Why does ipconfig show multiple DNS servers?

$ ipconfig /all
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . : a.b.c.d
                                      a.b.c.e

Why do I have two DNS servers listed? Is it something like try second in case first fails?

Solution 1:

Yep, exactly correct, redundancy.

Most big DNS providers always give two addresses in the event that one fails.

Google - Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers or

OpenDNS - 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Google has a program that they have released that will run speed tests on all of the most popular DNS servers including your ISP's.

http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

This maybe be of some use to you if you wish to tweak your DNS settings.