Speed up your Internet!

Having a 7.2Mbps internet speed frustrates me. Hence, a few days ago, I decided to surf on how to speed up my internet. I came across OpenDNS via Lifehacker. OpenDNS does works! Surfing feels much faster. A day later, a friend of mine from the university recommended namebench, an open-source DNS Benchmark Utility. namebench hunts down the fastest DNS servers available for your computer to use.
Ok.. Let's move on to the technical part!

1. Download namebench here
2. Open namebench application


3. Click "Start Benchmark"
4. The output will be something like this:



5. Go to your router settings. Go to your web browser and type http://192.168.0.1 (this url may differ, please check your router manual) and you may need a username and password (again, please check your router manual :D)
   This is an example of my router settings page:


6. Please take down the Primary and Secondary DNS servers before changing them. (Just in case something bad happens)
7. From the namebench output, copy and paste the Primary and Secondary DNS Server respectively and Apply changes
8. Clear your current DNS settings. To do so:

COMPUTER AND DNS SERVER BY OS	GO TO COMMAND PROMPT	COMMAND TO USE TO CLEAR THE DNS CACHE
Windows	Go to Start menu -> Run -> Type cmd -> press Enter/Return	ipconfig /flushdns
Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger)	Click the Terminal icon in the dock or in Finder (in /Applications/Utilities/)	lookupd -flushcache
Mac OSX 10.5/10.6 (Leopard/Snow Leopard)	Click the Terminal icon in the dock or in Finder (in /Applications/Utilities/)	dscacheutil -flushcache
Linux  (Most Distributions)	Open a terminal window (gnome-terminal, konsole, xterm, etc.)	sudo /etc/init.d/nscd restart or sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart



9. Next, clear your browser settings
   
   

   INTERNET BROWSER	CLEAR THE DNS CACHE
   Internet Explorer 8 (Win)	Go to the Tools menu, select Delete Browsing History, check all boxes (except passwords, if desired) and click Delete.
   Mozilla Firefox (Win & Mac)	Go to the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History and check all boxes. Under Time range to clear selectEverything (except passwords, if desired) and click Clear Now.
   Apple Safari (Win)	Expand the Cog Icon in the upper right corner and select Reset Safari. Check all boxes and click Reset.
   Apple Safari (Mac)	Go to the Safari menu, select Reset Safari, check all boxes and click Reset.
   Google Chrome (Win)	Expand the Wrench Icon in the upper right corner and selectHistory and check all boxes. Under Clear data for this time period, select Everything (except passwords, if desired) and click Clear Browsing Data.
   Google Chrome (Mac)	Under Go to the Chrome menu, select Clear Browsing Data and check all boxes (except passwords, if desired). Under Clear data for this time period, selectEverything and click Clear Browsing Data.

   
   
10. Done! :D

If you are unsure of your router settings, you can also follow the instructions here.

Enjoy your faster web surfing! If you have any problems, or questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment. I will be willing to help. :D