The Known Public Free DNS Servers

If you can ping an IP but you can’t ping a domain name e.g. the “apt update” doesn’t work, most likely, this is due to inaccessible DNS settings. You can check the:

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$ cat /etc/resolv.cnf

$ cat /etc/resolv.cnf

And you can add a nameserver entry, such as:

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# google dns
nameserver 8.8.8.8

# google dns
nameserver 8.8.8.8

Save the file and exit (:wq) would mostly solve the problem.

DNS (Domain Name System) servers are an essential part of the internet infrastructure. They translate human-readable domain names (like www.example.com) into IP addresses that computers use to locate and connect to websites and online services. Here are some well-known DNS servers:

Google Public DNS

Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4

OpenDNS

Primary DNS: 208.67.222.222
Secondary DNS: 208.67.220.220

Cloudflare DNS

Primary DNS: 1.1.1.1
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.1

Quad9

Primary DNS: 9.9.9.9
Secondary DNS: 149.112.112.112

Comodo Secure DNS

Primary DNS: 8.26.56.26
Secondary DNS: 8.20.247.20

Level 3 DNS

Primary DNS: 209.244.0.3
Secondary DNS: 209.244.0.4

Norton ConnectSafe (Discontinued)

Norton ConnectSafe has been discontinued, and users are advised to switch to other DNS services.

TLDR; DNS Servers

Please note that using a particular DNS server can affect your internet speed and security. You can usually configure your DNS settings in your computer or router’s network settings to use one of these DNS servers. Make sure to choose a DNS server that suits your needs in terms of speed, privacy, and security.

Example /etc/resolv.cnf DNS File

Here you go – copy the following lines to append it to /etc/resolv.cnf so that your Linux OS knows how to parse the domain names into IP Addresses.

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nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
nameserver 1.0.0.1
nameserver 9.9.9.9
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 1.1.1.1

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
nameserver 1.0.0.1
nameserver 9.9.9.9
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 1.1.1.1

–EOF (The Ultimate Computing & Technology Blog) —