DNS server question

Factual Questions
1

We recently switched to broadband internet access through SBC. It’s decent service, but the DNS lookups seem incredibly slow. They slow down page load times to the point that smaller pages take almost as long to load as they did over dialup.

Is there a way to set up a DNS server on my own computer? Since I spend a great deal of my time on the web at a relatively small number of websites, it’d make things a good deal quicker. How can I do that? I’m running Win98SE, and the internet connection is DSL.

2

Are you sure it’s the DNS lookups? What makes you think so? I’d be looking at MTU settings myself.

Anyways, 98 has something called a Hosts file, which acts like a mini-DNS server that you manually have to add your entries to.

Check here for more info on the Hosts file and how to configure it.

3

So, uh, what are MTU settings? I guess I’m not as computer literate as I like to think.

4

Don’t use a hosts file. You won’t know to update the file if and when a domain switches IP addresses. Then that domain won’t work for you, and you will have forgotten about the hosts file and you will throw your computer out the window.

There are plenty of free and commercial DNS servers out there - just search for “windows caching DNS server” or similar. But I would reccomend contacting your ISP and making sure that you have the correct DNS settings.

5

Excalibre, go to www.dslreports.com and check under Tests and Tools. There is a speed test there as well as a Tweak Test. The Tweak test will help you determine if your PC is optimized for DSL. They also have lots of info on these settings and a great forum for asking questions.

6

Also, check to see if your ISP has you going through a caching proxy server (look under Internet Options in IE). Some do that so that you pull frequently requested content off of their server instead of the sites actual server, making it (supposedly) faster for you. It doesn’t always work that way, and is often slower.

I’m not sure if my ISP still does it, I haven’t loaded their software package in a few years.

You can usually just uncheck the box and the proxy settings will be retained, but not used. You may want to write them doen first though, just in case.

7

This site explains how to configure your computer to use other DNS servers.

8

Also, make sure that your DNS servers are set correctly.

You may have had them statically set for dialup, then not changed it. If you’re using DNS server not belonging to your ISP, then it would most likely not work, but could very well be slow.

In Win98, if the DHCP server automatically sets the DNS servers, then it should be set to “Disabled”. For some odd reason some places don’t do this, and you have to input them yourself. (Unlikely with broadband, but worth checking out).

You may want to put your ISPs DNS servers in there in a different order anyway, in case one works better than the other.