Virgin Media......DNS Problem?

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who has just recently joined Virgin Media on a self install package. He received a Netgear VMDG280 router. Now he tells me he had to activate it which seems to have worked as he has access to the internet, but he can't type in the URL bar for instance http://www.google.co.uk as it comes up with an error instead he has to type in the IP?

Now he did ring Virgin Media support and was told that because he had gone for the self install there was not much they could do for him apart from typing chmod and then flush or something like that which my friend did, but still he has to type in the IP address rather the name of the site. Someone else told him it may be your DNS server is the problem. How would I check this and better still is it possible to configure this so he does not have to type in an IP number? Any help would be appreciated.

Jimmy

Yes, DNS - try google 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

You can put them in the network properties for the connection on the PC

A walkthrough here of using opendns instead - https://store.opendns.com/setup/computer/

Edited by deleted (Sat 15-Jan-11 13:16:26)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Yes, DNS - try google 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

You can put them in the network properties for the connection on the PC

Thanks for the quick reply Bat, but is that his network adaptor you would use the settings you posted or would it be through his web browser sorry for the silly questions just I have to pass this onto him and if he asked me how and where I won't have a clue. I forgot to mention he is using Windows XP and Internet explorer.

Jimmy

Ideally you would setup the DNS addresses on both the router and the PC. For some reason my router fixes itself on the DNS servers from my ISP, and doesn't change. Thankfully they tend to be quite responsive (maybe that's why?).