Amateur here. Need some suggestions on DNS settings...

[Wounded Bear]

To DNS or not to DNS, that is my main question.

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to it?

Also, have long wondered what the deal is with proxy settings, as in what does it all mean?

Thanks in advance.

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. You have to have a DNS setting

(which will either be "automatic" or a specific address you can pick).

If automatic, you will get one assigned by your ISP. The DNS is "Domain Name Server" and is the computer that translates a URL (like democraticunderground.com) into the actual IP address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where x is a number between 0 and 255).

You can specify a specific DNS which might be faster, or more secure than your provider's DNS. See a discussion about paid vs free DNS services here:

https://www.techradar.com/news/best-dns-server

[PoliticAverse]

2. The question is what is doing your DNS now?

Your ISP?

If it is your ISP you are allowing them to easily control and spy on all your DNS queries. Is that desirable?

There are several public and free alternate DNS servers (here's a list: https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062 ). Using 2 different ones gives you some redunanncy in your DNS queries. Also in some cases the public DNS servers can be faster than the DNS provided by your ISP.

As to the proxy - that allows you to pass (redirect) all your Internet traffic through another computer. Few people need to do that (primarly those people behind restrictive firewalls do).