Windows Vista

Use OpenDNS to Speed Up Internet Browsing

Have you ever wondered How Domain Name works, and what is domain name ? The name of Website such as Google.com or itechntips.com is called domain name. Now next question is when you put a domain name into your Web Browsers address bar how does it know where is this site located and it opens the correct site ?

So here is answer to your question –

When we type a site address or domain name (itechntips.com)  in our web browsers address bar, The Web browser or our computer find IP address of the computer which is having this site. This is called Domain Name resolving. Now once the Web browser know the exact IP address of computer or web server having pages requested it connect to that computer and download the web page, images etc and show you in your web browser.

All Operating systems uses a DNS (Domain Name Server) to find out IP address of the server having web pages you requested. By default your ISP or Network administrator configures your computer to use their DNS Server. These DNS server may be slow and also takes some time to update. If the site requested by you is not available with DNS server specified it looks for address in Other DNS server and then fetches the web page you requested. This process can take a lot of time and you will feel a slow browsing speed.

You can increase performance of your internet browsing by using more efficient and fast DNS server of your choice.  As Each site you want to visit must be resolved to it’s IP address, the Speed of browsing depends on performance of your DNS server.  Sometime it takes even few second before your computer resolve the Address of Site you requested to see.

OpenDNS  (opendns.com) provides free access to there DNS servers. Anyone on the internet can use their servers and they are very fast and reliable as well. In last 2 years of my experience with them I don’t remember a single instance when DNS server provided by OpenDNS went down. However it happened several times with my ISP’s DNS servers. Using OpenDNS Servers will increase your browsing speed by reducing time taken to resolve your site address or URL to IP address.

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Where Do I Go To Get Help With Windows

Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as saying “In this world, there is nothing that is certain except death and taxes”, but had he lived in the 21st century, I’d bet my last bag of lollies he would have added “and problems with my computer”.

For every problem Microsoft seems to solve, there is another one or two that rear their ugly heads. If it wasn’t the case, I’d never have to endure another Service Pack update!

But what do you do when your Windows Vista computer doesn’t behave itself and stops doing what you want it to? You can call Microsoft for help, but if you do that, make sure you have your credit card ready, because the company charges to help these days. Some help!

You could just type your problem into Google, but a much quicker and safer way to search for a solution is to try your luck on one of the following Microsoft Web sites. You’ll find they are well worth a visit.

1.       Windows Vista Solutions Center

The first place you should look is Microsoft’s own Windows Vista Solutions Center. It lists all the popular questions users have asked. Thankfully, those questions have been divided into neat categories such as ‘Home networking’ and ‘Printing, scanning and faxing’. This site covers more generic questions, but it’s a good first port of call if you run into the problem. And yes, it’s free. Head to http://support.microsoft.com/ph/11732.

Now, if only Microsoft could solve its spelling problem and call it ‘Solutions Center’!

2.       Microsoft Answers Beta

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How To Change Sleep Button Into Power Button

Unlike Windows XP, Vista/ windows 7 default power button does not shut down windows. It will put your computer in sleep mode and this is something quite useful from Microsoft point of view but users find it annoying. To shut down Windows 7 you have to go right of Power button and select Shut Down from a pop up menu.

If you are among those annoyed users don’t worry Microsoft designed a solution for you as well. Actually Microsoft guys have done a great piece of job by adding programmable Power buttons, you can decide what you want to do with default Power button (shut down, Hibernate or Sleep) using Power option in Control panel.

If a User wants to Shutdown or Hibernate his PC quickly this sometime comes frustrating as you hit sleep button and then you find that it went to sleep mode. then to shut down you have to wait till it wakes off ask for login password again and then you can shut down it using other menu. So we bring you a solution for this by programming that sleep button into a Power button.

Here we will explain you how to do that —

vista-sleep-button

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