First of all DNS is used to make complicated things for Internet users simple or better to say to convert currently used IPv4 addresses like 173.194.41.169 (this is Goolge's IP address) to a domain name Google.com. It is quite obvious why is this convenient - for most of the humans it is much easier to remember a domain name (even more if it is descriptive) than set of numbers. This will become even more important when new IPv6 protocol expands to its full potential. There are several more benefits of this approach, but I won't discuss about them now, since they're out of scope of this post. For this resolving numbers to names thing to work, as you probably guessed by now we need something called DNS.
Most of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have all this DNS thing automated for you so you don't need to set up anything on your computer to be able to access various web pages. Now comes the catch - you can change it very easily no matter what platform you're using (Windows, MacOS, Linux, PC, NAS or router). Now I'm finally getting to it - it can be changed, but changed to what? Well, except DNS servers provided by your ISP, there are several public DNS servers you can use, and guess what they're free to! Now the time has come to tell something more about them, so for starters I'll just put all them in a bulleted list linked to their official web sites and Wikipedia pages. For now lets just assume I've compiled a list without any subjective preferences and afterwards I'll provide you more informations and my subjective opinion of them:
- OpenDNS - (OpenDNS@Wikipedia)
- OpenNIC - (OpenNIC@Wikipedia)
- DNS Advantage - (DNS Advantage@Wikipedia)
- NortonDNS - (NortonDNS@Wikipedia)
- Google Public DNS - (Google Public DNS@Wikipedia)
Now when I've presented all of public DNS services (or at least ones I'm aware of) to you I just need to say that actually I don't prefer the last two services on the list, so I'll start quick my quick review with them.
Google Public DNS
I don't like Google DNS service at all (even they're claimed to be the fastest DNS service) from a very simple and objective reason - because of their logging activities. More or less the same as with Google's search engine which I've wrote about in this post, if you decide to use Google's DNS service, you should be aware they're going to log all requests, your location and more or less all of the informations they can legally collect about you. If you don't bother about all this there is no reason to think like me and a priory disqualify this service.
Norton DNS
On the other hand I don't prefer Norton DNS service due to subjective reason, or better to say due to lack of confidence into any of their products (exceptions do apply). Maybe you think different so if you don't agree with my opinion feel free not to disqualify this service as well.
Open NIC Project
Open NIC Project is ran by group of individuals and if you use their service you'll also be able to access all ICANN domains (all wide available domains ie. .com, .net, .org, etc.) as well as OpenNIC’s own TLDs: .geek, .free, .bbs, .parody, .oss, .indy, .fur, .ing, .micro, .dyn, .neo, .pirate, gopher and null. I've tried this service and found no complaints on it.
DNS Advantage
I've tried this service and found it to be reliable. It is offering all of the features regarding security and speed as all other services. Feel free to try it out.
OpenDNS
Although this service was listed as first, I've deliberately left is as last one to describe. As you can guess I'm currently sticking to this DNS service for several reasons. The first one is as it turned out to be the fastest one for me or better to say regarding my geolocation. Recently it also started offering another security related service in a form of computer client called DNSCrypt. It's main purpose is to provide additional level of security regarding DNS requests. It is still in a preview release, but I expect it will evolve quite soon. The most important part regarding DNSCrypt is a fact that it's base source code is freely available to public, which is a primary requirement when developing any kind of security software. Another cool service provided by OpenDNS is called DNS-o-Matic and is quite useful if you want to be able to use domain names with dynamic IP address(es). Due to all said I personally find this service to be my favourite.
If for any reason you decide to switch to any of mentioned DNS services, I suggest you to make a decision if you want to go for security, speed or additional services. Now, here comes the speed issue again. As I've already mentioned don't expect DNS service speed factor will increase your Internet connection's throughput (megabits). What it will do - it will speed up translation of domain names into IP addresses. Since all of DNS services rely on geographical dispersion, as with any other Internet speed related thing, the closer you are (geographically) to servers used by certain DNS service, better (higher) speed you'll get out of it. Therefore I suggest you to measure their speeds before selecting which one you want to use. And there is a quite easy way to measure their speed by using following free utilities:
They will enable you to find out how are mentioned services performing for you personally. I won't get into their usage details here as they are explained on their web pages. What I've also avoided to write about is implementation of mentioned DNS services to any of the platforms (personal computers, NAS or routers) as you should primary decide which service is the most acceptable for you to use. Afterwards you can find detailed implementation tutorial very easily by visiting DNS service provider's web page as all of the mentioned DNS services have this topic covered in detail.
I wish you a safe and happy DNSing!
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