Which DNS?

[phjo]

I've had a search and see some old messages about OpenDNS, my question is what are people using, IDnet or openDNS?

I've used OpenDNS for a while due to other DNS issues and quite like that you can do some site blocking etc direct from their site, if there isn't a massive performance issue I might stick with them.

[Steve]

I don't think there's a noticeable difference although IDNet's are said to be quicker.

[Rik]

I use IDNet's for the reason Steve gives.

[Bill]

I've never seen any significant difference in speed between the two.

I use IDNet's on the desktop machines (largely because I know the IDNet support number but not the OpenDNS one ), and OpenDNS on the laptops because they can get used on ISPs whose nameservers I have less confidence in...

[kinmel]

Being weird, I use OpenDNs's second server first and Idnet's second server as the backup.  Theoretically the second servers are less busy and therefore faster.

[Bill]

Theoretically the second servers are less busy and therefore faster.

Ah, theory... about the only thing I consistently find is that IDNet's second server is fractionally (<1ms ping time) slower than the first

[Rik]

That's because it's 'deeper' in the network, Bill.

[Bill]

Thought it might be something like that.

Just for the hell of it, I ran a couple of simultaneous ping tests on the OpenDNS servers and the second one was a little faster... by about 300 microseconds

[Rik]

A blink of an eye...

[Gary]

A blink of an eye...

unless they are sticky

[Rik]

 

[Bill]

Thought it was time to bring a little scientific rigour to the matter (can you tell I'm bored? )

500 pings to each server at 1 second intervals, tests run concurrently:

--- 208.67.222.222 ping statistics ---
500 packets transmitted, 500 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 10.859/11.558/14.734/0.473 ms


--- 208.67.220.220 ping statistics ---
500 packets transmitted, 500 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 10.553/11.234/14.201/0.416 ms


--- 212.69.40.3 ping statistics ---
500 packets transmitted, 500 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 10.513/10.874/12.080/0.224 ms


--- 212.69.36.3 ping statistics ---
500 packets transmitted, 500 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 10.947/12.197/17.656/0.850 ms


IDNet secondary is slower than I thought, but I don't think you'd notice the difference in real life between any of them

[Rik]

(can you tell I'm bored? )

I could ask Simon to upgrade something, Bill. 

[Bill]

I'm not that bored

[Rik]

 

OK, how about I wind up Miller02 for you (though he seems immune to whatever anyone says...). 

[Bill]

OK, how about I wind up Miller02 for you

I think his spring ran down long ago

[Rik]

He is a bit of a troll, isn't he.

[kinmel]

Ah, theory... about the only thing I consistently find is that IDNet's second server is fractionally (<1ms ping time) slower than the first

Thanks for the Lab work Bill 

[Ted]

It may be worth mentioning that OpenDNS also offer the option of using their "Family Shield" DNS servers, which are pre configured to block porn, malware etc, and are constantly updated.

The servers are...

208.67.222.123
208.67.220.123