Changing DNS/Affects on Server or Network?

T

theburnidentity

New Member
Hi everyone! Long time listener first time caller.

I just started working in a new office environment and there a lot of complaints about slow internet. Of course we should probably upgrade our speed, but one thing I noticed is that the actual constant speed of the internet is not very bad. It's really the initial 'look-up' times when going to a new website.

I know that when I had the same issues with my home computers I found that a good solution was to change to a faster DNS. At home, I downloaded google's namebench and found a new DNS that was 30% faster. I didn't think it would make a big difference but it really has!

So I figured I'd download namebench here and do a search. Namebench found DNS servers that were 259% faster than the ones that we're using!! That's gotta be a big deal right? Well anyway, I brought this to the boss's attention and he was concerned about affects on the server/network. I called our IT person and he said that the DNS was set by the telephone company and it couldn't be changed. Then I told him that I thought that DNS could also be set on each individual computer and he started back-pedaling and saying that it would cause issues with the server. But he never really explained anything to me...

I can't seem to find an answer for this anywhere so I thought I'd jump in and start asking my questions here. I have a feeling this won't be my first since this environment is completely new to me.

Thanks in advance for all of your contributions. Anything is greatly appreciated!
 
You can always set your dns manually to whatever you choose, some use the google dns addresses.

However, since this is a business we can't help you. That is the whole reason behind a network admin controlling the network.
 
Thanks for the response. I didn't know that I wasn't allowed to ask those types of questions. I am tasked with this directly from the network admin.
 
I wouldn't think that this would harm the network by using a different dns server. We have a few members here that have this type of background so hopefully they can tell you if it would harm the network or not. But like I said, it should be the network admin's responsibility to know everything or at least do the legwork to find the answers.
 
Thanks a lot for your help! Just an fyi- I'm not looking to make any changes I'm just looking to do the legwork :D.

I think at this point I'm wondering why our IT is saying there would be a conflict with the DNS settings on the server with no real explanation.
 
Do not, I repeat DO NOT change your DNS server on your workstation. Since you are in an office, there is a high probability the network admin has servers, services, sites, etc. that are only hosted on your LAN and are accessed by a DNS name.

For example, you may type in www.youroffice.com/worklinks in your browser to get to a website with internal company links, or you may have a network drive mapped to \\server-fs2\HR, in either of these cases unless you manually modify your host file you will no longer be able to access these by DNS name if you use anything other than your companies DNS server.

Now the network admin can switch to Google DNS instead of say Comcast, but that's something he would have to do on his end.
 
Thanks for the response!

I'm definitely not planning on changing anything myself. Just trying to collect some information. I guess I really don't understand how DNS works with a network, server, etc.

So was our IT right in saying that the internet provider provided us with a set DNS or would our administrator be able to change the DNS without dealing with them?
 
theburnidentity said:
Thanks for the response!

I'm definitely not planning on changing anything myself. Just trying to collect some information. I guess I really don't understand how DNS works with a network, server, etc.

So was our IT right in saying that the internet provider provided us with a set DNS or would our administrator be able to change the DNS without dealing with them?
Click to expand...
In brief DNS just resolves a custom name to an IP, so if one of your file servers is 10.0.20.2, instead of having to memorize that IP your network admin can create a record that will resolve say, \\office-server1 to 10.0.20.2, now you just need to remember that name.

As far as the internet side of things go, the only reason I can see for needing to stick with your ISP's DNS server is if you have some sort of custom WAN setup where your ISP hosts certain services that only you have access to, but really I can't see why it would be a problem for him to switch over to Google.
 
Just wanted to thank WRXguy and JohnB for your responses.

Thanks to you both I was armed with plenty of information for my meeting with the higher-ups today. The conclusion:

Our network administrator is too stubborn to make the switch for us so it seems as if we'll be dishing out the big $$$ to upgrade our internet service. :rolleyes:

Oh well...

Thanks again for all your help guys! :good:
 
theburnidentity said:
Just wanted to thank WRXguy and JohnB for your responses.

Thanks to you both I was armed with plenty of information for my meeting with the higher-ups today. The conclusion:

Our network administrator is too stubborn to make the switch for us so it seems as if we'll be dishing out the big $$$ to upgrade our internet service. :rolleyes:

Oh well...

Thanks again for all your help guys! :good:
Click to expand...
I'm sure the network administrator knows what he's doing (that's what I am after all, lol), but as far as switching DNS providers it wouldn't take him more than 5 minutes.
 
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