Many of us just take what we get with DNS servers. For the most part all that back-end stuff is just handled for us quietly by whomever we happen to be getting our Internet connectivity from at our homes or places of work.
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.
- Go to Start > Network Connections
- Right-click on your "Local Area Network" or "Wireless" connection and select "Properties" in the right-click menu that displays.
- In the "This connection uses…" window find and select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP")
- Click on the "Properties" button
- 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.