My wonderful ISP - Brightspeed
 

Can't green a title, but that title is sarcasm.

I have Brightspeed, which used to be Centurylink. They've always had DNS issues, and they're back again now.

My modem is supposed to use 205.171.3.65 and 205.171.2.65, which are resolver.lumen.tech and resolver.qwest.net. The lumen one is hard down, and the qwest one won't resolve any addresses. I'm using google as a dns to post this.

Of course, they have a AI Chatbot for support. It asks for my phone number. I enter it with no dashes, it can't find me. I enter it with dashes, it says I'm a business account. I'm not. I enter my account number, and it asks my zip code to confirm me. I enter my zip code, and it says I'm wrong. Thanks chatbot. If you swear at the chatbot, it immediately disconnects you.

I tried their phone number, and it won't connect either.

What a way to run a business.

Same in Phoenix.

Either configure a couple of these into your modem/router or hard code them into your PCs/phones. (I'd use 3-4 spread across 3 or 4 of the providers in the list so you have diversity of providers). Google, Cisco/OpenDNS, Level3, and Cloudflare are all very solid.

Google
Default upstream DNS provider on the Pi-hole.
• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4
More information on Google Public DNS
OpenDNS Home (owned by Cisco)
Built-in features include a phishing filter, this is the OpenDNS version the Pi-hole would use if you select it during setup.
• 208.67.222.222
• 208.67.220.220
• 208.67.222.220
• 208.67.220.222
• 2620:119:35::35 (IPv6)
• 2620:119:53::53 (IPv6)
More information on OpenDNS Home + OpenDNS Wikipedia Page
OpenDNS also provides the OpenDNS FamilyShield (free)- option. The service blocks pornographic content, including our “Pornography,” “Tasteless,” and “Sexuality” categories, in addition to proxies and anonymizers (which can render filtering useless). It also blocks phishing and some malware.
• 208.67.222.123
• 208.67.220.123
More information on OpenDNS FamilyShield + OpenDNS FamilyShield introduction Blog
Level3 DNS
This DNS service does no filtering of itself, but redirects mistyped URL to Level 3 Web Search.
• 4.2.2.1
• 4.2.2.2
Comodo Secure DNS
SecureDNS references a real-time block list (RBL) of harmful websites (i.e. phishing sites, malware sites, spyware sites, and parked domains that may contain excessive advertising including pop-up and/or pop-under advertisements, etc.) and will warn you whenever you attempt to access a site containing potentially threatening content.
• 8.26.56.26
• 8.20.247.20
More information on Comodo Secure DNS
DNS.WATCH
DNS.WATCH offers Fast, free and uncensored DNS resolution.
• 84.200.69.80
• 84.200.70.40
• 2001:1608:10:25::1c04:b12f (IPv6)
• 2001:1608:10:25::9249:d69b (IPv6)
More information on DNS.WATCH
Quad9
Quad9 is a free, recursive, anycast DNS platform that provides end users robust security protections, high-performance, and privacy.
• 9.9.9.9
• 149.112.112.112
• 2620:fe::fe (IPv6)
• 2620:fe::9 (IPv6)
More information on Quad9
CloudFlare DNS
CloudFlare will never log your IP address (the way other companies identify you). The independent DNS monitor DNSPerf ranks Cloudflare's DNS the fastest DNS service in the world.
• 1.1.1.1
• 1.0.0.1
• 2606:4700:4700::1111 (IPv6)
• 2606:4700:4700::1001 (IPv6)
More information on Cloudflare DNS
Cloudflare also provides 1.1.1.1 for Families, a set of resolvers that can block malware only, or malware and adult content.
Malware Blocking Only
• 1.1.1.2
• 1.0.0.2
• 2606:4700:4700::1112 (IPv6)
• 2606:4700:4700::1002 (IPv6)
Malware and Adult Content
• 1.1.1.3
• 1.0.0.3
• 2606:4700:4700::1113 (IPv6)
• 2606:4700:4700::1003 (IPv6)

F them. We bought our house during covid with CenturyLink dsl. Because, 3 meg down, . something up. Couldn't work from home. Within a year we had Uncle Joe fiber. Holy crap.

We're back up. The wife can watch Hulu.

Thanks for the alternate DNS servers. There's no way to set my modem to have alternate DNS servers, nor set the Roku. Maybe some day I'll upgrade to a better router.

One thing. If you manually set a DNS server, and you go to a hotel that has a login page, you won't be able to use the hotel's internet until you remember that you set that manual DNS entry. And that will take a while if you set it a long time ago and don't remember doing it. I felt pretty dumb when I did remember.

I now take a fairly clean laptop when we travel, no saved banking websites, no saved passwords at all. If it disappears out of the hotel room, all I lose is the laptop.