Open DNS

yup, seems a bit quicker than the BT dns where i am, plus you can block known nasty sites and filter content outside of your home network.

all that for free too :D
 
Used to. The default malware filtering etc. is nice, as are the records, but the hijacking for ads - not so much. Most schools/university use open dns, and dns filtering so so trivial to bypass is almost pointless outside of preventing the unwary stumbling across something they rather they didn't see.

The truth is the only large free dns service that works correctly (as in transmitting the intended error instead of redirecting to adds) is google. They only store logs for 24hr too, which may/may not be a plus.

The short answer to your question though, is reliability. Isp dns server's have a history of "issues". Either not updating as fast as the top tier ones or just playing up.

This tool will probably show opendns or google to be faster than your isps at any rate.
 
I've been using an OpenDNS as my primary DNS server and a Google DNS server as my secondary server for the past few years. I had constant issues with Virgin Media's DNS servers, and never bothered switching back. The main benefit is that they are usually much faster than the DNS servers provided by ISPs, and they tend to have fewer issues with propagation speed.
 
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Azuse05 said:
This tool will probably show opendns or google to be faster than your isps at any rate.
Click to expand...

I've ran this tool and it reports:


Consider Creating a Custom
Nameserver List for Yourself

Other publicly available resolvers will be faster
for you than any of these 72 resolvers.

This DNS Benchmark contains a generic built-in default list of 72 resolvers whose performance has just been benchmarked for comparison with the resolvers this system is currently using. However, since this built-in resolver list is the same for every user in the world, it is necessarily "generic," is biased towards users in the United States, and definitely does not contain resolvers that might be significantly faster for YOU.

This Benchmark utility has the capability to analyze the performance of 4,849 publicly available resolvers, then create a custom "Top 50" list just for you. Once this custom list exists, the benchmark will automatically use it, and you will be amazed at the difference it makes.

This list-creating process requires about 37 minutes, and there's no hurry to do it immediately. You can move this window to the side for now, or just close it with its "Not Now" button. If you want to explore this topic further, you can click the "Tell Me More" button below, or build a custom list immediately by pressing the "Build Custom List" button. Or, at any later time you can choose the "Build Custom Nameserver List" option from the System Menu or the Add/Remove nameservers pop-up dialog.

Building a custom list for yourself will add a powerful dimension to this benchmark by customizing it for YOU and your specific location, network, ISP, etc.

• • •

What do I need to do?
 
Just ignore that report. It has nothing to do with the benchmark itself. It's just telling you that you can make your own DNS list...
 
Indeed. The default list is slightly bias towards US dns servers (guaranteed safe) but you're really only interested in google/opendns.

That "custom"" list takes an hour to run and seems to take in anything remotely near you and still you'd be better off with the former two. Although iirc Zens servers are always snappy - no surprise there :)
 
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