NirSoft releases QuickSetDNS

Nir Sofer has announced the release of QuickSetDNS 1.0, a compact and portable tool which makes it easy to change the DNS servers for your Internet connection.

The program’s built-in options are rather limited. It can only configure your Windows 2000-8 PC to use Google Public DNS; to automatically retrieve DNS details from your router, or to restore whatever custom DNS settings you have when QuickSetDNS was first launched.

Fortunately it’s simple to expand this list with as many DNS alternatives as you need. For Comodo Secure DNS, say, you’d click File > DNS, type Comodo in the "Name" box, 8.26.56.26,8.20.247.20 in the "IP Addresses" box, click OK, and that’s it: "Comodo" will then be another option in the list, which you can use in a couple of clicks.

Alternatively, network experts can use the program to set DNS servers from the command line, like QuickSetDNS.exe /SetDNS "8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4" "{F41A4233-02DA-42D6-A97B-A2D12F9FE0CD}"

What you don’t get here is an explicit "restore original settings" option. This isn’t a big deal, as you can just look down the list and choose whatever service you were using. But inexperienced users might not always understand that, and a simple "put things back the way they were" option would probably be a good idea.

In addition, it’s not clear whether the program flushes your DNS resolver cache after changing servers. Knowledgeable users can do that in a moment, of course (run IPCONFIG /flushdns at a command line), but again, explicit support within QuickSetDNS would make life easier.

These are relatively minor issues, though -- especially for version 1.0 -- and on balance QuickSetDNS already provides a quick and easy way to manage and update your DNS settings. Take a look.