Google Public Dns

[Supernova]

Google is launching its own public DNS resolver called Google Public DNS.

Those of you experiencing DNS issues or have trouble using OpenDNS, give these a try.

Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8

Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4

[nikster]

Cool, thanks for sharing.

[DaveBKK]

Combined with their search data, and google analytics and now a DNS, Google is literally trying to track and gather information on everything everyone does online.

Talk about Big Brother....

[SoMeOnEnUlL]

It won't work with ThaiVisa. The image will not be showing as long as you use the DNS server outside Thailand. George posted one lengthy topic why it didn't work. Not so sure if the problem has been fixed.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

I switched from OpenDNS to Google DNS 2 days ago and only snappy performance. It's hard to always tell because TOT speed can flutuate but really feels faster to me.

[OriginalPoster]

Here is some more talk about it.

http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/12/int...ns-new-dns.html

This is way better than the OpenDNS, who are known to route some traffic via their server.

If you are using OpenDNS, do the change to Google DNS immediately.

What's the disadvantage of OpenDNS's practice of routing some traffic via their server?

[OriginalPoster]

What's the disadvantage of OpenDNS's practice of routing some traffic via their server?<br />

It's typical man-in-the-middle case. One example is google searches. OpenDNS points your google searches via their servers.

They can therefore log all your search entries and alter the pages as they wish. let's say you search for hotel in Bangkok and one hotel will pay OpenDNS to put their links on the top.

They can also put their own advertises to the pages. If they would do this to Thaivisa, then Thaivisa is providing the forum services, but OpenDNS get's the money from their adds. Does not sound fair.

As they are already doing this with Google, how can we be sure that they would not do it with some other websites, like banks?

In the case of Google, redirecting the traffic is also an performance issue here in Thailand. Google has it's own pipe from Thailand to their services. When OpenDNS reroutes the traffic via their servers, there will be more delay for the page loads.

I have not checked OpenDNS issues for a long time, since I setup my own DNS server. Maybe they have changed their policies for now. Most likely not.

-Pekka

The explanation that OpenDNS originally gave for rerouting calls to google was that Google and Dell had started to pre-install software on new Dell systems that would redirect DNS calls in such a way that broke certain OpenDNS functionality. Maybe they are infact rearranging google search responses to put OpenDNS sponser at the top of the list but this is the first time that I heard that allegation. Here's a link to OpenDNS's explanation of it back in 2007: http://blog.opendns.com/2007/05/22/google-turns-the-page . It's interesting that now google has their own competing DNS service, and that they point to OpenDNS redirecting google traffic as being a plus for thier own service. It might just have been coincidence, but somehow it sounds a bit similar to the way some nefarious websites will install virus software on people's machines and then turn around and offer to sell them software to remove the virus.

BTW, one easy solution to OpenDNS's google redirection issue (if it's a deal breaker for you) is to put a couple of manual entries into your Hosts file.

Also, I ran a couple of bechmarking tests with the DNSBench utility, once on a PC in Singapore and once on a PC on the East Cost of the US (I connect to the latter via a VNC). Fro Singapore, I'm getting somewhat faster results in the benchmarking with Google's DNS than with OpenDNS. The the machine in the US, it's the opposite - OpenDNS is benchmarking better. However in both cases the cable company's own DNS servers (Starhub in Singaproe; Cox in the US) are the fastest by a significant margin.

[Gary A]

I recently changed to Google DNS settings. I can't say how much better it is because of my poor connection. I do think it is better and have no problems opening any web site. It certainly isn't any worse than what I had.

[Phil Conners]

The one thing that annoyed me with OpenDNS was that if there was a problem with the site you would get their (IMO) crappy search engine results instead, and it would rewrite the URL bar, making it unnecessarily complicated to correct a simple typo. With Google DNS an error seems to produce the correct error. And it seems just as fast if not faster than OpenDNS.

[bendejo]

It won't work with ThaiVisa. The image will not be showing as long as you use the DNS server outside Thailand. George posted one lengthy topic why it didn't work. Not so sure if the problem has been fixed.

Yeah, I had that problem and was fixed by adding to my HOSTS file.

Then I switched from Vista to win7, set up freeDNS same as the old system and brought over the same HOSTS file (I have all sorts of short-circuits in it to prevent snooping) and had to remove the static entry for ThaiVisa images. Go figure.

[webfact]

Google DNS works like a charm. No problems to report. HOPE without any HOSTS entry.