Tikona Login Issues with OpenDNS, Google DNS

If like me, you prefer OpenDNS or Google DNS over your ISP’s default DNS, you are not alone and you are doing the right thing.

Pre-configured DNS settings available with OpenDNS Family Shield can drastically reduce adult/sexual content from reaching your computer and can also be used to control your children’s online activity. Google DNS is fast and reliable. You can also use NameBench to determine the fastest public DNS service for you.

I have used various ISPs in Hyderabad and tested their DNS servers quite a bit. For some reason, Tikona’s DNS servers do not resolve domains like PutLocker.com. Airtel’s DNS don’t get updated for 1-2 Days and changes that you make to your domains do not show up. BSNLs DNS is very intermittent and Beam’s DNS has a tendency to belly-up every now and then though their network continues to work during this duration.

As with Beam, Tikona also uses a web-based login to their service and if you set your Router’s/Computer’s DNS servers to OpenDNS/Google DNS/any other DNS, you may find yourself unable to login. You may not be able to access Tikona selfcare website either.

A simple solution exists: Just edit your Hosts file to make the following entries.

113.193.1.76 www.tikona.in
113.193.1.37 selfcare.tikona.in
113.193.12.10 login.tikona.in

To edit your Hosts file in Windows 7:

1. Press the ‘Windows’ key on your keyboard. The ‘Start’ menu should open.
2. Type ‘Notepad’ to bring up the short-cut to Microsoft Windows Notepad in ‘Programs’ search results.
3. Right-click on Notepad and click ‘Run as Administrator’. Notepad will start with elevated privileges.
4. In Notepad, click ‘File’ -> Open.
5. Navigate to ‘C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc’. {assuming your Windows OS is installed in C:\Windows}
6. In ‘File name’ field, type ‘*’ and click ‘Open’. You should see few files show up.
7. Select the file titled ‘hosts’. Select file to open it.
8. Copy paste the above lines (113.193… … …) to the end of the file and save the file.

BeamCable users can also use this tip to prevent login problems when using 3rd party DNS. You will typically have to determine the IP address of login web-page (http://portal.beamtele.com/)