If you are using BSNL as your internet service provider, the chances are more that you might be frequently encountering error similar to “DNS error – cannot find server“. Usually this error occurs when you try to access some websites. However, some other sites may work properly without any issues. Atleast I encountered this issue today for almost 6 hours before I could figure out what was going wrong. When I called up BSNL customer care on 1957, they acknowledged some problems with their DNS Servers and did not have any other details on how to solve except to wait and try after some more time. I recalled that a similar issue being much discussed on our office internal mailing list a couple of weeks back. Looking up on that mail thread gave me the solution to this problem.
The solution is very simple and all you need to do is – configure your network adapter to point to OpenDNS instead of BSNL DNS ip addresses. Set the the ip addresses 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as preferred and alternate DNS entries respectively. More detailed information on how to set it up for various operating systems has been provided on OpenDNS site. As per the info on their site, it helps to surf the Internet faster, smarter, safer and more reliably than ever before. OpenDNS operates as the largest and most intelligent DNS caches in the world, it is also said to have 100% up time DNS network.
So, if you have a similar issue with other internet service providers as well, go ahead and change the DNS entries to point to OpenDNS and everything should start working. Now I am able to access all the sites without any errors! Thanks OpenDNS 🙂
Update: Looks like there is a massive disruption in the net connection as well due to submarine cables breakdown between Egypt and Italy. More info here from Times Of India.
Mohan says
Currently these 2 entries are working great for BSNL!
primary DNS address 218.248.245.1
secondary DNS address 218.248.255.141
Mohan says
Currently these 2 entries are working great for BSNL!
primary DNS address 218.248.245.1
secondary DNS address 218.248.255.141
Brijesh says
I am facing similar issue with new BSNL BB 2MBPS cxn and tried OpenDNS. Still I am not able to open AOL mail and some other sites. I tried flusing DNS and rebooting modem still
no luck. I am Win 7 Home Premium – x64 bit and also use iPad. Could you please suggest.
Brijesh says
Thanks to Neeraj and Mohan! things are working fine now… changed the MTU value to 1454
Neeraj says
I had the same problem with DNS. But to my disappointment it didnt resolve completely. The I changed my MTU settings and it worked. Here is the detail of that in my blog.
Neeraj says
I had the same problem with DNS. But to my disappointment it didnt resolve completely. The I changed my MTU settings and it worked. Here is the detail of that in my blog.
Awdhesh says
The best way according to me is to first check which DNS server pings gives your faster response and then change
Pinging 208.67.222.222 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 208.67.222.222: bytes=32 time=321ms TTL=54
Reply from 208.67.222.222: bytes=32 time=322ms TTL=54
Reply from 208.67.222.222: bytes=32 time=307ms TTL=54
Reply from 208.67.222.222: bytes=32 time=300ms TTL=54
Ping statistics for 208.67.222.222:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 300ms, Maximum = 322ms, Average = 312ms
Pinging 202.54.1.30 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 202.54.1.30: bytes=32 time=107ms TTL=250
Reply from 202.54.1.30: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=250
Reply from 202.54.1.30: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=250
Reply from 202.54.1.30: bytes=32 time=108ms TTL=250
see carefully the time and set DNS accordingly
Deepak says
I came across a similar situation this morning and remembered a related post on your blog. I changed my default dns settings and it works great now. Infact, this tip has increased my sites access response time.
Mohan says
@Gerald Johnson
It should! Like I have mentioned in the article OpenDNS operates as the largest and most intelligent DNS caches in the world, it is also said to have 100% up time DNS network. So there is no question of failure what so ever!
Mohan says
@Gerald Johnson
It should! Like I have mentioned in the article OpenDNS operates as the largest and most intelligent DNS caches in the world, it is also said to have 100% up time DNS network. So there is no question of failure what so ever!
Gerald Johnson says
Hey thanks it really worked.