Thread: Speed Up Web Browsing by Choosing the Fastest DNS

For starters you should probably know DNS is, for that look here. The Reader's Digest version is you can think of it like a phone book for the internet, it converts a name into an IP address. So when you type in Google it translates that into the site's IP.

There's been several popular DNS' lately, Google has one going and there's also openDNS. Your IP will assign you a few default DNS', but there are probably some out there that are faster for you. This isn't a one shoe fits all type thing, the fastest DNS for me might not be the fastest DNS for you. So you need a tool to find the best one for you, something like GRC's Domain Name Speed Benchmark.

You can download the tool from that link, and the page also has some info on how to use it. It's very, very, straightforward though. Download the app and run it... Once open click the "Nameservers" tab. Then simply hit "Run Benchmark". The colored bars = cached, uncached, and DotCom. Let the test run, it should be automatically bringing the fastest results to the top (ignore your gateway, 192.168.1.1).



You can use the different tabs to see more info about the servers: name, owner, status, and status in addition to the response time. Pick the top 3-4 servers and note the IP addresses, these will be your new DNS servers. I ran it a few times to get eliminate any flukes. In my case the top three were all owned by the same company, so I picked two of those and the next one down that was another company. Just so all my eggs weren't in the same basket, probably doesn't make a difference.

Now that you know what the fastest DNS servers are you'll want to enter them in. You can do this one of two ways, do it individually on your PCs or globally via your router. I'll cover both...

Adjust DNS on Individual PC(s)
NOTE: These directions are for Windows.

• Open up your network connection properties. (Right click your connection and select Properties)
• Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and then Properties. (You may only have version depending on your version of Windows)
• Check the Use the following DNS server addresses:
• Enter in the IP addresses of the DNS servers you want to use, fastest to slowest.
• Click Ok annd then Ok again.

Adjust DNS on Router
NOTE: Your router may be different, but the fundamentals should be the same.

• Log into your router's webUI. (Usually done by entering 192.168.1.1 into the address bar of your browser)
• Look for something like "Static DNS", there will usually be a list of them. This is generally on the start page, or basic setup page of your router.
• Enter in the IP addresses of the DNS servers you chose, fasests to slowest.
• Make sure all of the PCs on the network are set to automatically obtain their DNS server addresses. (Reverse of what you did above)

Nice little guide.
just out of interest, what DNS servers did you find the quickest for you?

The fastest for me seem to bounce (by minuscule amounts) between The Planet and Speakeasy nameservers. Each time you run the test the results will be slightly varied, but after running it a few times you should see the same handful in the top each time.

I've been trying to try OpenDNS, but the benchmark tool helps out a lot. Thanks!