DNS Propagation Check

What is Google DNS?

After working so many years in the IT & Web Hosting market, often when some of my customers are having strange website issues, we ended up asking them to switch their local DNS servers and start using Google's Public DNS servers.

And magically sometimes the problem was a local dns resolution issue, and by switching to Google DNS they are able to resolve websites quicker than ever. On this article we will discover what are the Google DNS IP numbers, and also the main reasons on why Google Public DNS servers are the best ones for your computer.

Google DNS are Fast

Google, along with Akamai and Cloudflare are probably has the best connectivity with pops and peers around the world, it's everywhere, even in the small tiny countries in Africa, or South America. When you ping Google, you are reaching an Anycast network that has been built thinking in speed and web performance above all.

The good thing is Google is using that same anycast network for their public DNS service, which makes their DNS servers the fastest in the world. You can send as many requests as you want, their dns server will answer always faster than any other letting you resolve and then browse the website from the closes server available to you.

Their public dns servers are also known to have very low latency against any kind of DNS queries, this means it will really speed up the dns resolving when you are waiting for the initial answer.

Google Public DNS are Secure

DNS servers are often target of large DOS and DDOS attacks who cause lot of issues around the world. Luckly, Google public DNS servers are way more secure than any local dns servers, they are constantly monitored and protected against common DNS attacks by using the best server protection and technologies like DNSSec, which always ensures the dns queries will be answered from a valid and legal google dns server.

Accurate DNS answers

When you use 3rd party or local dns servers, the dns resolution and answering is not always the best, sometimes the information is not accurate or it takes too long to answer against your query.

How can I use Google Public DNS servers?

If you haven't decided yet to use Google's Public DNS, then the only way we can convince you is by testing them. Google's Public DNS can be configured on any computer and operating system.

In order to add Google DNS you will have to gain administrative (system administration full privileges) access to your computer, this is often the 'administrator' mode on Windows operating systems, and root on Unix and Linux like systems.

This is what you need:

Google Public DNS IPv4 addresses:


8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Google Public DNS IPv6 addresses:


2001:4860:4860::8888 
2001:4860:4860::8844

This doesn't happen if you use Google's resolvers, as their network is always answering the right answer to each dns query is made against them. And in case you are requesting something that doesn't exist, it will show you a NXDOMAIN error, which means there is no answer to the requested dns query.

Configure Google DNS on Windows

Changing DNS server settings on Windows is easy, you can do it by following the next steps:

  1. Click on "Start" button".
  2. Click on "Control Panel".
  3. Click on "Network and Sharing Center".
  4. Click on "Change adapter settings".

Select your Internet connection, for example Ethernet:

  1. Click on your Ethernet connection.
  2. Right click on "Local Area Connection".
  3. Click on "Properties".
  4. Click on "DNS" tab, you will see some dns server IP addresses listed.
  5. Remove them, and add your new Google public DNS servers:
    • IPv4 addresses: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4.
    • IPv6 addresses: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844.

Set Google Public DNS on Unix and Linux

Unix and Linux often use one single file to set the DNS resolvers, and this is the /etc/resolv.conf file.

Edit the file by typing:

nano -w /etc/resolv.conf

Remove/delete all the existing lines and add this two:

nameserver 8.8.8.8 
nameserver 8.8.4.4

That's all, now you know why Google's Public DNS are one of the best thing to improve browsing speed and security when you are surfing the network from your local office or home.