How to change and configure DNS server in Windows 10

Why Change DNS?

DNS was born in 1983 after the HOST file was still used, which contained all known Internet domains. It was unstable due to the growth of the network of networks. There are several reasons to change DNS in Windows 10. For example, it can help us get great browsing speed to get access to portals, services and web pages blocked in our country , for the implementation of the parental control system and for other reasons related to the security of the connection. Among the advantages we have:

• Reliability because they tend to provide more stability and more actual uptime, also called availability.
• Speed, which in some cases outstrips the operators’ servers.
• Security as some offer phishing protection or DNSSEC support.
• Parental control with options such as filtering access to pages not recommended for minors.
• Skip restrictions to continue accessing domains blocked by the operator.

Fortunately, change the DNS to Windows 10 is not a difficult task. much easier than doing it on iOS or Android mobile phones … For this, we will leave you with a step-by-step guide with images, although first we would like to show you the best alternative DNS we currently find on the market.

Network and Internet settings

Change process DNS server (Domain Name System or Domain Name System, in Spanish) – it’s easy in Windows 10. While we do not recommend doing this for less experienced users, there is little room for error if you follow the directions and one of the DNS servers mentioned in the final paragraph of the article is used. Of course, we must be extremely careful not to use the IP addresses provided to us elsewhere due to potential security issues, hidden advertisements, etc.

We now begin to explain changing DNS in Windows… The first step is to get access to the new Settings menu Windows 10 … You can do this from the gear icon in the Start menu, in the notification bar, clicking on “all settings”, or by typing “Settings” in the Cortana search engine. We can also skip this step if we right-click on the network icon and enter “Open Network and Internet Settings”.

Once in the “Settings Windows”, We will need to open Network and Internet “ menu. In this menu we can see the status of the network, dial-up, VPN, data or proxy usage. There are a few things you can do in this menu, but we’ll stay on the start screen and look for the option “Change adapter parameters” …

This will open classic control panel In his Network connections an option as this feature has not yet been migrated to the new configuration menu Windows 10, this is something Microsoft hasn’t addressed since the system’s 2015 launch. That’s why in Windows 7 and 8.1, we can get to this point unnecessarily all of the above by simply opening the Control Panel.

Now we will need to find the connection for which we want to change the DNS. In this case, it’s simple, since we only have a wired network adapter, but in the case of laptops, we can also have Wi-Fi or even a Bluetooth adapter. To make sure, we can change DNS in all adapters so it will work with both wireless and wired connections.

Right click on the network adapter and click on Properties … On the Network Functions tab, we will look for Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4) the element that we mark and click again Properties in the lower part.

This will open the IP configuration menu in which we will need to look at the bottom and check “Use the following DNS server addresses” … By activating this option, we can proceed to filling “Preferred DNS Server” and “Alternate DNS Server” where we introduce any of the recommended ones. There is no need to change the first part of the menu, that is, the one that says “Use the following IP address”.

I will need to check the box “Confirm configuration on exit” and click on OK so everything is perfectly preserved. To make sure the changes were applied correctly, we’ll open CMD or Command Prompt and type ipconfig / all … This will return all aspects of the network configuration, from which we will cover the DNS servers setting.

Best DNS for Windows 10

These are the best DNS that the market offers us and which we can use an alternative to those that our operator automatically assigns to us , also free, completely free:

Level 3 – 209.244.0.3 and 209.244.0.4

IBM Quad9 – 9.9.9.9

Verisign – 64.6.64.6 and 64.6.65.6

Google – 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

WATCH – 84.200.69.80 and 84.200.70.40

Comodo Secure DNS – 8.26.56.26 and 8.20.247.20

OpenDNS Home – 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

GreenTeamDNS – 81.218.119.11 and 209.88.198.133

SafeDNS – 195.46.39.39 and 195.46.39.40

OpenNIC – 96.90.175.167 and 193.183.98.154

SmartViper – 208.76.50.50 and 208.76.51.51

Dean – 216.146.35.35 and 216.146.36.36

FreeDNS – 37.235.1.174 and 37.235.1.177

Alternative DNS – 198.101.242.72 and 23.253.163.53

DNS – 77.88.8.8 and 77.88.8.1

UncensoredDNS – 91.239.100.100 89.233.43.71 XNUMX XNUMX and XNUMX XNUMX

Hurricane Electric – 74.82.42.42

puntCAT – 109.69.8.51

Neystar – 156.154.70.1 and 156.154.71.1

Cloudflare – 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

The fourth estate – 45.77.165.194

CleanBrowsing – 185.228.168.9 and 185.228.169.9

UltraDNS – 156.154.70.1, 156.154.71.1

UltraDNS Family – 156.154.70.3 and 156.154.71.3

If we do not stop at any of them, we can always resort to special programs that measure the performance of DNS in our connection. This is important because a DNS server might work well for one person or country, and might not work as well in other settings. For this we can use DNS, NameBench and DNS Perf test to find the fastest DNS that we can use on our computer. In addition to speed, we must evaluate aspects such as safety or the possibility of using parental controls if we have children at home, but a high percentage of users primarily seek to resolve the problem quickly.