What are the benefits of DNS servers?
What are they doing for you? This post is about DNS servers and what they're not.
It's hard to imagine that something as simple as DNS could be so complex and confusing. There are a lot of people on the Internet trying to convince you to use theirs and make sure you understand the reasons for it. Unfortunately, most of them are simply wrong or misleading. Let's take a look at what the DNS (Domain Name System) really is and what it isn't.
A Quick History Lesson. The Domain Name System was first introduced in 1983. By 1990, it was an integral part of TCP/IP networks. In 1993, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) started working on the first formal standards for the DNS. The idea was to take the Domain Name Service provided by the early operating systems and make it into a standardized distributed service. A DNS server is a machine that answers DNS queries and provides results to connected clients. It takes a computer's local hostname and a request from a client to find the machine's IP address. It's like how a phone book works: everyone has a telephone number and asks a directory for the number of the person he or she wants to reach.
When a computer is new and hasn't been used by many other machines, the DNS will usually give it a host name based on its manufacturer's name. For example, a host name may be host1.compaq.com and provide the IP address of a new Compaq server. As the machine gets used more often and its host name changes, the DNS would record it as a different host name. If the DNS gets the correct host name and the IP address for the host, it forwards the request on to the host.
The way DNS handles the resolution of names is simple and straightforward: the computer asks the DNS for the name of a machine, and if it finds that name, it forwards the request to the IP address associated with that name. However, the problems begin when the information in the DNS server isn't the same as the information in the clients themselves. When a client receives a request from another computer and tries to resolve the name, it may not be able to resolve it because there are different versions of DNS databases floating around out there.
Is 1.1.1.1 still the fastest DNS?
In May we've published a report What is the fastest DNS? How to improve it with CacheFlow, which was based on measurements and analysis of hundreds DNS requests. But the DNS community is much more interested in speed of answers to domain names than request rate to your nameservers. The speed of answering a domain name query is measured by looking at round-trip time (RTT) from a client to the IP address of a server and then back to the client. You can see this type of latency in our test result tables as ROUNDTRIP. Our analysis shows that the results are rather clear: 1.1 is currently the fastest DNS server. To find out more about why DNS servers perform differently, you can read our recent blog post.
We'd like to share with you the updated list of fastest DNS servers and update our own list accordingly. As one of the major steps in making this update, we've analyzed how some popular DNS servers behave, such as DNSCurve, OpenDNS, and DNSMadeEasy, and tried to estimate their impact on the overall RTT. If were to do the same for 1.1 only, the impact would be relatively insignificant compared to the rest. To calculate the difference, we divided the total average RTT for 1.1 and got an estimation of the impact of OpenDNS (and other DNS services).01-0.05 ms.
Let's walk through the new rankings. First, these rankings are not perfect, and there are many changes which will be rolled out in DNS over time, and some small changes, such as the removal of Google Public DNS from our test suite, still require manual adjustment. All these numbers represent the performance of each service over two weeks of measurement (and during the same period, we tested a large variety of different scenarios). These results were the raw output of our measurement tool, which is an in-house built, proprietary system, and should be considered an early version of these results.
How can I find the fastest DNS service?
If you're trying to find the fastest DNS service, then you are in the right place. In this article we will be covering the best DNS services from around the world. However, before we get into the nitty gritty, let's start with a bit of background information.
What is a DNS? DNS stands for Domain Name System and it is a set of rules that your computer or smartphone uses to translate your IP address into a human-friendly name. This name is also used to identify your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Most of the time, this name is only local to your computer and phone, but it can also be sent via email to let people know where to go to find your website.
DNS has always been around since the dawn of the internet. However, over the years, the technology has become outdated and inefficient. The biggest problem with the old DNS was its slow response time when compared to the internet speed. The new DNS called CNAME solved this problem and was faster than the original DNS. It also made the internet more accessible by eliminating censorship, and keeping users private.
While there are many types of DNS service, most popular DNS services are: Static DNS. Dynamic DNS. Private DNS. CNAME DNS. Static DNS is the oldest DNS service and usually the cheapest. As the name suggests, static DNS services work by keeping the same information (in the .txt or .html format) for all the devices on your network. In the long term, this makes DNS easier to manage because you don't have to update hundreds of addresses, but as it gets more expensive over time, it can limit the usability of the internet.
The other type of DNS service are Dynamic DNS services. These services will automatically update your DNS address. The benefit of this is that your server will have access to information about your device. This includes the IP address, which lets you know the fastest way to get to your server. Dynamic DNS addresses allow you to change your IP address at anytime and save your existing location as well. In a sense, it is similar to opening a bank account.
Finally, there are Private DNS services. The main difference with private DNS services is that they have different servers for different purposes.
Can I use Google DNS for free?
I have a few questions. I'm currently using Google DNS, but there are a few things that I don't like about it. I'm going to be moving off of it soon. I'm currently using the standard 8.8/8.4, but will be going to the standard 8.4/8.2.15 for a number of reasons. I've had some issues with Google DNS before. Namely, the site speed test is a bitoff.
