Set up Google Public DNS on Ubuntu

Google has recently released their very own DNS resolver with main goals of making web browsing faster and safer. Since Google's search engine already crawls the web on a daily basis and in the process resolves and caches DNS information, they wanted to make use of their technology to experiment with new ways of addressing some of the existing DNS challenges around performance and security.

As I've said on my older post about OpenDNS, that replacing your ISP's slow DNS server with a third party DNS resolution service will help speed up your Internet connection. So if you are already using OpenDNS right now and are pleased with it, why not try Google Public DNS.

Setting up Google Public DNS on Ubuntu is quick and straightforward. To do it, just follow steps 1-5 from this post: Set up OpenDNS on Ubuntu.

Then, input these nameserver addresses as your ‘DNS Servers’: 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4.

Click "Ok" and you are done.


For advanced users, you can set up Google Public DNS by editing /etc/resolv.conf:

$ sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf

Find and replace the nameserver lines with, or add, the following lines:

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

Save, and then exit. Restart your internet connection and test your new settings.