A DNS server is a computer on the internet that will translate a domain name (like “google.com”) into an IP address (like 64.233.187.99). Most computers in South Africa use DNS servers that belong to a company called SAIX (aka Telkom), and yesterday afternoon SAIX somehow messed up their DNS servers. This morning (16 hours later) they are still messed up.
What does this mean to you? Well, until they fix the problem, many websites and email addresses within South Africa won’t work. Websites won’t “load”, and email will bounce. Thanks Telkom.
Here’s what I recommend doing…
- In your Control Panel, open “Network Connections”
- Right-click on “Local Area Connection”, and choose “Properties”
- Select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” and click on “Properties” again.
- Change the Preferred DNS Server and the Alternate DNS Server as follows:
Preferred: 196.7.147.235
Alternate: 196.7.150.34 - Click OK until all the windows are closed.
That will change your computer so that instead of using Telkom’s DNS servers it will instead use Hetzners. Hetzner is awesome. We love them.
Update – 27 March 2008
Numerous people contact us referring to this post. In the unlikely event that Hetzner’s DNS servers go down, you can use Telkom’s which are 196.25.1.11 and 196.43.1.11. A complete list of Telkom’s / SAIX’s servers is published here.
Interesting, even reading long after
Hi guys.. thanks for the info….
1 quick question… I work with Ricoh porducts and im having the same problem were the copier does not scan to the saix server…
Any sugestions?
Well its 20 Jan 2010 and telkom wankers have stuffed up their dns yet again … came across this post and used Hetzners dns server settings and voila! its all working again … i hate telkom!
Hi All
Should you not feel comfortable in using local (RSA) unreliable cashed DNS servers, see: http://www.dnsserverlist.org/
As for Telkom’s DNS servers see: http://www.saix.net/cgi-bin/saix_dns.pl
To test your current DNS server response times, see: http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm
Regards
Michael
If your ADSL is with Telkom are you allowed to set the DNS settings to whatever you want? Sorry but I am not that clued up and have been having latency issues for years on Telkom DNS settings.
Hi Noeleen,
If your computer (or your router) are set to receive DNS records automatically, then they will be set to whatever Telkom provides, which (as you say) are often less than idea. You can set your DNS settings yourself though, either on your computer (in your control panel, network settings), and / or on your router itself.
Let me know if you need further assistance with this.
Regards,
Gary.
Hi
if you have a shaped Service and you change your DNS does it go to unshaped?
No, it might change the route your connection follows and pages on your browser will display quicker.
Change your PC’s DNS servers to: (Note, use all and in same order – first being fastest)
196.2.53.140
196.41.126.4
196.207.40.167
196.7.0.138
196.207.40.165
196.41.0.10
196.41.0.11
41.157.9.4
209.212.96.1
8.8.4.4
8.8.8.8
To test see; http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm
Hi Michael
I’ve just come across this blog as I have built a new site for my boss and was looking for advice on how to upload it. As I am merely the “gardener”, have no formal qualification and no real knowledge of computers I have had to learn everything I know from the internet… that’s why it was so awesome coming across your comment and Gary’s advice (thank you Gary) on how to increase your speed. I tried it and “voila” it worked.
If I could ask…why is internet connectivity in this country so limited in it’s speed and soooo expensive? I have just returned from the UK where such curiosities are non-existent! As I have said before, I am merely a simpleton when it comes to IT but my Mac has made things a lot easier!
Thank you,
Briano
Hi Briano,
Well done of teaching yourself how to build sites etc. With google and enough self-determination you can achieve anything, no formal training required. IT changes so rapidly that formal training is usually out of date anyway.
The internet is a lot faster / cheaper throughout most of Europe. It’s probably like everything else in South Africa, there just isn’t enough competition to drive down prices. It is getting better though, although very slowly.
G.
Unfortunately not. You are still connecting to the same service provider, and they will determine your bandwidth speed, cap, shape, etc. The DNS only affects which server you talk to when you want to resolve a domain name (like “strategyonline.co,za” to an IP address (like 1.2.3.4). Does that make sense?