You can speed up BT and EE Broadband by changing FOUR numbers in the settings, reveals Wi-Fi expert

Struggling with sluggish broadband speeds? If your internet connection comes courtesy of BT or EE, there's a clever new trick that could supercharge your speeds in seconds. You only need to type four digits into the settings menu of your Wi-Fi router — and you can expect a faster connection, expert Tom Paton has claimed.

BT has rolled out a software update to its Wi-Fi routers, which adds the ability to manually change the DNS for the first time. The same applies to Wi-Fi routers issued to EE Broadband subscribers.

What is the DNS? It stands for Domain Name System (DNS) and is the behind-the-scenes system that acts as a phonebook for every website on the internet. You'll be familiar with the process of typing out the address for a website, like www.gbnews.com, to navigate to a specific domain, but that easy-to-read URL isn't actually what your device uses. Instead, smartphones and computers use a numerical IP address to navigate to websites.

Whenever you type a web address, your machine will fire the URL to your chosen DNS service, which then returns the numerical IP address. It's something like an old-fashioned switchboard — and the speed of the operator really matters.

Most broadband providers automatically route these requests via their own DNS servers, which work fine, but are rarely the fastest available. Switching to a faster public DNS can reduce the time it takes to look up websites.

Granted, the time difference is usually measured in milliseconds rather than minutes, so it won't suddenly make a really slow broadband connection feel fast. But with countless DNS lookups taking place every single day, it can make everything feel more responsive and faster, especially when opening new websites for the first time.

And with the ability to switch your default DNS service in your BT or EE Wi-Fi router, there's no excuse not to alter those all-important four figures. Tom Paton — founder of consumer advice resource, Broadband Savvy — told GB News: "Some DNS services are slower to respond than others, so if you want the fastest possible broadband speeds, it’s worth making sure you’re using a snappy DNS server. Your broadband connection relies on DNS lookups for almost everything it does online, from social media to streaming TV – so it really pays to use fast DNS.

“Often, by default, your router uses your broadband provider’s DNS service. These default services are often quite slow compared to other options out there, because they’re not something that most broadband providers put much focus on.

"The problem was, historically, BT and EE routers prevented you from changing the DNS service you were using. But recently, with the recent software updates, this has all changed – for certain router models."

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BT automatically installs software updates on its Wi-Fi routers overnight, so you'll need to follow the steps below to see if you're already able to make the DNS changes.

Mr Paton explained: "For EE Broadband customers, you can now change your DNS service on the Smart Hub 7 Plus, Smart Hub 7 Pro, and the older Smart Hub Plus. As a BT customer, you can change your DNS on the brand new Smart Hub 3 router – but unfortunately this setting isn’t available on the old Smart Hub 2.

“For customers of many other broadband providers, such as Plusnet and Vodafone, it’s always been possible to change this setting. However, Sky, NOW Broadband, and Virgin Media routers still do not allow you to use a different DNS service.”

On BT and EE routers, you can change DNS settings by logging into the web admin portal, and heading to Advanced settings > My network > IPv4 configuration > DNS Servers.

Turn off the option marked Auto, and type in the IP addresses of your chosen DNS service to use in the “Primary DNS” and “Secondary DNS” sections. Google and Cloudflare both offer fast, free DNS services available to the public.

• Google DNS IP addresses: 8.8.8.8 (primary), 8.8.4.4 (secondary)
• Cloudflare DNS IP addresses: 1.0.0.1 (primary), 1.1.1.1 (secondary)

As a reminder, you'll need one of the following Wi-Fi routers:

• EE Smart Hub 7 Plus
• EE Smart Hub 7 Pro
• EE Smart Hub Plus
• BT Smart Hub 3

Changing the DNS settings on your router has another advantage too.

Because every device connected to your home Wi-Fi uses the router to access the internet, updating the DNS settings there automatically applies the change across your phones, laptops, tablets, smart TVs and games consoles. That means you only have to make the adjustment once, rather than configuring every device individually.

While a faster DNS server won't increase your download speeds or improve video streaming quality on its own, it can remove a small delay that occurs before websites and online services start loading, making your connection feel a little snappier overall.

At first glance, it seems odd that companies like Google and Cloudflare would offer to run a DNS service for free. However, there's a simple reason: the faster and more reliable the internet is, the more people use it – and that ultimately benefits both businesses.

Cloudflare's business revolves around making websites faster, more secure and more reliable. Its free 1.1.1.1 DNS service helps direct internet traffic quickly and efficiently, while also showcasing the company's networking expertise. Cloudflare says it doesn't sell users' personal data or use DNS requests to target advertising, making privacy one of its biggest selling points.

Google's Public DNS has a slightly different purpose. As one of the world's largest internet companies, Google has invested heavily in global networking infrastructure.

Offering a fast, reliable DNS service helps improve the overall performance and resilience of the web, while reducing the impact of overloaded or poorly configured internet provider DNS servers. Although Google says it doesn't use Public DNS to personalise adverts, it does temporarily log some information to help improve the service and protect against abuse.

Both companies also benefit from operating DNS at enormous scale. Running one of the world's busiest DNS services provides valuable insight into internet performance, emerging technical problems and large-scale cyberattacks, helping them improve the resilience of their wider networks.

For most people, the biggest advantage is simply that these services are often faster, more reliable and better maintained than the default DNS servers supplied by some internet providers.

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