4 ms·

Cable providers provide terrible DNS service. You may notice a big difference in performance by changing your DNS settings to http://code.google.com/speed/publ

Cable providers provide terrible DNS service. You may notice a big difference in performance by changing your DNS settings to http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/ http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/ or http://www.opendns.com/ http://www.opendns.com/. As a bonus, I've noticed that many service interruptions are DNS failures, not routing issues.

blinkingled 15y ago
Absolutely - change the DNS _and_ put something like DD-WRT on your router with dnsmasq as the local caching proxy server. Nothing beats that per Steve Gibson's DNS benchmark!
- Terretta 15y ago
  Was this an inside joke?[1] 1. http://allthatiswrong.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/steve-gibson-is-a-fraud/ http://allthatiswrong.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/steve-gibson-... 2. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2510614 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2510614
  - blinkingled 15y ago
    It wasn't - this is just a DNS benchmark that does DNS resolution in loop and measures how long it took etc. Nothing requiring security expertise. Besides I don't understand why few people are after Gibson - he is generally on the mark - that's not to say he doesn't make mistakes - but nothing that makes me want to totally ignore him.
jerrya 15y ago
Thanks, but I actually do that using both Google's (8.8.8.8), as well as Level 3's (4.2.2.1)
dvdhsu 15y ago
You might want to try NameBench, which will find the fastest DNS server for you. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/ http://code.google.com/p/namebench/
ghshephard 15y ago
Be Careful about changing your DNS settings if you use a CDN - iTunes, in particular, offers horrible performance if you use googles DNS.
- ComputerGuru 15y ago
  Why do you think iTunes would care what DNS server you are using? I'm genuinely curious, as I would think that the DNS lookups are abstracted by the OS, and even if they were not, I cannot see how using a different (esp. a better performing) DNS server would hinder iTunes performance — especially since the original DNS isn't provided by Apple or anything.
  - ryannielsen 15y ago
    CDNs often rely on your DNS info to determine which node is closest to you and, thus, which node should offer the best performance. Using a central DNS like Google's can do two things: 1) Break locality. Using 8.8.8.8 may cause CDNs to potentially direct you to a node that's nowhere near your actual physical location 2) Aggregate traffic on a node. The more people using 8.8.8.8 for DNS, the more people who may land on the CDN nodes associated with 8.8.8.8's location and thus that node may be more loaded than the one closer to you [edit] Google even covers this in their Public DNS FAQ: http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/faq.html#cdn http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/faq.html#cdn. They offer 31 different locations, while Akamai may offer thousands of nodes (I can't find hard numbers, but they refer to 1,200+ points of presence here http://www.akamai.com/hdonline http://www.akamai.com/hdonline and 1,000 networks here http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/edgeplatform.html http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/edgeplatform.html). You're basically constraining yourself to a small subset of at least Akamai's CDN by using Google Public DNS.
    - ComputerGuru 15y ago
      That completely slipped my mind. You are, of course, correct. An alternative suggestion here is to use Comcast's 75.75.75.75 IP address; while it may seem static, it's actually an anycast address, and will resolve to the nearest node. One thing many people forget when choosing a DNS server is that it's not just the ping time that counts - the time it takes the server to reply to the actual DNS request is what matters. e.g. while 75.75.75.75 for me (Comcast Chicago) is a 15ms trip and 8.8.8.8 is a 28ms ping, the lookup on the former (dig x.com @dns_ip) can reach 120ms while on Google's DNS it never exceeds ~35ms.

blinkingled 15y ago

Absolutely - change the DNS _and_ put something like DD-WRT on your router with dnsmasq as the local caching proxy server. Nothing beats that per Steve Gibson's DNS benchmark!

Terretta 15y ago
Was this an inside joke?[1] 1. http://allthatiswrong.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/steve-gibson-is-a-fraud/ http://allthatiswrong.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/steve-gibson-... 2. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2510614 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2510614
- blinkingled 15y ago
  It wasn't - this is just a DNS benchmark that does DNS resolution in loop and measures how long it took etc. Nothing requiring security expertise. Besides I don't understand why few people are after Gibson - he is generally on the mark - that's not to say he doesn't make mistakes - but nothing that makes me want to totally ignore him.

jerrya 15y ago

Thanks, but I actually do that using both Google's (8.8.8.8), as well as Level 3's (4.2.2.1)

dvdhsu 15y ago

You might want to try NameBench, which will find the fastest DNS server for you. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/ http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

ghshephard 15y ago

Be Careful about changing your DNS settings if you use a CDN - iTunes, in particular, offers horrible performance if you use googles DNS.

ComputerGuru 15y ago
Why do you think iTunes would care what DNS server you are using? I'm genuinely curious, as I would think that the DNS lookups are abstracted by the OS, and even if they were not, I cannot see how using a different (esp. a better performing) DNS server would hinder iTunes performance — especially since the original DNS isn't provided by Apple or anything.
- ryannielsen 15y ago
  CDNs often rely on your DNS info to determine which node is closest to you and, thus, which node should offer the best performance. Using a central DNS like Google's can do two things: 1) Break locality. Using 8.8.8.8 may cause CDNs to potentially direct you to a node that's nowhere near your actual physical location 2) Aggregate traffic on a node. The more people using 8.8.8.8 for DNS, the more people who may land on the CDN nodes associated with 8.8.8.8's location and thus that node may be more loaded than the one closer to you [edit] Google even covers this in their Public DNS FAQ: http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/faq.html#cdn http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/faq.html#cdn. They offer 31 different locations, while Akamai may offer thousands of nodes (I can't find hard numbers, but they refer to 1,200+ points of presence here http://www.akamai.com/hdonline http://www.akamai.com/hdonline and 1,000 networks here http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/edgeplatform.html http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/edgeplatform.html). You're basically constraining yourself to a small subset of at least Akamai's CDN by using Google Public DNS.
  - ComputerGuru 15y ago
    That completely slipped my mind. You are, of course, correct. An alternative suggestion here is to use Comcast's 75.75.75.75 IP address; while it may seem static, it's actually an anycast address, and will resolve to the nearest node. One thing many people forget when choosing a DNS server is that it's not just the ping time that counts - the time it takes the server to reply to the actual DNS request is what matters. e.g. while 75.75.75.75 for me (Comcast Chicago) is a 15ms trip and 8.8.8.8 is a 28ms ping, the lookup on the former (dig x.com @dns_ip) can reach 120ms while on Google's DNS it never exceeds ~35ms.