Can I still use Google DNS for free? I know this is the name service provider, so I'm not really sure where the money comes from. I know that the DNS changes happen at the edge and go to the root nameservers. Is there a way to get around that?
I haven't gotten to a point where I can't use Google DNS, but I would like to avoid the cost, if possible. You can still use it for free as far as I am aware. As for getting around the edge problem, you may have to manually add an A record for the nameservers you want to use instead. This should be doable as all you need to do is write an email to Google explaining that you want to use a new nameserver and you are not receiving the records.
Should I use 8.8 8.8 DNS?
We have an Ubuntu server with 3 virtualized web apps and 2 instances of Postfix. The host is 8.8 (Google DNS). All the subdomains, including web apps live at a particular instance. DNS is set to 8.8 for both hosts. Now I'm going to run some sort of benchmark tests. I do believe that the host should always use the DNS address but I'm trying to make sure that no one will experience a DNS cache issue so every test scenario requires a manual lookup at least once. Can someone suggest a solution for this?
Please Note: I didn't want to make it too broad and not really specific about my concerns. So I would need help understanding it by taking a look at the scenarios described below and giving me feedback. I may give more details if needed.
I don't have access to the actual network or machines to make these tests or create these config files - ie I can't change the configuration at any level of the network nor can I modify the hosts at all. I will also be running this using various tools on various computers (including windows). Here are the Scenarios I'd like help evaluating : Running 1 or more of these tests in order. With 8.8 as dns server and manually setting the name server to 8.8 or www.google.com
With 8.8 as dns server but not setting the name server manually With 2 different DNS servers set at a time on each client - 1 will be. The default for all the DNS requests and the other will be. "Manually entered". I do believe that google dns is the fastest to respond with a successful result and the number of "A" (name) requests it receives are pretty low - ie it's not overloaded with requests. The only thing I want to avoid is any possible DNS cache issue because then it wouldn't really be a manual lookup and a lookup that can be made by the network/router. Also I am worried about the stability of the DNS servers so I want to check if anyone has experience issues with Google or any other DNS provider?
Are free DNS services a good option?
The following is a guest post by Scott Maunder of DNS-for-Dummies.com: When I write about DNS, my focus usually falls on the Domain Name System, or DNS for short. My goal when writing these articles is to make sure people know what DNS is and how it works. It's important because a lot of web services don't work properly when DNS isn't properly configured.
Of course, just because you know how DNS works doesn't mean you have any idea how to set it up, and even if you do, it's often not that easy to figure out which DNS settings are right. That's why I wrote a book called DNS for Dummies. In fact, a few months ago, I launched a book website called DNS for Dummies.com where I can link people to online how-to videos that walk them through setting up their own DNS servers. The site also includes articles like this one that answer common questions like whether or not a free DNS service is a good option.
Free DNS services aren't bad. In fact, it can be a great way to get started with your own DNS service if you need a little help at first. When you are new to DNS, there's a good chance you'll be setting up a domain name for the first time. If you do need help, or you just want a quick overview, you should take a look at the free DNS server software DNS Made Easy. You can download the software from their website and use it right away.
To keep it simple, you can think of DNS as the directory that maps names to IP addresses. As you might guess, it works pretty well. If you want to find out more about DNS, I highly recommend that you read through the book, but if you want to check out a video version of the same information, check out this video from my site on DNS for Dummies. The video provides a quick introduction to DNS.
How does a domain name map to an IP address? For example, if you're looking at a website that has the name, < that means the computer sending the request knows how to find the IP address of the computer it wants to talk to.
What is the best free DNS server?
The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) are built on a huge number of networks and servers. Without DNS, the Internet would not work as we know it today. One of the most important DNS servers is the DNS root server. This server receives and responds to queries for DNS records from any computer on the Internet. DNS servers receive requests from name servers (or domain name servers). A name server knows about all the resources that a computer can access. These include IP addresses, FTP servers, web servers, and mail servers.
DNS servers are very important because they act as the gatekeepers between us and the Internet. They give us a quick way to connect to websites and other servers and they make sure that we have the correct IP addresses when we do so. DNS is an incredibly complex topic. If you want to learn more, I recommend you read my article on DNS.
The first DNS servers were called resolvers and they were software programs designed to perform the function of a name server. The first root server was run by the United States Department of Defense and was called the Defense Department's Network Information Center. There are now hundreds of root servers around the world, each acting as a central point of information for a geographic area.
The first name servers that we knew about were BIND and Unbound. In reality, there are many other nameservers out there. The following is a list of some popular free DNS servers:
FreeDNS - A free and open-source DNS service with integrated features like public key based authentication. A free and open-source DNS service with integrated features like public key based authentication. DNSCrypt - A free and open-source cryptographic DNS resolver.
A free and open-source cryptographic DNS resolver. OpenDNS - A free and open-source DNS service that provides secure DNS resolution for their users.
A free and open-source DNS service that provides secure DNS resolution for their users. PowerDNS - A free and open-source DNS service with a web interface that allows you to add custom scripts.
A free and open-source DNS service with a web interface that allows you to add custom scripts. OpenNIC - A free and open-source DNS service based in the United States.
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