The Day the Internet Died
Posted October 21, 2016 by Adam Kujawa [A little late, but I just received it
this morning]
 
Okay, so I admit the title is a bit misleading and alarmist, but lots of folks
will agree this was a bad day to try and use the internet.
 
This is because today there was a massive DDoS attack that targeted one of the
DNS providers that acts as a backbone for the internet, especially in the
western part of the world.
 
The DNS provider targeted is called "DynDNS" and as mentioned before, acts as a
 backbone for many western web surfers.
 
You can read about what happened all over news websites that you can still
access.
 
So rather than rehash everything you can read about by actual journalists, I am
 here to tell you how to get around not being able to access your favorite
sites by changing your DNS settings on your computer.  Now be warned, this is
moderately technical and if you happen to make changes that makes the problem
worse, just walk backwards and undo what you did.
 
First we are going to be using the DNS servers of OpenDNS which exist for
problems like these and is a totally free, awesome service they provide.
#GoGoOpenDNS
 
Access your DNS settings
 
So in order to use their DNS servers, you will have to modify your DNS settings
 on your computer, luckily OpenDNS provides assistance on how to get there
through their website, so click here to find out.
 
https://use.opendns.com/
 
Here is are some shortcuts to the more popular operating systems:
 
    Mac OSX
    Windows XP
    Windows 7
    Windows 10
 
Now before you modify your DNS settings, if there is already DNS IP addresses
listed in your settings, write those down somewhere, just in case you need to
put them back if things go wrong.
 
Did you do it? Okay good.
 
OpenDNS addresses
 
Next you are going to be putting in the IP addresses of the OpenDNS servers,
which at the moment are:
 
    208.67.222.222
    208.67.220.220
 
And once you have done that, you are done! Press apply and it should hopefully
work for you.  At this time you should be able to access your favorite sites
once again! If not, there is one more thing you can do that might solve your
problem.
 
Flushing DNS
 
You are going to need to do what is referred to as "Flushing DNS" which
basically means that any bad DNS requests or false IP addresses that your
system has saved, need to be cleared out so your system can request the new
ones from OpenDNS.
 
Here is a link to `WhatsmyDNS.net` which can help you with how to do this from
nearly every operating system.
 
Conclusion
 
At this point, if you are still unable to find those sites, either something
went wrong with the changes you made, something went wrong with OpenDNS, or
something went wrong with the web site you are trying to access. Regardless, go
 ahead and step backward, either erasing your OpenDNS entries (or double check
them) so your ISP can give you the ones they prefer to use OR type in the
address you had previously.  Then you just wait until everything clears up.
 
This trick will not only help you in situations like a massive DDoS attack on
an internet backbone, but also if something goes wrong anytime your local DNS
server decides to stop working for you.
 
Let us know in the comments if this was helpful or if you would rather just
call up a family member to do it for you. Thanks for reading and safe surfing!
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- DB 3.99 + W10 (1607)
 * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)