OpenDNS - what / why / how

[Brendan Bryson]

Originally Posted by kendall

Based upon your post above, then, are you saying that I should be using Comodo DNS instead of the current Open DNS that I am using now?

Well this is the thing depending on were you are in the world you will get different results from myself. What I would do is ping Open DNS & Secure DNS and see which you get the better ping to but be aware that ping is not the only thing that will affect responsiveness, the way that the DNS server caches results is another factor but as Open DNS & Secure DNS do this in similar ways this should not be an issue. When pinging these DNS servers remember to do it 2 times and use the second result.

Like I said above I have heard that Secure DNS from Comodo is more security friendly than the free version of Open DNS, I can not confirm this.

One last not the DNS that is provided by your own ISP may very well be the fastest or maybe it is not it all depends, but be assured both Open DNS & Secure DNS are more secure than most DNS offered by your ISP.

Thanks

[kendall]

What I would do is ping Open DNS & Secure DNS and see which you get the better ping

That's exactly what I did and posted above?!

If you look at the pings that I posted, you will see that the first one is OpenDNS and the second is ComodoDNS. I pinged the DNS servers that you posted. If you look at the results above, you'll see that the second set of pings is lower than the first.

[Brendan Bryson]

Originally Posted by kendall

That's exactly what I did and posted above?!

If you look at the pings that I posted, you will see that the first one is OpenDNS and the second is ComodoDNS. I pinged the DNS servers that you posted. If you look at the results above, you'll see that the second set of pings is lower than the first.

OOps sorry kendall I thought that that was you quoting my post Yes if I were you I would use Comodo DNS. Most people will not notice a big improvement but as this it seems to be the closer and as I did say secure dns is supposed to be better than Open dns. One thing you will notice that ther are a lot of people who do not use secure dns because they do not trust Comod for some past issues they had but I and many others think that secure dns is the better choice. Let me know if you notice any difference.

Thanks.

[J_L]

Unless you have a use for the extra blocklists OpenDNS provides, I would suggest you to switch as well.

[xobi]

Hi guys,
What is your opinion about Google DNS?
Open Dns are become very commercial. The cut down many useful features on there free version. I found Google Dns faster than Open Dns. There is no extra features with Google Dns. No filtering or nothing. You can simply use it. I found it really useful when my isp had troubles with there dns servers.

I figured it out bye using a software called Namebench. Found it on google codes. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/


Google DNS - 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

More Info: http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

[rhiannon]

Originally Posted by xobi

Hi guys,
What is your opinion about Google DNS?
Open Dns are become very commercial. The cut down many useful features on there free version. I found Google Dns faster than Open Dns. There is no extra features with Google Dns. No filtering or nothing. You can simply use it. I found it really useful when my isp had troubles with there dns servers.

I figured it out bye using a software called Namebench. Found it on google codes. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/


Google DNS - 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

More Info: http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

I have mixed results with OpenDNS - often they are slow. I've been bouncing between Google DNS and Comodo DNS.
Benchmarks on my end of the planet consistently show Google as the fastest - that's from using GRC's benchmark utility as well as Google's.

[Ratzo]

Easiest way is to download and use DNSBenchmark.exe from Gibson Research Corp

[freedog96150]

My results, not surprisingly, listed my personal DNS server as the fastest (by far). What threw me for a loop is that my ISP's servers were a solid second. OpenDNS was third with Google pretty far down the line. Since my ISP likes to hijack the name resolution, I have resorted to using OpenDNS as my forwarder and secondary DNS server.

Object lesson is that location plays a big role and YMMV.

Thanks everyone for posting a list of tools to check DNS speeds!

[HeWhoRocks]

This may be a daft question, but does openDNS work with mobile broadband?

[Sope]

Originally Posted by grf

does openDNS work with mobile broadband?

Should do. Unless your particular provider actively blocks the use of an alternative DNS to it's own.