a site or service. The use of common DNS servers, set by our manager, can be subject to blocks to particular sites, making these unreachable even if they are fully operational and functioning.
The DNS are normally provided by the fixed telephony operator you have chosen and "thesseminated" to all the devices in your network through the modem / router, but you can change them at any time and take advantage of alternative DNS services without blocks or filters and able , in some cases, to speed up the loatheng of web pages.
Better DNS
To configure the DNS servers on our modem, router or computer, just replace 2 strings of numbers, an operation that we will explain in the next paragraph. But first you need to know which are the best DNS to set up, that is:
DNS CloudFlare
- Primary DNS 1.1.1.1
- Secondary DNS 1.0.0.1
DNS Google
- Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
- Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4
You can choose Cloudfare's or Google's Dns safely, to get a connection without any limitations. It will be enough to replace yours Primary DNS e Secondary DNS with a group among these listed. Having said that now let's see how to change the DNS in various ways.
How to change the DNS on the modem / router
The most effective way to change DNS for all the devices you use in your home is to enter new ones from your modem or router.
Proprietary routers do not always allow this type of change (for a matter of convenience), but if you use a separately purchased router you can always do this type of operation, just open the modem configuration screen (by opening your browser and typing 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1), go to the Internet or DHCP settings and look for DNS, DNS Server or similar.
There are two DNS servers to enter: Primary and Secondary. Once you have entered those chosen as an alternative, just confirm to browse immediately access without any limitations.
How to change DNS on Windows
If your router does not allow DNS changes or you only want to change them for one PC, you can selectively change DNS on your Windows PC.
To change the DNS, simply search the Start menu for "Control Panel", then click on "Network and Internet" and then on "Network and Sharing Center" and finally click on "Change adapter settings".
From the window that opens, right-click on the type of connection used and then click on Property.
In the new window that you will see, select the item "Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP / IPv4)", as inthecated by the arrow in the image below and then click on the button Property.
The window where you can manually configure the IP addresses and DNS of the PC will open. To unblock the DNS entries, just click on "Use the following DNS server addresses".
Now you can enter the chosen DNS servers in the fields Preferred DNS Server e Alternative DNS Server, which are none other than Primary and secondary DNS server.
Once you click on “OK“, your computer will use the new DNS to browse.
How to change DNS on macOS
To change DNS on macOS, click on "Preferences" and then choose "Network" or "Network" if you have set the English language.
At this point, choose the network interface you are using; if you are using a wireless connection, the interface will probably be called "Wi-Fi".
Now click on "Advanced" at the bottom right and then choose the "DNS" tab. If they are present, delete the old DNS servers set with the “-” and choose to add new ones using the “+”. Now enter the DNS servers you prefer.
