Finding The Fastest Dns Server

[Tywais]

Came across this program that evaluates multiple DNS servers to find the optimum one to use. My results shown below. Haven't tested the results yet but will give it a go. The only odd one is the 192.168.1.1 as that is just the router lan connection address. Perhaps it is for the router internal DNS server information supplied by the ISP.

namebench

[Jdietz]

192.168.1.1 is indeed the router acting as a proxy DNS server for your network, forwarding it to the DNSs configured in it or given by DHCP

[negreanu]

192.168.1.1 will be the fastest as stated above - followed by your ISP's own DNS servers and then somewhere down the list google and openDNS.

[lomatopo]

Tywais, thanks, great find.

192.168.1.1 will be the fastest as stated above - followed by your ISP's own DNS servers and then somewhere down the list google and openDNS.

In my case Google was fastest, I was already using them, then my ISP (I swapped them in and OpenDNS out).

[negreanu]

In my case Google was fastest, I was already using them, then my ISP (I swapped them in and OpenDNS out).

Not quite sure how Google DNS servers would be faster than your local ISP's as the geographical location of Google and ISP DNS servers. Latency to local ISP DNS would be 10-50ms but to google would be 200ms+ in theory.

[RKASA]

You may have a lower ping to a near server but that is not response. The bench programs normally hit the server many time for different responses and log the effectiveness of the dns server. In Linux we have name bench which runs as many as 5000 tests to determine the real effective and responsiveness of the dns servers from your PC -

I am on open DNS for many reasons.

It also reported my isp was Vulnerable to poisoning attacks (poor port diversity)

Speed is only a part of what you need to know and google was in fact the mean response winner in my bench test, but for many reason in total I find open DNS works best for me.

[trogers]

In my case Google was fastest, I was already using them, then my ISP (I swapped them in and OpenDNS out).

Not quite sure how Google DNS servers would be faster than your local ISP's as the geographical location of Google and ISP DNS servers. Latency to local ISP DNS would be 10-50ms but to google would be 200ms+ in theory.

No. Google's DNS servers are not the fastest for Thailand.

I use this DNS Benchmark free utility to check out the fastest DNS servers. It has a sub-program to search and rate available local DNS servers as well.

http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

[MikeWill]

Here is my test results attached below.

Currently I'm using Google DNS servers. Even if it isn't the fastest DNS (according to the test), I think I'll stick to it.

Edited February 20, 2011 by Condo_bk

[Tywais]

No. Google's DNS servers are not the fastest for Thailand.

You are making a blanket statement and is not necessarily a valid one. It will depend on one's own ISP, that is its DNS server, it's routing and other mechanisms that can interfere with DNS lookups locally. Google's DNS servers may not be the fastest for a specific machine but faster for another.

[MikeWill]

It will depend on one's own ISP ...

My ISP is TRUE, but the fastest DNS server in my test is TOT-2.

[trogers]

No. Google's DNS servers are not the fastest for Thailand.

You are making a blanket statement and is not necessarily a valid one. It will depend on one's own ISP, that is its DNS server, it's routing and other mechanisms that can interfere with DNS lookups locally. Google's DNS servers may not be the fastest for a specific machine but faster for another.

Use the DNS Benchmark utility. Even if the DNS servers of your ISP are not working, you can choose those of other ISPs' listed by the utility. In all tests that I have conducted, those of Google's have not come within the top ten ranking.

[negreanu]

I agree its a roundtrip of 500-800ms to google DNS servers even before your page starts loading. Never seen Google DNS or OpenDNS outperform Thailand based ISP servers.

[lomatopo]

When I ping or tracert to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 (Google's DNS servers) on TOT, total time is ~60 msec; when I do the same on True it ~ 250 msec. I think Google has DNS servers distributed around the world; my guess would SG for the closest. The referenced program seems robust and by all accounts, extremely accurate. Not sure how one could argue with the results, but then this is ThaiVisa.

[Tywais]

Use the DNS Benchmark utility. Even if the DNS servers of your ISP are not working, you can choose those of other ISPs' listed by the utility. In all tests that I have conducted, those of Google's have not come within the top ten ranking.

I did run tests using both programs and in my case Google DNS servers came out as #1 in both. Again, that is for me and my location and will not necessarily represent everyone's experience.

