Does PIA VPN offer smart DNS?

Is SmartDNS better than VPN?

I've been using a couple of vpn services, and was always told that VPN is faster than Smart DNS, since your IP gets routed through the VPN and you use their IP (instead of direct internet connection). When I just tried out SmartDNS on my PC, it seems to have a noticeable effect in how fast the DNS resolving is. I used the dns test from This is the SmartDNS-enabled network: And this is the VPN-enabled network: In both cases I'm using the same exact browser for both tests. Can anyone explain to me how SmartDNS is different from a VPN? Or maybe you can tell me the reason why some people claim SmartDNS to be slower than VPN? I used to use the same setup as the picture above, and had never noticed a difference. Is it because of your speed? If so, what are you measuring the difference in (dns speeds/wifi uploads)

The real difference is that if you are connecting through the local gateway, you will almost always be connected via that gateway, unless you have set up a different network (subnet mask) that is routed out another gateway. In this case, the local gateway will always be the default router of that network, while the remote gateway is the remote router (as defined in the route table).

With a VPN, your internet connection is essentially bridged over the remote gateway as well. This means that when looking up the IP, the request to the remote router gets the routing (the local and the remote gateway) as answers and the routing defines the way that the reply should be delivered back to your computer, eg via an interface. With a "proper" VPN, you want to go through a tunnel that is already established and only a single reply would come back.

If you use a VPN, no matter what speed, your internet connection to all networks in the internet will always go through the same gateway. That way, your speed is not affected, since you're going through that gateway no matter what.

With the SmartDNS server, on the other hand, your speed may still be affected depending on which gateway you chose. Well, yes it has changed.

Does PIA VPN offer smart DNS?

How do I set it up for a domain?

Does PIA offer a web hosting service? I'm interested in finding out how well PIA VPN works in the country I live in, which is Italy. For example, I can't access the BBC website (), and I can't access Netflix on my computer. My ISP doesn't allow me to do so. However, if I set my PIA VPN to use a UK IP address, then I can access both the BBC and Netflix websites. Is there any way for me to do this? ?

Is it possible for you to find out the IP address of a website (not just the domain name)? If so, how do you go about doing this? To clarify, I want to access a website from outside the country where I am living. I have set my PIA VPN to use a UK IP address. It would be good to know whether or not I can use it to access BBC.uk (or any other website) from outside the UK.

You'll need to find the IP address of the website, or at least one of the domains that it's serving from. You can use tools like those listed below: IP Info: Netcraft: Then use PIA VPN to connect to a UK IP address. If you want to access BBC.uk, you can do so without having to use a UK IP address, but you'll need to use a VPN provider that doesn't track your browsing activity, and you'll need to use a different country code (eg italy).

What is a smart DNS?

What does the I've tried everything, I just can't get a connection to your server.

error mean? A smart DNS is a DNS record that lets you set up a hostname (eg, example.com) and have it resolve to a different IP address on different subnets of a site.

What does dynamic, static, round-robin and random mean in this context? A dynamic DNS or smart DNS service is a utility that keeps your DNS records in sync with the name servers that resolve your domain name. When you change your site IP address, your DNS records change automatically. You should not have any of these services do anything more than that.

Static DNS or smart DNS services will resolve names for you but do not keep track of your current IP addresses. Reverse DNS or smart DNS services will resolve IP addresses for you. Round-robin DNS or smart DNS services will resolve your names to one of multiple IP addresses per request. Random DNS or smart DNS services will try to resolve names to IP addresses by using a random algorithm. The most common reason for changing an IP address is if a new device is being added to a network. An attacker can often intercept data traffic and change its destination by changing an IP address. If you do not change the IP address, then that data will be sent to the original IP address.

Smart DNS makes sure your DNS records are updated when you change your IP address. This reduces the chance that an attacker can intercept your traffic and replace it with a malicious one.

This is only done for devices, not the primary website. The other part of what you are asking about is how to add the domain name into a domain management system. Many companies offer a web-based interface where you can manage your DNS records.

How does that work? A few DNS record types do not allow for dynamic changes to be made. DNS records that do not support dynamic updates include the following: a
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Ms

Other DNS record types that do not support dynamic updates include the following: CNAME. SECTION. The domain management system determines which type of DNS record you are trying to add.