Have you encountered a selective browsing problem? Like you can instantly surf to your FB (Facebook) account page but then you are having a hard time going over the other sites in the web? Here is one way to make it out of that puzzling issue. (This can also be a solution to slow internet browsing speed.)
Normally, we make use of our ISPs default DNS server. But doing so can sometimes cause us some trouble if they are doing some maintenance work on their system (even if they deny it) which deters our travel through cyberspace. The good new is, we can still resolve this issue. Modifying your default DNS server address is one way to get away with it. But before anything else, what is DNS?
According to wikipedia.org, the Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide.
Well, that’s a mouthful, yet that is too technical for most of us.
To make it simpler, DNS serves as a phone book to the World Wide Web which maps out each connected device to the global network. It manages the name of our websites so we and other people can access them by typing them in our web browsers. That is why we can only have one specific address that we can use in naming our websites. Duplicate domain names are not allowed to avoid problems in accessing our web pages.
It is similar to the way we make use of home addresses to make sure our letters, packages and even our friends can reach us whenever they need to. In the same manner, we can never the same addresses so as to avoid confusion and point us to the right direction.
Our computers acts as hosts to each incoming connection and also works as clients to other computers in the Internet. Some computers work as DNS servers to provide us with a better network directory and reach our desired destination. That is why replacing your default DNS server address can make a considerable impact on how you browse the Internet.
- It can increase your Internet speed. (Though this will vary on other factors eg. PC specs, subscribed Internet speed)
- It can lessen or completely resolve your selective browsing issues. (By taking the optimal path to reach the desired destination.)
- It can give complete control on how you browse the Internet on your network by using filters (like that of OPENDNS)
So, if you do encounter similar issues like I usually do (honestly, our ISPs here in the Philippines are really mediocre!) take some chance to modify your DNS server addresses. Doing so may improve the way you surf the web and avoid timeout connections due to unreachable hosts (websites, computers, servers).
I do suggest to search the web for the best DNS address to use depending on your location. I usually take Google’s public DNS as primary DNS server address maybe it would work out well for you too.
