Set up Google DNS and OpenDNS

Google DNS and Open DNS

The "website not loading" scenario:

Past week, I tried a lot to visit alexa to check out my site's ranking but I couldn't get to it although almost every other website was loading fine on my PC. Later on, I decided to investigate and solve the problem. During the process I learnt about the solution and the fact that there aren't enough simplified guides on this process and decided to write one. Coming back to point, many-a-times there are certain websites which you can't access even though you have got an active internet connection.

This can be really annoying especially when you really need to visit that particualr website. The main culprit behind this most often is the DNS settings of your internet connection. This post is mainly aimed at guiding you to solve this problem. Google and openDNS come to your rescue here. We shall help you set them up properly because it can be a nightmare for those who are not technically proficient. The process is very simple though and we shall be posting snapshots to help you through the process.
Note: You might also want to check out GoogleDNS and OpenDNS to learn about other benefits of using these as your DNS settings which mainly include added security and faster response time.

The step by step Snapshot guide:

Step by step snapshot guide for setting up Google DNS/ Open DNS.Click on the image once to enlarge it.

Textual Guide:

1. Open control panel on your PC when you are still connected to the internet.
2. Go to Network and Sharing Center.
3. Right click on the network through which you are connected to the Internet and select properties.
4. Alternatively, If you are on windows 7, skip all the steps above and press the start button. In the search bar, type network connections and select view network connections from the search results. Right click on the network connection and select properties.
5. Click on Internet Protocol version 4 once and then click on properties at the bottom right.
6. In the next pop up, click the radio button next to Use the following DNS server address:

• To use Google DNS, fill 8.8.8.8 in the preferred DNS server field and 8.8.4.4 in the alternate DNS server field.
• To use OpenDNS, fill 208.67.222.222 in the preferred DNS server field and 208.67.220.220 in the alternate DNS server field.

That's it! Click on OK and then try out the site that wasn't opening before you set up this DNS thing. It should work fine now.

If you still can't get the website to load fine, either of the following might also cause this:

• You mistyped the address. For instance: If you type droidise.com instead of droidiser.com, you will land nowhere.
  Solution: Double check the website's address. Search for the website on Google to ensure you're not committing a typo. Also, try using the full address i.e. including the "www". Certain sites might give an error if you don't use the "www" prefix.
• The website is down either temporarily or permanently.
  Solution: Check out if the website is down for just you or everyone at isup.me
  If the website is down, you can do nothing about it, the only thing you can do is try out the cached version of that site on Google.
• If you're getting errors on Google Chrome and are asked to access the cached versions of many websites, Go to settings > show advanced settings > and uncheck the tick adjacent to Predict network actions to improve page load performance.

If you're still facing any browser/ website viewing performance, post your questions in the comments below and I shall be happy to help.