Find the DNS servers on your Mac?

Dave, I'm a bit puzzled. How do i find what DNS servers my emac is using at any given time?

Dave's Answer:

There are a couple of ways to do this, but let me share with you the graphical solution, since, well, it's a Mac, right?

Go to the System Preferences choice on the Apple Menu and you'll be here:

Lots of choices (and those on the bottom row are third-party extensions that I've installed too, in case you're wondering why yours aren't quite the same), but what you want to select is Network:

Almost there, but let me highlight that this is a good stopping point if you're just curious about how your Mac is connected to the network when you have wireless, Ethernet, dialup or other possibilities. It also shows, by color, if your connection is fully functional or not: the green dot next to Ethernet shows that it's a functional connection, while the red dot next to Internal Modem shows that's disabled.

But there's one more click you'll need to do before you can figure out your DNS servers: double click on Ethernet (or whatever is your primary Internet connection):

Mac OS X: System Preferences: TCP/IP Configuration

That shows you what the configured DNS servers are. As you can see, there aren't any that I've pre-loaded, so it's time to delve into the command line instead!

Pop open a Terminal window by launching Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal, then simply type in cat /etc/resolv.conf. Here's what you'll see:

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf 
domain hsd1.co.comcast.net.
nameserver 68.87.85.98
nameserver 68.87.69.146

As you can see, I'm hooked up via Comcast right now and Comcast has given me two DNS servers that are automatically stored in the resolv.conf site.

Between the two, you should be able to identify exactly what DNS servers your eMac computer is using!

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Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 6353, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: dns, mac os x
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Reader Comments To Date: 16

marvin said, on June 16, 2006 9:23 PM:

How effective are apple computers as ecommerce tools?

tom said, on February 24, 2008 2:06 AM:

i have 4 name servesrs

Michael said, on September 26, 2008 12:41 AM:

when i type that into the terminal, it gives me one nameserver, which is the same as my router ip. any help would be super appreciated!

Jonathan Matias said, on October 3, 2008 10:34 AM:

It says "No such file or directory", could you please help me resolve this problem.

Jonathan S said, on October 13, 2008 9:01 AM:

Hi Dave,

I recently bought a Conitech box in Italy to use with my macbook and the local ADSL provider TIM. I am also using VOIP phone which now always says provider registration failed. I'm trying to set up everything again because my wireless network disappeared from the list but was still present in the router settings. How do I get the router to allow me to access the current control list and what's the best way to go about resolving this issue in terms of getting back my wireless network name and also getting the PPoE connection working again for remote access and for the VOIP phone to work again? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Jon

nikki said, on February 3, 2009 6:00 PM:

Alright, I did all of that utilities>terminal> cat/etc/resolv.conf and I still got nothing.

Dan Bishop said, on March 3, 2009 2:43 AM:

just so you know there is a space between cat and the first /

that wasnt really mentioned at it confused me for a bit too
so it is cat /etc/resolv.conf

Jonathan Smith said, on April 4, 2009 10:33 AM:

Whenever I open terminal the shell is way too small to use and can't be adjusted to a larger size. What's going on? How do I fix that?

Dave Taylor said, on April 4, 2009 10:50 AM:

Jonathan, that's an odd problem. I know that by default the Terminal window is pretty darn small, but you should be able to go to "Terminal" --> "Preferences.." and then change your font size to make it more visible. Once you've done that, you should be able to grab the lower right corner of the Terminal window and drag it out to make the window itself larger too. Then choose "Use Settings as Default" from the "Shell" menu and it'll be the same next time you open up the app!

Michael Hendry said, on May 12, 2009 4:31 PM:

Hi Dave, I've always found your pages interesting reading. Now a friend of mine has an internet problem and cannot connect. She is using a wireless connection and for some reason, it's started not seeing the internet. It connects to the network (router) but can't get any further. She can connect (sometimes) in hot spots, eg. coffee shops. An IT guy who sets up internet came round to try and figure it out, but being a mac, he was a bit scared of it (even after two hours). She gets the message 'Could not find PPPoE server' (or similar) on trying to connect. The home pc connects fine to the net through the router. PLEASE, PLEASE help?

chad said, on June 7, 2010 12:16 PM:

this does not work. macs are bad. back to windows

Theo Nijmeijer said, on July 7, 2010 3:52 PM:

Hi Dave, I have to change my DNS server adress, but when I open System Preferences -> Network, I get a pop-up saying the following: Your network preferences are being changed by another application. The only thing I can do is clicking ok, but then I get the same message again. So actually I can't change any of my network settings. Is there a commandline possibility to change my dns server adress?

Robert Cox said, on September 18, 2010 4:50 PM:

I am having the same problem as Hendry's friend. My MacBook OS 10.5 will connect wirelessly just fine to the internet at home and in WiFi spots, but at work Safari, Firefox, and Opera will connect to the router but NOT to the internet. I am very frustrated and I have tried every message board and tech I can find: nothing works. HELP!

lisa said, on August 15, 2011 6:59 PM:

Can you please update this for the most recent version of the Mac OS? Because I don't have a 'Network' section in my system preferences.

Dave Taylor said, on August 15, 2011 8:40 PM:

That's odd, Lisa. I'm running 10.7 Lion and there's a "Network" section under the "Internet & Wireless" section in System Preferences. What version are you running?

pink pimp said, on April 28, 2012 1:12 PM:

Hi Dave, I have to change my DNS server adress, but when I open System Preferences -> Network, I get a pop-up saying the following: Your network preferences are being changed by another application. The only thing I can do is clicking ok, but then I get the same message again. So actually I can't change any of my network settings. Is there a commandline possibility to change my dns server adress?
Posted by: Theo Nijmeijer at July 7, 2010 3:52 PM

I am having the same problem as Hendry's friend. My MacBook OS 10.5 will connect wirelessly just fine to the internet at home and in WiFi spots, but at work Safari, Firefox, and Opera will connect to the router but NOT to the internet. I am very frustrated and I have tried every message board and tech I can find: nothing works. HELP!

I am having this same problem I also am unable to install anything I tried to use softwareupdate in the terminal and found out that the server is for mac OS X 10.4 or less when I am running OS X 10.4 or more but to change this I first need to figure out what server version I am actually using Can anyone help me with this ?

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Find the DNS servers on your Mac?

Reader Comments To Date: 16

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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