[RKASA]

Same here I have ToT for an isp and Google even if I don't use it ether has won out twice that I have run namebench. I got warnings not to use Thai ISP due to poison servers both times. My last run was in Dec. If ISP was faster then google I would not use it anyway for other reasons anyway.

[trogers]

Same here I have ToT for an isp and Google even if I don't use it ether has won out twice that I have run namebench. I got warnings not to use Thai ISP due to poison servers both times. My last run was in Dec. If ISP was faster then google I would not use it anyway for other reasons anyway.

Are you referring to Cache Poisoning?

This is the test site for checking your DNS servers: https://www.grc.com/dns/dns.htm

TOT's two DNS servers (203.113.5.132 and 203.133.5.133) were rated bad but with a note:

Spoofability Mitigation Note: Even though one or more of the individual “spoofability”

parameters shown above indicates a worrying spoofability grade of “Very Bad”, our

fingerprinting of this server (see: Extra Anti-Spoofing) determined that it is enhanced with

anti-spoofing technology rendering it immune to “Kaminsky-style” cache poisoning attacks.

DNS servers of True (203.144.255.71 and 203.144.255.72) passed the tests but benchmark test shows they may be suffering traffic overload.

[urandom]

if you are serious about DNS security then you can use Unbound (Unbound is a validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver.) [ http://unbound.net/ ] with DNSSEC (DNSSEC is a mechanism to protect DNS data. It uses digital signatures.) [ http://unbound.net/documentation/howto_anchor.html ]

The source code is under a BSD License.

[astral]

192.168.1.1 is indeed the router acting as a proxy DNS server for your network, forwarding it to the DNSs configured in it or given by DHCP

The router is 192.168.1.254 on my set up,

just in case anyone is confused.

It has DNS info picked up from DHCP through the ISP.

Alternatively I use OpenDNS.

[lomatopo]

Tywais Thanks again for sharing this find. On several TOT installs, Google's DNS servers are much, much better than anything else. On ~ 4 True installs Goggle doesn't fare as well, but I still use at least one in router tables. Given that Thai ISP's DNS servers seem to be down or otherwise inaccessible quite frequently, I avoid using them. OpenDNS seems to have extremely poor performance characteristics on any/all networks so I'm happy to ditch them. Definitely a great tool.

[Supernova]

When I ping or tracert to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 (Google's DNS servers) on TOT, total time is ~60 msec; when I do the same on True it ~ 250 msec.

True, BKK.

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=48
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=48
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=48
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
   Minimum = 60ms, Maximum = 61ms, Average = 60ms


Pinging 8.8.4.4 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=48
Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=48
Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=48
Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 8.8.4.4:
   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
   Minimum = 60ms, Maximum = 61ms, Average = 60ms

[trogers]

When I ping or tracert to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 (Google's DNS servers) on TOT, total time is ~60 msec; when I do the same on True it ~ 250 msec. I think Google has DNS servers distributed around the world; my guess would SG for the closest. The referenced program seems robust and by all accounts, extremely accurate. Not sure how one could argue with the results, but then this is ThaiVisa.

I prefer to use C:\>tracert 8.8.8.8 instead of C:\>ping 8.8.8.8 to make sure signals are not reaching a cache server instead.

[drake]

Ping is not a speed reference.

Reference speed response time is domain-name to ip.

8.8.8.8 (Google) is the fastest dns server.

[wpcoe]

Can someone confirm/clarify/correct my understanding about using alternate DNS servers (alternate to your ISP's local one, I mean), please?

I understood from reading on various web sites (always cause for concern on accuracy) that it's *usually* best to use your local ISP's DNS servers since they may direct one to a more local web site.

e.g. If you type in http://www.google.com and are using, say OpenDNS DNS servers, it will resolve that to the IP address of a google.com server in the USA, whereas if you use TOT's DNS servers it may well direct you to a Google mirror site located physically in Thailand. Downloading from/accessing the Google mirror site in Thailand would (should) be faster than accessing a Google site in the USA, no?

What I do, is have my router set to my Thai ISP's DNS server. In Windows, I have my primary DNS server set to 192.168.1.1 (my router) and the secondary DNS server set for Comodo's DNS server in the USA. My "logic" (again, feel free to shoot me down!) is that I will try to resolve a URL using my Thai ISP's DNS server, but if that fails, it will try to resolve using the USA-based Comodo DNS server.