DNS servers, or Domain Name System servers, essentially allow you to browse the Internet in a user friendly manner. They provide your computer with the capability to recognize the web addresses you type in and connect to their places on the web. With Internet service, your computer automatically gets assigned a DNS server to use. Most users don’t ever have to think about DNS servers or changing them. Still, there are potential benefits to swapping out your assigned server for a new one, even on an iPhone or iPad.
Namely, if you’re experiencing issues with the speed and reliability of your Internet connection particularly in a web browser, you might want to change things up. You can use any DNS server, but the most popular ones come from Google and OpenDNS.
Here is how to edit your DNS servers on a Mac.
How to Change Your Mac’s DNS Servers
Open System Preferences on your Mac. Then choose the Network category.
Make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi and you have the Wi-Fi tab on the left selected. Then toward the bottom right, click Advanced…
In the upper navigation here, click the DNS tab. You should see your current DNS servers on the left. Unless you added these yourself, you’re not able to edit them. However, clicking the + button underneath will let you start anew, so do that to begin adding your own DNS servers. (You might want to also write down the current IP-assigned DNS servers should you ever want to switch back to them.)
If you’re unsure which DNS server IP addresses to use, try out Google’s or OpenDNS first. Google’s are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. OpenDNS servers are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Enter these separately.
If you don’t want to use those, Lifewire has a great list of additional free and public DNS servers anyone can try out for themselves. Of course, if you have your own IP address in mind, you can use that as well.
Note that macOS will prioritize connecting to DNS servers based on whichever is at the top of the list. Entering in five different IP addresses is fine for backups, but won’t matter if your Mac can connect to the first one successfully.
When you’re all done here, click OK on the bottom right. Then lastly, click Apply back on the Network pane to save your changes.
You’re all set. Open a web browser, type in a domain name and see if you notice any improvement. At the very least, you’ll still have a stable Internet connection with new DNS backups for any future hiccups.
