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Until recently I was experiencing intermittent problems with my supposedly high speed internet connection from Time Warner (TW). A few times a day I would get failures to connect to any web site for no apparent reason. I was connected to my router OK and still connected to the internet but no sites would load.

After some digging around I found that the problem was TW's DNS was not available. For those not familiar DNS (Domain Name System) is a remote hosted service which resolves the host name (http://www.cnn.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, for example) into an IP address (such as 157.166.226.26 for CNN) that the browser uses to connect to the site. Typically this service is provided by your internet service provider. If the DNS server is not available you will not get connected to the web site.

I changed the DNS server settings for my connection to servers provided by opendns, an independent DNS provider. There are no charges for using their service. I now have faster page loads and no service interruptions. To use opendns you need to change some setting on your PC. Using Vista you go to the control panel, and select Network and Sharing Center. Select the Manage Networks Connections option (left hand side nav panel). Right click the connection your are using (typically local area connection (if hardwired) or wireless network connection (if using wireless). Select properties. Highlight the Internet Protocol option. Click the properties button. At the bottom of the dialog box select the Use the following DNS server address button and enter 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 for the preferred and alternate DNS server.

As I recall the changes are similar for XP, but I don't have XP system available at present.

I notified TW that they had DNS issues, but they denied any problem.....

I hope this helps other people here. I just wanted to share this as it has been such an improvement for me, and I have learned so much from this site and wanted to give something back!

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I would like to point out that, at least on a Mac, if you are using airport via a wireless router to connect to the Internet, this is not so helpful.

With a wireless device the dns ip would go in the router.

Not necessarily. It could go in the router, but it can also go in your properties of you wireless connection on you computer. I have both of my computers running wireless to my home router and I have set these DNS's #'s into my Wireless Network Connection Properties for both of them. Working fine.

I also set the values in my normal wired connection (Lan) on both computers for when I travel and have to plug into a network anywhere.

Thanks to the OP for the info!

In some cases (many) you can set your router to be a DNS server as well. Talk about local cache - and it really just saves the stuff you do the most. Then if you don't have the data, it will go search the other DNS server (from your provider or open server). Works great for me.

I'm using Linux and I run bind locally, and connect to the local DNS server like Kalrog does. It works great. Macosx people could probably do the same thing.

Matter of fact, there are probably free caching-only DNS servers for Windows out there...

The Annoyed Man wrote:I would like to point out that, at least on a Mac, if you are using airport via a wireless router to connect to the Internet, this is not so helpful.

If you aren't sure how to configure your router to support this, they have several router brands & models that they can tell you how to configure. Just visit here https://www.opendns.com/start/router/ and see if your router is in their list.