Psychedelic Rebirth: July 2011

SWITCH TO PUBLIC DNS SERVERS – For faster & safer Web experience

Before I begin to explain the topic, certain questions must be popping out of your mind. Let me answer them first.

Question : What’s this post is all about ?

Answer : This post will show you the method to free yourself from your ISP’s designated DNS Servers, and let you use the Public DNS servers available free of cost.

Question : WTF is this ‘DNS’ ? “I m not a technical person!”

Answer : The most basic task of DNS is to translate host-name such as www.facebook.com to IP address such as 67.215.65.132. In very simple terms, it can be compared to a phone book. DNS also has other important use such as email routing.

Question : How this will benefit me ?

Answer : Good question! It will help you by increasing your net surfing speed. Website load times will be reduced. Public DNS protects against many forms of attack, including malware, botnets and phishing. Thus it is more safe and reliable.

Question : How is this possible ?

Answer : These Public DNS service providers provide larger cache memory (your ISP's DNS server's cache memory is quite small to serve such large number of request arising every fraction of second) for faster processing and uses anycast algorithm to search for the nearest server to process your request. It also uses methods such as geo-tagging and typo correction for improving efficiency. As far as safety is concerned, these service providers runs various anti-phising and malware protection filters to supply you with more refined data.

I think you got enough basic information regarding the topic. If interested, then please continue reading, or else stay happy and hit the close button at the top right corner to end the drama.

Continuing with the topic, DNS is such an integral part of our Internet life working behind the scenes every time we connect to a website. In most situations, our Internet Service Provider specifies the DNS Server address that we key into the browser network settings or the router.

Fortunately or unfortunately, this can prove to be the weakest link in the entire workflow. For example, if the DNS server of your ISP is slow, the time it takes to resolve the web address adds up to the overall loading time of the website. This is where Public DNS servers is advantageous as it speeds up your internet connection and also handles some important issues of security and safety. Most importantly all these technological benefits comes totally free of cost.

I will show you the way to route your computer to those Public DNS servers in very easy steps.

Before that, here is a list of few free Public DNS servers you can use :

1) Google DNS Server IPs (http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/)

 8.8.8.8

 8.8.4.4

2) DNS Advantage Server IPs (http://www.dnsadvantage.com/)

 156.154.70.1

 156.154.71.1

3) OpenDNS Server IPs (http://www.opendns.com/)

 208.67.222.222

 208.67.220.220

4) Norton DNS Server IPs (http://nortondns.com/)

 198.153.192.1

 198.153.194.1

5) ScrubIT Server IPs (http://www.scrubit.com/)

 67.138.54.100

 207.225.209.66

Next, how to change or setup DNS server IP address ?

Most of us are using Windows based Operating System (OS), leaving few technocrats who uses platforms such as Linux, Sun Solaris, Free BSD etc. Therefore I will give you the procedure to setup DNS server IP in Microsoft Windows 7 / Vista / XP etc.

Your computer is connected to the internet via Router (Wireless/Wired). If you have more than one computer/laptop using the same internet connection, then you can change the router configuration to change the DNS server IP (This method is router specific and complex for non-technical people). Easiest way is to change the DNS server IP in your computer/laptop.

Step 1: Open the ‘START MENU’ and then go to ‘CONTROL PANEL’

Step 2 : This step is version specific:
Windows 7 : Click on ‘VIEW NETWORK STATUS AND TASKS’ under ‘NETWORK AND INTERNET’ settings.
Vista : Click on ‘VIEW NETWORK STATUS AND TASKS’ under ‘NETWORK AND INTERNET’ settings.
Windows XP : Switch the control panel to ‘Classic View’ (option at tab on left side). Click on ‘NETWORK CONNECTIONS’.

Step 3 : Follow the next steps as you get into the network settings.
Windows 7 : Click on your primary connection or Local Area Connection (You might have given a different name to it. e.g - BSNL Broadband etc) under 'Active Networks.'
Vista : Click on ‘VIEW STATUS’.
Windows XP : Choose your connection from the Network Connections window.

Step 4 : Click the Properties button. (Incase of Windows 7 & Vista, Windows need permission to continue. Select ‘CONTINUE’)

Step 5 : Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), then click the Properties button.

Step 6 : Then click the button ‘Use the following DNS server addresses’: and type in PUBLIC DNS server IP addresses in the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server fields.

Step 7 : Last but not the least, you need to close everything and restart your system to apply the changes. That’s it. We are done!

Keep tweaking to bring out the best!

Written by Niloy Paul

© Copyright Reserved 2011

HOW TO UPDATE THE DEFAULT APPLICATIONS IN MICROMAX MOBILE PHONES ?

It has been around 9 months since I brought a Micromax Q75 handset for myself. Mostly because I was searching for a phone with high features and low cost. Micromax was the best option for me. As an avid internet user my first target was to play with the applications provided, using my wi-fi connection. While it went fine but urged me to update them as they were out-dated. I faced the first problem. Most of the Micromax handsets doesnot allow updating the default applications (Opera Mini, Nimbuzz, Snaptu etc). What to do ???

Don't worry, its simple. Here is the tweaking method I found.

Requirements : Internet Connection, and WinRAR(Click here to download).

Aim : The Mobile's Operating Sytem scans the argument named 'MIDlet-Name' declared within the MANIFEST.MF file. If we can tweak this argument then default application can be updated.