Connect to Google Public DNS on Linux Mint

Intro: Connect to Google Public DNS on Linux Mint

Connecting to Google's free public DNS service can speed up your internet service and allow you to bypass restrictive internet setups like OpenDNS.

Editing your DNS connection can be annoying in Linux. I'm going to show you how to set your internet settings to connect to Google's DNS on Linux Mint. I'm using Mint 18 with Cinnamon, but it also works on 17.3, and likely on older distros as well.

This is a short tutorial, so we'll keep it one page.

1) To start with, open "Network Connections." You can find it by clicking on the little WiFi icon on the bottom right of your screen.

2) Select your internet connection and click on "Edit". A new window will pop up. Select "IPv4 Settings" from the tabs on the top of the window.

3) Edit your DNS settings:

-Set "Method" to "Automatic (DHCP) addresses only"

-Enter "8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4" in the "DNS servers:" box. This is the domain of Google's DNS.

-Make sure that the setting "Require IPv4 addressing for this connection to complete" is UNchecked.

You're done. Hit "Save" and close the Network Connections window.

You may have to restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Comments

[fre21]

Hi El Mano, i like your "Instructables" cause i'm a happy Linux Mint XFCE user and i have a question for you: what's the differences editing Google's DNS setting on my WiFi router and/or in my laptop too?

[El Mano]

If the router is set to a specific DNS, then everyone else who accesses the router will access that DNS automatically if they have their network connection set on the default (most people do). That's what your computer does unless you tell it to connect to a different, specific DNS like in this tutorial. If you made the router connect to Google's DNS, then everyone using the router would go through Google, rather than just you. I use Google's DNS because the router I use (roommate's) accesses the local DNS and I haven't bothered to look at how to change it.

[fre21]

Thank you El Mano!

[iHYDRO]

I was wondering could I do this in Ubuntu maybe? Or raspin?

[El Mano]

You should be able to. I used to do it all the time on WIndows 7. All you're doing is editing what DNS the system connects to, which is a network/internet thing, not a linux thing. I don't use Ubuntu, and I don't know if the process is exactly the same, but Mint is built off Ubuntu and the process should be pretty similar.

[El Mano]

The main thing is the setting the IPv4 DNS to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, the Google DNS domain address. I had to experiment to figure the other settings out, and they might be different for different distros, computers or network/router setups. Let us know if you figure it out.