Quistion about DNS settings for TCP/IP-settings

[Imperator Sulla]

I had a problem with opening my Hotmail, all other internet pages were reasonably quick but not optimal and hotmail just wouldn't load. At first I thought it might have something to do with auto update but after closing it the problem still persisted. I checked task manager and there I found that svchost.exe(not scvhost.exe) used 98% of CPU capacity. So I searched the forums and came up with a solution.(translated from Dutch so could be some what less acurate) Network Properties (Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)) > Properties for Internetprotocol => "use following DNS-serveradresses" here I inserted certain IP values from te suggested solution on the forum. My question is: Is this safe? I just moved in to my appartment and the Internet connection came with the rent package so I don't know the provider. Should I contact the provider for their DNS-serveradres? Have any of you had this problem to?

[Simetrical]

Does the solution actually work? svchost.exe isn't specially associated with DNS, so I would expect that it wouldn't, but I suppose it's possible. If you see that websites load correctly, your change to DNS settings probably isn't causing any problems, although it might not be helping you any.

What was the exact error message your browser gave when you tried to access Hotmail? Something like "Firefox can't find the server at hotmail.com" indicates a DNS problem; anything else is probably not DNS-related. If you could give a link to the site you got the tip from, Dutch or not, that would help too.

[Imperator Sulla]

Thanks for the reply. The solution actually did work, both Firefox and Explorer load Hotmail just fine now and I don't have to select the light version for it to work.

This is the link I ended up with:

http://www.opendns.com/start/windows_xp.php#step6

I didn't actually get a error but Hotmail was just really slow and didn't fully load, on both browsers.

[Simetrical]

There were probably problems with your ISP's DNS servers. It doesn't hurt to use these ones instead, I suppose, but note that they apparently block things that they think are phishing/spam/etc., and do other funny things. Read about their features here. If you ever encounter trouble, you'd better remember how to switch back.