Google Public DNS helps you browse the internet safe and fast.

If you ever wonder what a DNS means, it is a service that helps resolve a domain name to an IP address. I know that’s a very high level definition. If you’d like to read more about what DNS means, you can read it from Wikipedia.

What happens when you request a website on your browser is that it reaches out to the many domain name servers out there to try to resolve the domain name to an IP address so that the web server can be located. When you have too many domain name servers to look things up it certainly adds a lot of overhead and that’s one reason that can slow down your internet connection (at least to a certain level). Having a single and powerful domain name server reduces the overhead to look for and also can impose certain rules so your browsing can be secure.

Earlier we’ve explained how Open DNS can speed up your internet connection. Even though it does truly help speed up the internet connection and make your internet activity a bit more secure, when the same service comes from Google I think it would make more sense to go with the monster given the massive infrastructure Google has.

Google Public DNS is a free DNS service from the mighty Google to help speed up your internet connection and make it more secure.

There is no download or software installation involved. All you have to do is to configure your computer to use Google Public DNS as its DNS provider. Configuring your computer to make use of Google Public DNS is simple enough if you follow these steps correctly. In this article we’ll see how we can configure a Windows 7 as well a Mac OSX based computer to route calls through Google Public DNS.

Configure a Windows 7 computer to make use of Google Public DNS

Launch Control Panel and click on the “Network and Internet” link.

Click on the “Network and Sharing Center” link.

Once in the Network and Sharing Center click on the “Wireless Network Connection” link if you are using a wireless connection. If not then choose the connection link appropriately.

When the “Wireless Network Connection Status” dialog pops-up click on the “Properties” button. You might be asked to authenticate.

Then on the “Wireless Network Connection Properties” dialog locate “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” item and then click on the “Properties” button.

IPv4 Properties dialog pops up and here is where you have to key-in the Google Public DNS entries. Click on the “Use the following DNS server addresses” option and then type in “8.8.8.8” on the “Preferred DNS server” box and “8.8.4.4” on the “Alternate DNS server” box.

Dismiss all the open dialogs and visit, let’s say, Google.com and if everything looks good then bookmark the site, close the browser and relaunch and click on the bookmark to visit Google.com again. If everything looks good by now, congratulations, you’ve successfully configured your Windows 7 computer to make use of Google Public DNS.

Configure a Mac OSX based computer to make use of Google Public DNS

If you use a Mac then follow these instructions to configure your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS.

Launch “System Preferences” and click on the “Network” icon under “Internet & Network”.

Once on the Network Preferences dialog select the network connection that you wanted to configure. If you use a wireless connection choose the “Airport” option if not then choose the appropriate option from the list. Click on the “Advanced…” button.

When you see the “Airport” preferences dialog, in this case, click on the “DNS” tab. Clear whatever entries you see on the “DNS Servers” list and then add “8.8.8.8” and “8.8.4.4” to the list.

Dismiss all open dialogs and try to browse to, let’s say, Google.com. If you can successfully browse to it then try to bookmark Google.com and close the browser and try to browse to Google.com using the bookmark. If everything looks good by now, congratulations, you’ve successfully configured your Mac OSX based computer to make use of Google Public DNS.

If you are already happy with your current DNS provider, by all means, stick with them if you don’t want to mess with the settings (again). But if you ever think a Google backing would be much better then using Google Public DNS makes more sense. It really helps improve your internet connection speed and makes your internet activities a lot safer. I hope you are enjoying the improved speed of your internet connection by now. If you have any questions on this please let us know in comments.