T-Mobile Hotspot and OpenDNS – They Hate Each Other (And how to mend the relationship)

Whenever I go to Starbucks to work, I connect to T-Mobile hotspot, since it is included with my phone plan. Cool right? Well, not really. At home I have Comcast, whose DNS really really sucks. So I used OpenDNS, which rocks, and never has issues.

Thing is, because T-Mobile hotspot uses DNS to verify you and make you login through their “intranet” page, you can’t use OpenDNS, so I have to go switch my DNS Settings every time I want to connect, that is no good, gotta be an easier way right? Oh there is…dug into “netsh” (I tested this on Windows Vista)

Create two batch files:

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Set DNS Dynamic.bat

netsh interface ip set dns “Wireless Network Connection” dhcp

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and then…

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Set DNS OpenDNS.bat

netsh interface ip set dns “Wireless Network Connection” static 208.67.222.222
netsh interface ip add dns “Wireless Network Connection” 208.67.220.220 index=2

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this assumes that your wifi connection in your network connection is named “Wireless Network Connection”. Run the Set DNS Dynamic when you are at Starbucks, run the other one when you get home. Easy!

I find this really helpful because in Vista, to get to your network properties for TCP/IP is like 18 steps/clicks, which is really a debacle when you just want to get on the Internet at a coffee shop!