DNS servers
What are DNS servers? Which DNS servers shoud I use?
What are DNS servers?
DNS servers are the vital glue that holds the internet together. All internet resources (e.g. webservers, mail servers, games, online backups) are known by a numeric address (IP address) - but people are not so good at remembering numbers (especially with IPv6 numbers coming along, these are much longer than the old IPv4 numbers! IPv6 numbers have four times as many digits as IPv4 ones.) so we like to remember names like "www.wizards.co.uk". Whenever you try to access a web resource by a friendly name, a DNS server will go and find out what the underlying number is. So you use a DNS server every single time you try to access a web site, check your mail, etc. If you have your own internet domain, somewhere there is a DNS server which knows where your website is, where your email should go, etc.
Which DNS server should I use?
For most purposes these days your DNS server settings will be made for yuo when you connect. But sometimes, you need to set them up by hand.
If you have a Windows server, we strongly recommend you use the DNS service built in to that. If you prefer not to, proceed as below.
If you have no local DNS server, here are the numbers you should use with your broadband connection:-
| Broadband name ending | DNS1 | DNS2 |
| @adsl.wizards.co.uk | 217.146.107.3 | 217.146.99.22 |
| @dsl.wizards.co.uk | 217.146.107.3 | 217.146.99.22 |
| @interdsl.co.uk | 83.170.125.148 | 83.170.101.148 |
| @wizdsl.net | 46.33.128.49 | 46.33.128.50 |
| @interdsl.net | 46.33.128.49 | 46.33.128.50 |
If you need DNS servers for other purposes, well, "that depends" - so the best bet is to give us a call on 01494 837515.
IPv6
If you have a @wizdsl.net connection and you wish to use IPv6, the DNS server addresses you should use are
2a00:b900:1::2:1
2a00:b900:1::2:2