This may or may not be widely known, but I've just discovered it.

After weeks of painfully slow internet browsing, I determined that the problem was the unresponsive DNS maintained by my ISP (a DNS is a "Domain Name Server," one of a series of privately maintained servers that translate a URL, e.g. www. flyertalk.com, into an IP address in the form of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, making web-surfing possible). DNS servers are generally specific to the ISP, who will either change their IP address from time to time, or simply block access by anyone outside their network block, so as to keep non-subscribers from using them.

After some quick searching last night, I discovered that Google maintains free, public DNS servers. I tried them and they are lightning fast -- my web experience has increased dramatically, including here on FT. They would also provide a great solution for many hotels whose ISP's DNS servers are over-loaded and sluggish.

The Google DNS servers are located at:

8.8.8.8

and

8.8.4.4

If you're using a home LAN or travel router, simply set your router to point to these DNS servers (yes, I know it's redundant ), rather than acquire DNS automatically from the ISP. If you're accessing the Internet directly on a PC, you'll have to change the properties of your NIC, usually by assigning a hard-coded IP address, and then entering the Google servers for DNS.

Warning: Though I haven't read the TOS for the Google DNS, I'm sure that, as with everything else Google does, it is tracking surfing habits of machines that access it. If privacy is a concern, don't use the Google DNS. I don't care if Google tracks where I surf (and it's not going to get much more than my dynamic IP address that is assigned by my ISP), and the dramatic increase in internet performance is definitely worth it to me.

Google publishes more information here:

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/