Public DNS servers can speed up your web surfing on the internet.  If you’ve had trouble streaming HD YouTube videos or you’re sick of getting redirected when you mistype an address then you might want to switch to a public DNS server.

Most DNS servers are automatically assigned depending upon your ISP.  For most people, the DNS servers assigned automatically will work well enough.  If you’d like to experiment with load times and just see if you can increase performance of your web browsing, changing your DNS server can be a great start.

Google has created a walk-through that will help you configure your network settings to use their public DNS servers, which are listed below.  The walkthrough can also be used for any of the other DNS servers listed below.  The walk-through covers making changes in Windows, Mac OS X, and the Linux environment.

The PDF walk-through can be found here:
Using Google Public DNS

The direct PDF download of the walk-through can be found here:

Google Public DNS Servers
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Level 3 DNS Servers
4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2

OpenDNS Servers
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220