The Internet is not very good at English. In fact, if you hope to get anywhere, you need a service called “DNS,” which changes familar names like yahoo.com to numbers, such as 209.73.186.238.

This operation is handled by a DNS server, which is managed by your ISP. When it’s overloaded, you might think you were back on dialup. Web pages load slowly, or not at all.

Fortunately, you’re not tied to your ISP for DNS services. One company, OpenDNS, has started the charge of third-party DNS servers. Simply point to their servers and you’re on your way. I’ve solved at least one company’s performance issues with this service. It does have some added benefits, including correcting your spelling (www.google.co becomes www.google.com) and blocking you from going to addresses that are known phishing sites.

It’s a five minute process to switch over and requires no signup. Pay them a visit, and let us know if it improves your surfing.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 10th, 2006 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.