Change DNS IP Address

Administering systems that run DNS server­dependent applications can be challenging if the DNS server is unavailable. For DNS-dependent applications to run, you usually need to switch name resolution services to another DNS server. To change a local or remote DNS client computer's DNS server, you can use the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit's Regfind utility.

First, open a new command window or telnet to the remote computer. Run ipconfig /all to obtain a list of configured DNS servers (save the output to a file if necessary). To change the DNS server, go to the command line and enter

regfind -p HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current
ControlSet\Services\Tcpip\parameters 
<old DNS IP address> -r <new DNS IP address>

Rerun ipconfig /all to verify that the new DNS IP address is validated. Optionally, run ipconfig /flushdns to flush the DNS resolver cache. You don't need to reboot the computer.

If you need to configure the system with multiple DNS servers, simply add the second server after the first server. For example, entering

regfind -p HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current
ControlSet\Services\Tcpip\parameters 
10.11.12.13 -r 10.11.12.14 10.11.12.15

adds a second server. To change the DNS server's IP address on a remote computer, enter

regfind -m \\<Computer_Name> -p HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM\CurrentControlSetServices\Tcpip\parameters 
<old DNS IP address> -r <new DNS IP address>

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