Pointing Windows 2000-based PCs to my ISP's DNS servers

Hello James.

Yes, it is perfectly all right to point the PCs in your local area network to the DNS server of your ISP.  You can set it two ways:

1.  You can set it statically on each PC by modifying the newword properties and listing the DNS server IP address for both the primary and secondary DNS.

2.  You can set it dynamically by configuring the DHCP server function of your ADSL modem or router.

Since we are on the topic of DNS, I would like to suggest that instead of pointing the LAN PCs to your ISP's DNS server, you can point it to other DNS servers such OpenDNS or Google DNS.  Both provide additional security by blocking URLs that are known to host harmful content.

Hope this helps!

There is also another way of pointing your LAN computers’ DNS besides the one provided by your Internet Service Provider. The letters DNS really means Domain Name System. It is a hierarchical circulated naming system used by services, computers, and any other resource that are connected to the internet or in a private network. It is an internet protocol that converts website names into addresses which the machine can understand. Each website names are replaced by machine-readable IP addresses.

There are instances where changing the DNS of your computer increases its security and also improves your internet browsing speed. And the latter one is true because whenever I experience a slow internet connection I just select a fast DNS and then apply it on my computer. Like the one I said earlier, there is an alternative besides directing your DNS to your ISP. You can use DNS Jumper to search for fast DNS servers and then apply it on your computer. It can also improve your computer’s security using secure DNS servers. You can download the latest version, DNS Jumper v1.0.5, from Sordum.org – Sordum’s software page | DNS Jumper v1.0.5.

DNS Jumper v1.0.5 screenshot