The Ultimate Guide to Changing Your DNS Server

[fredlaso]

We recently looked at the many reasons you might want to use a third-party DNS server. You can change the DNS server for your entire network on your router or set it individually on a PC or other device.

Switching DNS servers back and forth can be tedious, so we have some tips for speeding it up — perfect if you use Tunlr to occasionally access geoblocked media sites.
On Your Router

If you want to change the DNS server for your entire network, you’ll need to do it on your router. All the devices on your network — PCs, smartphones, tablets, game consoles, and anything else connected to the network — get their DNS server from the router. By default, your router uses your Internet service provider’s DNS servers. Change the DNS server on your router and every other device on your network will use the DNS server you specify.

To do this, just access your router’s web interface — how you do this will depend on which router you have. If you’re not sure how to do this, you’ll probably want to glance at your router’s manual to see instructions and learn the default password you’ll need.

Once there, you’ll probably find a DNS option on one of the pages. Change this and the setting will affect your entire network. If you’re having trouble finding the option, search your router’s manual or perform a Google search for your model of router and “change DNS.”
indows – Control Panel

You can also override the automatic DNS server selection and set a custom DNS server on each individual device. On Windows, you can change the DNS server for each network adapter separately — this means that you’ll have to change it for both your Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections if you use both wireless and wired network connections on a laptop.

You can do this from the Network and Sharing Center. View your list of network connections, right-click the one you want to configure, and select Properties. Select the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) option in the list, click the Properties button, and enter your desired DNS server addresses. For more details, read this full guide to changing your DNS server with screenshots.
Windows – Quick Switching

If you’d like to quickly switch between DNS servers, Windows makes this rather difficult. You could do it with the Command Prompt — we’ll cover that below — but average users would rather do it with a graphical application.

If you want to switch between DNS servers regularly — perhaps you use Tunlr as your DNS server occasionally so you can watch Netflix and Hulu outside the USA — we recommend DNS Jumper. It’s a free application that allows you to choose DNS servers from a list and quickly switch to them. You can enter custom DNS servers and even switch DNS servers for all your network adapaters at once. It’s much faster than digging through the Windows networking dialogs.

Windows – Quick Switching

If you’d like to quickly switch between DNS servers, Windows makes this rather difficult. You could do it with the Command Prompt — we’ll cover that below — but average users would rather do it with a graphical application.

If you want to switch between DNS servers regularly — perhaps you use Tunlr as your DNS server occasionally so you can watch Netflix and Hulu outside the USA — we recommend DNS Jumper. It’s a free application that allows you to choose DNS servers from a list and quickly switch to them. You can enter custom DNS servers and even switch DNS servers for all your network adapaters at once. It’s much faster than digging through the Windows networking dialogs.

In more details here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/167533/the-ultimate-guide-to-changing-your-dns-server/

[mike.mt]

DNS Jumper has always been a great app…. Unfortunately the tunlr.net website & free service shutdown late last Feb.

Users requiring GEO DNS relocation services to access restricted area availability content now have to follow a different route. :mellow: :console: