DNS Benchmark

**American Zombie** · December 4th, 2009

I have been wondering what are REALLY the fastest DNS servers since many people talk about OpenDNS are the best. I found a utility that benchmarks DNS servers and as you can see there are four servers faster then my ISP (Comcast) and eight DNS servers (including my ISP's) that are faster then OpenDNS.
I am going to try those servers rated as the fastest to see if it does make a difference.

You can get the benchmark utility ---> GRC's|DNS Nameserver Performance Benchmark

Just found another that searches for the best dns servers that apply to you. This one is kinda buggy to me though. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

**Johnny** · December 5th, 2009

That is pretty cool. I am surprised that they don't have a pitch for Zone Alarm on there.

**Johnny** · December 5th, 2009

I just ran the test five times. And all five times it gave different results. So I guess it just depends on the traffic flow ....

Dark Atheist · December 6th, 2009

i will have to look at that when i am next on the pc

**American Zombie** · December 6th, 2009

Originally Posted by Johnny

I just ran the test five times. And all five times it gave different results. So I guess it just depends on the traffic flow ....

Not sure what is going on there.
I ran the test 5 times and every time the results came out in the exact order as the picture.

roirraW "edor" ehT · December 6th, 2009

I only ran each utility once, and not close to the same time as each other, and the results are interesting, but GRC's|DNS Nameserver Performance Benchmark came up with a result where my default DNS's are not the fastest and namebench - Project Hosting on Google Code came up that my default DNS's are the fastest. :P

This is a good example of where I find it frustrating to tweak things because there's always someone who says a different or the "other" way is better.

**Johnny** · December 6th, 2009

The thing with Steve Gibson, though, is that I have a hard believing everything he says.

Dark Atheist · December 7th, 2009

he has been right about many things though, bet your the type of person that believes everything Paul Thurrott says

Its only advise you don't have to take what any of his programs say if you don't want to, it may be right, it may be wrong, time will tell

**American Zombie** · December 7th, 2009

Try the other one I linked too--it is open source

**Johnny** · December 7th, 2009

Originally Posted by Dark Atheist

he has been right about many things though, bet your the type of person that believes everything Paul Thurrott says

Its only advise you don't have to take what any of his programs say if you don't want to, it may be right, it may be wrong, time will tell

if you look at some of it, it is snake oil salesman tactics.

batteryready · December 7th, 2009

Originally Posted by Dark Atheist

he has been right about many things though, bet your the type of person that believes everything Paul Thurrott says

Its only advise you don't have to take what any of his programs say if you don't want to, it may be right, it may be wrong, time will tell

yep,yep, i do agree with you ,time will tell

Dark Atheist · December 7th, 2009

Originally Posted by Johnny

if you look at some of it, it is snake oil salesman tactics.

As is with most tweaks, tips, and programs to tweak your system, yet people still buy them, if he stuff was crap i think is ass would have been dragged over the coals long ago

**X-Istence** · December 8th, 2009

Here is a quick script I wrote, it tests all the different DNS servers 10 times for the same domain name, then outputs it to the terminal lowest to high. Take from this what you want.

Code:

for ip in 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 4.2.2.1 4.2.2.1 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 10.10.10.11; do echo ${ip}: $(for i in `jot 10 1 10`; do dig @${ip} usingnamespace.com | grep "Query"; done | awk '{ print $4 }' | sort )ms; done

Code:

8.8.8.8: 52 52 52 53 53 54 55 56 64 103ms
8.8.4.4: 57 57 58 58 58 60 62 62 81 99ms
4.2.2.1: 20 22 22 22 22 23 24 24 24 25ms
4.2.2.1: 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 26 36 79ms
208.67.222.222: 37 38 38 38 39 39 40 41 45 67ms
208.67.220.220: 37 37 37 38 39 41 41 41 42 77ms
10.10.10.11: 17 17 18 18 18 18 18 19 20 22ms

The last IP address on that list is my local resolver (dnscache from djbdns), the next fastest is Level 3's DNS servers in 4.2.2.{1,2,3,4} and then OpenDNS, and in last is Google's new DNS service.

