Faster internet? DNS server change and evaluate

SharpByCoop

SharpByCoop

Enjoying the discussions
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 8, 2001
Messages
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I get this daily and weekly tip from (Kim) Komando.com. This particular one gave me pause. It's a free app that checks the speed of your DNS server assigned by your ISP and compares it to other available servers to route you through.

Kim Komando DNS 'Namebench' server freebie

Apparently ALL of us go through a DNS server for translation from a numerical URL to a name? You smart tech guys can educate us better. Or read her description.

All I know is, I read the article, downloaded the free program, ran it, and changed my DNS server on my Mac as instructed.

it reported there was a 52% increase in speed available to me through another server (In my case: Google). I copied the digits, pasted and did the numerical change in my Network preferences in my Control panel, and that was it.

You tell me. All I know is this was free and made a NICE difference. :thumbup:

Coop
 
Apparently ALL of us go through a DNS server for translation from a numerical URL to a name? You smart tech guys can educate us better. Or read her description.
Click to expand...

Yes. A DNS (Domain Name System) server translates a domain name (i.e. joshuakehn.com) to an IP address (i.e. 173.203.84.26). Tricky thing about why you can't use IP addresses is that just the ip address along (173.203.84.26) isn't enough to tell the server (Apache 2) what you want. In my case you also need to tell it that you are looking for a particular domain (joshuakehn.com). Apache then takes this and looks up the appropriate virtual host and serves you the content.
 
It seems pretty unlikely that you would get a 52% increase in speed over the DNS server your ISP provides you. You know, the ISP your traffic goes through before it can reach farther away DNS servers. But whatever.
Any increase they mention would only be on the domain to IP lookup, which is already lightning quick. The slow part of the internet is not DNS, its everything else.

I also don't like giving Google 100% of my browsing preferences. They farm my data quite enough already, they don't need to know how often I check BF.
 
iratepr said:
It seems pretty unlikely that you would get a 52% increase in speed over the DNS server your ISP provides you. You know, the ISP your traffic goes through before it can reach farther away DNS servers. But whatever.
Any increase they mention would only be on the domain to IP lookup, which is already lightning quick. The slow part of the internet is not DNS, its everything else.
Click to expand...

It's actually more about the speed of your ISP's DNS servers. Google's are bigger, distributed further, and often faster then a local ISP's server. It's not all about how far you have to travel.

iratepr said:
I also don't like giving Google 100% of my browsing preferences. They farm my data quite enough already, they don't need to know how often I check BF.
Click to expand...

This means that they already do:
Code: 
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-735919-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>

Also your browser (and OS sometimes) will cache frequently used domains so you aren't querying on every lookup.
 
Blast you Google Analytics!
Thats it. I'm making my own DNS in my hosts file and turning off JavaScript. And of course wearing my double-thick foil hat.

I have actually used the Google DNS before, but less for speed and more because the IP's are super easy to remember when manually configuring a NIC.
 
iratepr said:
Blast you Google Analytics!
Thats it. I'm making my own DNS in my hosts file and turning off JavaScript. And of course wearing my double-thick foil hat.

I have actually used the Google DNS before, but less for speed and more because the IP's are super easy to remember when manually configuring a NIC.
Click to expand...

One step ahead of you. I route all GA traffic to my local (which results in no tracking).

Code: 
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
 
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