Solved: Zune Marketplace Running Extremely Slowly

Starting around November of 2012, I noticed my Zune Marketplace was running slowly. Not just kinda slow, but searches for music ran glacially slow, taking several minutes to return search results. My first thought was to contact Microsoft’s customer service. When their advice failed, I turned to Google, and found the answer.

Microsoft’s Failed Solution
When I contacted Microsoft, they told me that they were aware of a problem and that the solution was to reset/change my IP address. The email I received read (including typos):

My name is Liz with Microsoft Support. I am contacting you regarding your issues using the Marketplace in Zune. I understand how frazzling this kind of thing can bem fortunately I beleive I have some steps that may resolve this for you.

I have been seeing issues with this on certain cable providers. If you are using cable, particularly Cox Communications, you may be having this same issue. To resolve this, simply unplug your modem for no less than five minutes. This should renew your external IP address with your provider. After that, restart your PC and sign in and your marketplace issues should be resolved.

First I had to reset my IP, which did not work according to her instructions. In fact, I left my router and modem off for more than 24 hours and my IP still did not change. I eventually had to change the MAC address of my router in order to obtain a new IP address – but that still didn’t fix the Zune Marketplace issue.

The Solution
Fortunately, the solution I found was very simple and has worked flawlessly. In fact, my Marketplace searches may even be faster than before. I discovered the solution on this Microsoft community page from December. It’s simply a matter of changing your DNS servers to OpenDNS. Merely follow these instructions:

• Open the Network Connections (under Control Panel in Windows 7) and right-click your local network.
• Click Properties
• Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). It may say Internet Protocol Version 4 in Windows 8.
• Click Properties.
• Select “Use the following DNS server addresses”
• For Preferred DNS server, enter 208.67.222.222
• For Alternate DNS server, enter 208.67.220.220

Hit OK twice and that’s it!

Have you had issues with the Zune Marketplace, and if so did the solution above help? Let us know of your Zune Marketplace issues in the comments below.

You may also be interested in these older Zune-related articles

• Zune’s Unknown Error – My Quest
• Zune Not Turning On, 2010 Update
• If Your Zune Software Crashes
• If Your Zune Won’t Turn On