Dark Atheist · December 8th, 2009

System is using one or more Level 3 nameservers.
Just a note: During the development testing of this benchmark, many of our testers who had been using Level 3's nameservers (4.2.2.1 through 4.2.2.6) discovered that they were less reliable - especially over the weekends - than they previously knew. As a result, they demoted those nameservers in their system's nameserver list so that they were used only as last resort backups.

Recommended Actions:

Since you are using Level 3's servers in some capacity, you might want to keep a close watch on them for a while by running this benchmark from time to time - especially over the weekends - to check their performance and reliability and verify that you're happy with the role they are playing for you.

Anyone who is using Level 3 ever experience this?

Dark Atheist · December 11th, 2009

after more tests its saying that google is best for me followed by my isps own dns server

(thats the open source one).

So gibsons says level 3 is best, open source one says level 3 is worst for me.........

**American Zombie** · December 11th, 2009

Originally Posted by Dark Atheist

after more tests its saying that google is best for me followed by my isps own dns server (thats the open source one).

So gibsons says level 3 is best, open source one says level 3 is worst for me.........

The open source one tests servers from your index.dat files cache from what I observed. At first it listed 184 servers from IE but after I deleted the index.dat files there were 0 servers to test from IE and only the Alexa top 10000 were available.

Dark Atheist · December 11th, 2009

The open source one cant make its mind up, near every time i ran it, it gave me a different "best" server, with grc's it was consistently give me the same result, which was my 2 isp's dns servers and 2 of level 3's servers.

Will test it out tomorrow during the day and see what it says, i can see why you say the open source one is buggy, i wouldn't have thought the results would have changed never every time it was ran

**Xie** · December 18th, 2009

The Gibson shows what DNS server is fastest for you at the time (it can change with traffic). The server(s) that are closest to you are probably going to be faster for you. I also like that the Gibson test shows you what DNS servers are returning their own 404 pages (aka ads for missing domains).

I also wonder what it said under "conclusions" for you? Usually if the top DNS just barely beats your current one it suggests to just keep it how you got it.

*edit* - I also found the router crashing to be interesting, anyone running a router should check that their router isn't on the list and then check and see if the tests makes it crash. A crash = bad and possible that someone could someday take over your router via remote code exploit.

Dark Atheist · December 18th, 2009

i tried gibsons test out at varying times during the day, top five were always the same, sometimes in a different order, the open source one was wild in its pickings, i have gone for my own isp's dns and 2 from level 3

December 4th, 2009	Top \| #1
American Zombie OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: June 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 2,849 Reputation: 2689 Power: 148	DNS Benchmark I have been wondering what are REALLY the fastest DNS servers since many people talk about OpenDNS are the best. I found a utility that benchmarks DNS servers and as you can see there are four servers faster then my ISP (Comcast) and eight DNS servers (including my ISP's) that are faster then OpenDNS. I am going to try those servers rated as the fastest to see if it does make a difference. You can get the benchmark utility ---> GRC's\|DNS Nameserver Performance Benchmark Just found another that searches for the best dns servers that apply to you. This one is kinda buggy to me though. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/ Attached Thumbnails

December 5th, 2009	Top \| #2
Johnny Paul Reed Smith Joined: January 2004 Location: Happy Valley Posts: 4,838 Reputation: 2369 Power: 170	Re: DNS Benchmark That is pretty cool. I am surprised that they don't have a pitch for Zone Alarm on there. Paul Reed Smith.

December 5th, 2009	Top \| #3
Johnny Paul Reed Smith Joined: January 2004 Location: Happy Valley Posts: 4,838 Reputation: 2369 Power: 170	Re: DNS Benchmark I just ran the test five times. And all five times it gave different results. So I guess it just depends on the traffic flow .... Paul Reed Smith.

