Those IP addresses are Google’s DNS servers. In the lower part of the next window, select Use the following DNS server addresses. Enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 then click OK, OK, Close Double click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) in the list.ĥ. Click Properties in the Wi-Fi status window.Ĥ. Click the link next to Connections (it probably says your router name).ģ. Right click the network/Wi-Fi icon at the right side of the taskbar and select Open Network and Sharing Centre.Ģ. Router hijacking affects not only your PC, but also every computer, phone, tablet and device that connects to the router.
Older versions of Windows are very similar. You can manually enter the DNS servers to use and this overrides whatever is supplied by the router or your ISP.
Suppose your DNS servers have been altered to something malicious. The result is displayed after a few seconds and it should not report any problems.Ĭlick See technical details of the results to get information about your DNS servers and internet connection. Open a web browser and go to the site: /router-checker/en_global/Ĭlick the Check your router button. You can easily check that your router is OK and that safe DNS servers are being used using Router Checker from the security company, F-Secure. We looked at manually changing DNS servers in a previous article, and malware can do this too, although not for speed and performance. This is a serious security problem called DNS poisoning or DNS hijacking and it has been known to happen. This would then earn money for the perpetrators. Login details could then be stolen.ĭNS hijacking could also be used to change the content in web pages, such as adverts. This would mean instead of going to websites you think are safe, such as your online bank, eBay, PayPal, and other places, you are redirected without you knowing to a site operated by the malware or hacker. These will be used by the computer and web browser and then all internet traffic will be directed through the servers provided by the malware or hacker. Now imagine malware or a hacker got into the router or computer settings and changed the DNS server addresses to its own. If you do not manually specify which DNS servers to use, and most people don’t, the ones stored in the router are used. It can get this information from the router. The computer needs to know the address of a DNS server in order to query it when it needs to know the IP address of a website.
The browser can then access the web server using this IP number and get the Google home page. In order to go to the Google website when you type into the address box of a browser, it communicates with a DNS (Domain Name System) server, which supplies the IP address. Browsers and computers do not use domain names like and instead, they use IP addresses.Īn IP address consists of four numbers between 0 and 255 like this: 216.58.198.110. When we want to visit a website, such as Google, we type into the address box of a web browser. You need to check your router asap to see if you have been compromised. Your computer and your router can be attacked by hackers and malware and they can cause havoc with your internet connection.