How to speed up your internet browsing in Ubuntu

Submitted by Drew on Tue, 04/22/2008 - 22:18.

 

 

There is one trick that will definately speed up your internet browsing in ubuntu, and not just firefox.

This trick should work with all versions of ubuntu. What you want to do is change your dns server to a faster one. I have tried opendns and it does work pretty good, but I think this one works better.

 

The first thing you want to do is change the dns settings in the network manager. Open up a terminal and type

 

 


Code:

sudo network-admin

  

Then under the dns tab you will want to add a dns server from this page. I have tried a few of them but the one that I found to be the quickest is the verison one at the bottom. So you would click on 'add' and enter the numbers “4.2.2.5” and press enter. Then click “add” again and enter “4.2.2.6” and press enter.

These settings will often be overwritten after a reboot, so you will have to edit a text file to take care of this. Close the network admin window and to back to the terminal.

 

NOTE: Before you continue to make these changes, make sure you keep a copy of this article on your pc or keep your web browser open. If you make a mistake you will not have an internet connection. Keep this article so that you can figure out how to change things back to the way they were.

 

Now you will need to back up a file before editing it. Type

 


Code:

sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.bak

 

We also need to backup another file

 


Code:

sudo cp /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf.bak

 

Then type

 


Code:

sudo gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

 

Find the line that looks like this

 


Code:

prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;

 

add a # to the beginning of it, so it will look like this.

 


Code:

#prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;

 

Now you can add this line underneath it

 


Code:

prepend domain-name-servers 4.2.2.5,4.2.2.6;

 

Save this file and close gedit.

 

Now you will have to restart networking. This is done in the terminal by typing

 


Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

 

You should now see an increase in speed in your internet browsing. If you do not see an increase in speed, just go back to the previous link and try using a different dns server.

 

If you have made a mistake and you cannot connect to the internet just go back to the terminal and type

 


Code:

sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf.bak /etc/resolv.conf

as well as
 
Code:

sudo cp /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf.bak /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

 

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