December 6th, 2009	Top \| #4
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,346 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1877 Power: 0	Re: DNS Benchmark i will have to look at that when i am next on the pc

December 6th, 2009	Top \| #5
American Zombie OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: June 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 2,849 Reputation: 2689 Power: 148	Re: DNS Benchmark Originally Posted by Johnny I just ran the test five times. And all five times it gave different results. So I guess it just depends on the traffic flow .... Not sure what is going on there. I ran the test 5 times and every time the results came out in the exact order as the picture.

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December 6th, 2009	Top \| #6
roirraW "edor" ehT Builder/Installer Joined: May 2008 Posts: 529 Reputation: 742 Power: 58	Re: DNS Benchmark I only ran each utility once, and not close to the same time as each other, and the results are interesting, but GRC's\|DNS Nameserver Performance Benchmark came up with a result where my default DNS's are not the fastest and namebench - Project Hosting on Google Code came up that my default DNS's are the fastest. :P This is a good example of where I find it frustrating to tweak things because there's always someone who says a different or the "other" way is better. Gigabyte full tower GZ-FA2CA-AJB Gigabyte motherboard MA790X-UD4P HIS Radeon HD 4850 512MB AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.3GHz Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX 4-4-4-12 4x1TB SATA RAID 0+1/2x640GB SATA RAID 0/Misc. PATA Windows 7 x86

December 6th, 2009	Top \| #7
Johnny Paul Reed Smith Joined: January 2004 Location: Happy Valley Posts: 4,838 Reputation: 2369 Power: 170	Re: DNS Benchmark The thing with Steve Gibson, though, is that I have a hard believing everything he says. Paul Reed Smith.

December 7th, 2009	Top \| #8
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,346 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1877 Power: 0	Re: DNS Benchmark he has been right about many things though, bet your the type of person that believes everything Paul Thurrott says Its only advise you don't have to take what any of his programs say if you don't want to, it may be right, it may be wrong, time will tell

December 7th, 2009	Top \| #9
American Zombie OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: June 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 2,849 Reputation: 2689 Power: 148	Re: DNS Benchmark Try the other one I linked too--it is open source

December 7th, 2009	Top \| #10
Johnny Paul Reed Smith Joined: January 2004 Location: Happy Valley Posts: 4,838 Reputation: 2369 Power: 170	Re: DNS Benchmark Originally Posted by Dark Atheist he has been right about many things though, bet your the type of person that believes everything Paul Thurrott says Its only advise you don't have to take what any of his programs say if you don't want to, it may be right, it may be wrong, time will tell if you look at some of it, it is snake oil salesman tactics. Paul Reed Smith.

December 7th, 2009	Top \| #11
batteryready OSNN Junior Addict Joined: November 2009 Location: China Posts: 15 Reputation: 0 Power: 28	Re: DNS Benchmark Originally Posted by Dark Atheist he has been right about many things though, bet your the type of person that believes everything Paul Thurrott says Its only advise you don't have to take what any of his programs say if you don't want to, it may be right, it may be wrong, time will tell yep,yep, i do agree with you ,time will tell Asus A3000 battery Hey,I like make friends and doing business,how you doing?

December 7th, 2009	Top \| #12
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,346 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1877 Power: 0	Re: DNS Benchmark Originally Posted by Johnny if you look at some of it, it is snake oil salesman tactics. As is with most tweaks, tips, and programs to tweak your system, yet people still buy them, if he stuff was crap i think is ass would have been dragged over the coals long ago

