Google DNS & Screen Sharing - Beware

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Level 1

46 points

Google DNS & Screen Sharing - Beware

I heard about Google's new DNS servers, so I tried 8.8.8.8 as my primary DNS (leaving my ISP as secondary) and it worked great! So I thought why not use Google's 8.8.4.4 as secondary. It seemed fine. Then I was trying screen sharing - it had stopped working. Luckily I have 5 macs here and pretty soon it was evident screen sharing was down in all directions. So, I kept 8.8.8.8 as primary but switched secondary back to my ISP's DNS server, and voila, screen sharing is back. Just a tip anyone else experimenting with this. There may be other problems as well, so I'd stick with only using 1 of their DNS servers for now if you want to play around with it.

iMac CD/MacBook CD/MacBook C2D/MacPro8x2.8, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Dec 5, 2009 9:51 AM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Dec 5, 2009 9:59 AM in response to Eric Maier

screen sharing works correctly here with several computers using google DNS servers. works both over a local network and across internet.

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Answer 2

kdb1

Level 3

770 points

Dec 5, 2009 10:19 AM in response to Eric Maier

If you change the DNS settings on your router it shouldn't affect screen sharing, if you change the DNS settings on each Mac you put the google DNS as primary and secondary and your routers IP as a third and everything will work fine.

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Answer 3

Eric Maier Author

Level 1

46 points

Dec 5, 2009 6:38 PM in response to kdb1

It's very likely it may not be a problem in all configurations; I put my DNS server settings in my router (Dlink wired gaming router), which is connected to a Dlink ADSL2+ modem and I guarantee having Googles as both pri & sec caused this problem on my network. It's repeatable & consistent.

I use screen sharing quite a bit, it can be very tricky to troubleshoot. I posted this to give folks who may be having problems with screen sharing one more thing to try.

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