Connecting to non-Plusnet wif

[#1]

Have Plusnet FTTC at home.
Last week I stopped in four different hotels in France, and to connect beyond the hotel router at all of them I had to change the DNS setting  from Plusnet (212.159.13.49 & 212.159.13.50) to Google (8.8.8.8. and 8.8.4.4).
Is this 'normal'?
Should I just leave my DNS setting as it now is? Is there any disadvantage in doing so?

[#2]

Quote from: Interislander

Is this 'normal'?

Yes, most ISPs only allow their customers to use their 'home' connection to access their DNS servers.

Quote from: Interislander

Should I just leave my DNS setting as it now is?

Yes,  using Google DNS is about as good as it gets.
It could be argued the using OpenDNS servers potentially offers better privacy, and has additional protection against malware, etc.
If you want to try out OpenDNS, try setting your DNS to -

• 208.67.222.123


• 208.67.220.123

Personally I would ALWAYS choose either Google DNS or OpenDNS, rather than Plusnet DNS, for both reliability and performance.

Quote from: Interislander

Is there any disadvantage in doing so?

No.

[#3]

I think sending all your DNS traffic to some third party gives you less privacy, although I expect Google knows pretty much everything you do on the web anyway.
Those OpenDNS IPs are the FamilyShield ones.