One of the drawbacks of using an internet service providers own router is that some of them such as the Thomson TG585′s web interface locks away the more advanced settings. A good example of this is the ability to switch to a third party DNS service such as Google or OpenDNS. These third party DNS providers can often be much faster then your service provider’s own DNS servers, so therefore offer a much better internet browsing experience.
Luckily the Thomson TG585 does have a little bit of a ‘back door’ that you can use to set up your preferred DNS settings.
All you need to do to make use of this ‘back door’ is:
| DNS Server | Source | Label | Metric | Intf | State |
| D 212.50.160.100 | 10 | Internet | Up | ||
| D 213.249.130.100 | 10 | Internet | Up |
dns server route add dns=208.67.222.222 metric=0 intf=Internet and press enter (Replacing ‘internet’ with your Intf string)
dns server route add dns=208.67.220.220 metric=0 intf=Internet and press enter (Replacing ‘internet’ with your Intf string)
That’s all there is to it, now all you need to do is head over to OpenDNS, logon to your dashboard and tweak your settings as you see fit. Then sit back, relax and enjoy an OpenDNS powered internet experience.
As a heavy internet user I am always looking at ways to improve response times of websites… Thanks to Chris Prillo via Twitter I have now discovered the magic that is OpenDNS. I have tried free DNS servers in the past, but never been happy with the results. However this one seems to be working well for me.
OpenDNS has servers situated strategically at the most well-connected intersections of the Internet. Unlike your ISP, our network uses Anycast routing technology, which means no matter where you are in the world your DNS requests are answered by our closest datacenter. Anycast routing also means that you are automatically routed to our next closest datacenter in the event of maintenance or downtime. This makes your Internet faster and more reliable.
If you want to try OpenDNS for yourself, you can find detailed instructions over at their website: https://www.opendns.com/start
Give it a go, and let me know what you think.
