Once upon a time life was simple. While setting up your internet connection, you simply had to enter the DNS servers you had received from your ISP and forget about it. Most of the chaps didn’t even have to do that; Windows’ was smart enough to automatically figure it out. But then along came OpenDNS. It promised speed. It claimed to rid you of your ISPs pathetic DNS server and help you get to the page you wanted faster.
Life was still great. You were satisfied with OpenDNS, content with knowing that your DNS server was faster than your friend’s.
But as they say, good things never last. Even before you realized there were dozens of similar services each touting to be faster than the rest. The market was filled with the likes of DNS Advantage, ScrubIT, TreeWalk DNS and Google Public DNS. You had more alternatives than you ever wanted. How was one supposed to know which one is really the fastest? Confusion and chaos reigned.
Ok, enough of my babble. So, how do we know which DNS server is the fastest? We can’t rely on other users benchmarks, since the results often depend upon one’s geographic location. The simplest way to determine your DNS server’s speed is to use the DNS Benchmark tool released by GRC. DNS Benchmark comes with a list of all popular public DNS servers and automatically includes the DNS servers being used by your system. You also have the option of manually adding any DNS server you wish to benchmark.
Using it is simple. Just click on Run Benchmark. It will automatically test all the nameservers present in the list and sort them in descending order of performance. Like any truly smart software, it offers a helpful summary and list of recommendations based on the result of the benchmark.
GRC has built a reputation for developing high quality freeware. DNS Benchmark is no different. Like all GRC freeware, DNS Benchmark is a tiny download which doesn’t require any installation. Use it, if you want to find out which DNS server is fastest for you. In my case, I found my ISP’s DNS servers to be the fastest. SpeakEasy and DNS Advantage lost out by a narrow margin. OpenDNS was handsomely beaten by my ISP, but it still managed to outperform Google.
Did you get similar results? Or were they completely different? Don’t forget to let us know.
Download DNS Benchmark (150 KB)
License: Freeware
Version Reviewed: 0.0.3630.1
Operating System: Windows all (Linux and Mac through Wine)
Lifehacker suggested a software called Namebench which does the same thing, should compare their results and see if there is any differrence!
Sriram´s last blog ..The Old Astronomer
Yeah. I read that post in Lifehacker, but never got around to trying it myself.
Finally, a software to benchmark DNS servers.
I have an inkling that Google Public DNS might just outperform everybody.
Please do let me know how your test went. Over here Google was badly outperformed. In fact I have seen many bloggers reporting that OpenDNS is faster than Google Public DNS.
I think it depends on how close you are to the servers as to how quick they will be for you.
I’m gonna stick with opendns for now as they are good at protecting you from malicious web sites.
Exactly. Also, I think OpenDNS is in the process of adding servers in India. That should definitely improve their performance for users in the subcontinent.
Thanks for ” DNS Benchmark “. will check it.
Anish K.S´s last blog ..‘Speccy’ System Information tool from Piriform
Thanks for the tool pallab. I too have used a too called namebench. That too is a great too. It gives the speed difference between dns servers and other graphs.
Amal Roy´s last blog ..Find Out & Use The Fastest DNS Server Available to You