December 8th, 2009	Top \| #13
X-Istence * Joined: December 2001 Location: USA Posts: 6,490 Reputation: 2808 Power: 217	Re: DNS Benchmark Here is a quick script I wrote, it tests all the different DNS servers 10 times for the same domain name, then outputs it to the terminal lowest to high. Take from this what you want. Code: for ip in 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 4.2.2.1 4.2.2.1 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 10.10.10.11; do echo ${ip}: $(for i in `jot 10 1 10`; do dig @${ip} usingnamespace.com \| grep "Query"; done \| awk '{ print $4 }' \| sort )ms; done Code: 8.8.8.8: 52 52 52 53 53 54 55 56 64 103ms 8.8.4.4: 57 57 58 58 58 60 62 62 81 99ms 4.2.2.1: 20 22 22 22 22 23 24 24 24 25ms 4.2.2.1: 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 26 36 79ms 208.67.222.222: 37 38 38 38 39 39 40 41 45 67ms 208.67.220.220: 37 37 37 38 39 41 41 41 42 77ms 10.10.10.11: 17 17 18 18 18 18 18 19 20 22ms The last IP address on that list is my local resolver (dnscache from djbdns), the next fastest is Level 3's DNS servers in 4.2.2.{1,2,3,4} and then OpenDNS, and in last is Google's new DNS service. My blog!

December 8th, 2009	Top \| #14
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,346 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1877 Power: 0	Re: DNS Benchmark System is using one or more Level 3 nameservers. Just a note: During the development testing of this benchmark, many of our testers who had been using Level 3's nameservers (4.2.2.1 through 4.2.2.6) discovered that they were less reliable - especially over the weekends - than they previously knew. As a result, they demoted those nameservers in their system's nameserver list so that they were used only as last resort backups. Recommended Actions: Since you are using Level 3's servers in some capacity, you might want to keep a close watch on them for a while by running this benchmark from time to time - especially over the weekends - to check their performance and reliability and verify that you're happy with the role they are playing for you. Anyone who is using Level 3 ever experience this?

December 11th, 2009	Top \| #15
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,346 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1877 Power: 0	Re: DNS Benchmark after more tests its saying that google is best for me followed by my isps own dns server (thats the open source one). So gibsons says level 3 is best, open source one says level 3 is worst for me.........

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December 11th, 2009	Top \| #16
American Zombie OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: June 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 2,849 Reputation: 2689 Power: 148	Re: DNS Benchmark Originally Posted by Dark Atheist after more tests its saying that google is best for me followed by my isps own dns server (thats the open source one). So gibsons says level 3 is best, open source one says level 3 is worst for me......... The open source one tests servers from your index.dat files cache from what I observed. At first it listed 184 servers from IE but after I deleted the index.dat files there were 0 servers to test from IE and only the Alexa top 10000 were available.

December 11th, 2009	Top \| #17
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,346 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1877 Power: 0	Re: DNS Benchmark The open source one cant make its mind up, near every time i ran it, it gave me a different "best" server, with grc's it was consistently give me the same result, which was my 2 isp's dns servers and 2 of level 3's servers. Will test it out tomorrow during the day and see what it says, i can see why you say the open source one is buggy, i wouldn't have thought the results would have changed never every time it was ran

December 18th, 2009	Top \| #18
Xie - geek - Joined: September 2003 Location: NY, USA Posts: 5,216 Reputation: 1730 Power: 171	Re: DNS Benchmark The Gibson shows what DNS server is fastest for you at the time (it can change with traffic). The server(s) that are closest to you are probably going to be faster for you. I also like that the Gibson test shows you what DNS servers are returning their own 404 pages (aka ads for missing domains). I also wonder what it said under "conclusions" for you? Usually if the top DNS just barely beats your current one it suggests to just keep it how you got it. edit - I also found the router crashing to be interesting, anyone running a router should check that their router isn't on the list and then check and see if the tests makes it crash. A crash = bad and possible that someone could someday take over your router via remote code exploit. tehgeek \| tehgeek \| geeking out to tech \| IRC \| Parted Magic \| A+ Certified Professional

December 18th, 2009	Top \| #19
Dark Atheist I never said I was nice Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,346 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 1877 Power: 0	Re: DNS Benchmark i tried gibsons test out at varying times during the day, top five were always the same, sometimes in a different order, the open source one was wild in its pickings, i have gone for my own isp's dns and 2 from level 3