The challenge is that Internet Service Providers may not have put a priority on keeping their DNS servers up to date or may not refresh them as quickly as needed. I run into this issue sometimes when setting up a new domain name and website for a client. While it seems to be available to me online, there are other people, on different ISP’s that still don’t show the domain as being live yet.

The challenge is your DNS servers and here’s how you change them from the defaults on your computer.

Although these instructions are for Windows XP Professional, the general idea should be fairly similar for other operating systems.

1. Go to Start > Network Connections
2. Right-click on your "Local Area Network" or "Wireless" connection and select "Properties" in the right-click menu that displays.
3. In the "This connection uses…" window find and select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP")
4. Click on the "Properties" button
5. At the bottom of the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties" window you’ll see an area for specifying the DNS addresses to use.

Just enter the addresses as specified by the DNS service you want to switch to and use and enter them accordingly. Click on the "OK" button and you’re done.

Post from: EveryJoe

How to Change Your DNS Services

All a domain name does is point a person to the computer and network that’s hosting the files that you see when you type in that domain name. It’s like an alias for what’s really happening behind the scenes. It’s a representation that we understand, that is really made up of something more.

For example, we know what water is, but the chemical make-up is H20.

We’ve probably all used Google, but the actual computer network it’s located on is known as 74.125.67.100, which is an IP (Internet Protocol) address.

When we type in a domain name in our browser, a Domain Name Server works like a giant index pointing those domain names to the appropriate IP addresses of the computers and networks the websites reside.

Most of us never think about it, and the DNS task is usually handled by our own Internet Service Providers by default. We don’t have to rely on them though, sometimes they can be slower than what’s available elsewhere.

Google has released their own public DNS service now. I’ve been using it and it does seem to be a bit snappier than what I was using before, which was OpenDNS. However, it should be stated that Google Public DNS and OpenDNS are not purely the same. OpenDNS offers some more controls and functionality you may find helpful, than what you’re going to get with what’s being handed to you by Google Public DNS.

You can read more about the Google Public DNS service here. I’ll follow-up with another post on how to change your settings if you want to make the switch.

Post from: EveryJoe

Google Launches Public DNS Service

Physical Address: Also called the Media Access Control address, is a serial number that can uniquely identify your ethernet card or wireless adapter.

IP Address: An Internet Protocol address is assigned by your LAN provider(say, a modem at homes) to each of the systems connected to a network through the provider.

Subnet Mask: When there are multiple systems connected to a network, the network is divided into subnetworks to avoid interference (traffic), and routers manage the overall traffic. In a manner of speaking, the subnets can be differentiated by the subnet masks.

Default Gateway: As the name suggests, this is the (IP) address of the node that allows access to a different network. Say your modem connects to the Internet, and your PC connects to the modem. The modem acts as the gateway for your PC to the Internet.

DHCP Server: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol can be used by systems to obtain configuration information to connect to a network without any manual intervention. e.g. You usually don’t configure any network information on your home PC. You say “Obtain an IP address automatically” and leave it at that, and this allows multiple systems to connect to the same network without each system being designated a set of hard-written network configuration details. The DHCP Server handles this.

DNS Server: A Domain Name System server stores all the domain names and corresponding IP addresses. When you type a URL in your browser address bar, the DNS Server translates the domain name into an understandable format (IP) before the requested details can be fetched from the website you wish.

WINS Server: You may look at Windows Internet Name Service as Microsoft’s version of DNS. There are differences, but the final result to the end user is more or less the same. And either of DNS and WINS servers suffice.

Newbies, you mostly know the tiny network icons in your system tray. Click on the icon that represents the network through which you are connected to the Internet. Go to the “Support” tab, click on “Details” and you will see the “Network Connection Details” I have mentioned above.

Post from: EveryJoe

Network Connection Details