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How to set up OpenDNS or Google DNS on Windows 7

Windows 7 still powers many PCs. Changing DNS here often fixes “site down only for me” problems.

Why change DNS on Windows 7?

Older ISP equipment and long-lived DNS caches on Windows 7 make public resolvers especially useful.

Recommended public DNS servers

  • OpenDNS (Cisco): 208.67.222.222 / 208.67.220.220
  • Google Public DNS: 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4
  • Cloudflare DNS: 1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1

Steps for Windows 7

  1. Click Start → Control Panel → Network and Internet → Network and Sharing Center.
  2. Click Change adapter settings.
  3. Right-click Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection → Properties.
  4. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) → Properties.
  5. Select Use the following DNS server addresses.
  6. Preferred: 208.67.222.222 (OpenDNS) or 8.8.8.8 (Google). Alternate: 208.67.220.220 or 8.8.4.4.
  7. Click OK, then Close.

Flush DNS on Windows 7

Clear the DNS Resolver Cache after saving the new servers.

ipconfig /flushdns
  1. Click Start, type cmd, right-click cmd.exe → Run as administrator.
  2. Type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.
  3. Close the prompt and reload your browser.

Verify it worked

Open the site that failed before. Still broken? Clear cookies for that site and try Firefox or Chrome.

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