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Community => City of Heroes => Topic started by: TonyV on December 04, 2009, 04:05:38 AM

Title: Google public DNS servers
Post by: TonyV on December 04, 2009, 04:05:38 AM
Hey all, I saw this on the news wire today, and given how much I like Google and how cool they make, well, pretty much everything, I thought I'd help them get the word out for a really helpful new service they're providing:  Public DNS servers (http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/).

Right now, your DNS servers are likely set to your ISP's DNS servers.  If you use a broadband router, your DNS server is probably set to your router's address and it simply relays DNS queries to your ISP's DNS servers.  Most ISPs screw around with their DNS server so that if you query an invalid domain name, it redirects you to their web server and it presents you with an adtastic search page.  If you want to see this in action, try accessing a bogus domain name, such as http://example.bogus (http://example.bogus).  If you get anything but a DNS error from your browser saying that it cannot display or find the web page, then your ISP is screwing around with you and their DNS service is deliberately broken.

Anyway, if you want to try out Google's new service, simply manually set your DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.  If you are behind a broadband router, make sure to change it on your router, not your workstation.  If you use DHCP to automatically configure your network connection, worry not; you can manually set your DNS settings and still use DHCP to get all of your other settings.

Then browse in peace, knowing that you're actually using decent DNS servers!
Title: Re: Google public DNS servers
Post by: TonyV on December 04, 2009, 06:06:10 AM
...And to provide a counterpoint to Google's claims that it will work perfectly, I present an article posted at Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/12/google-public-dns-service-not-ideal-for-everyone.ars), complete with reasons why you might not want to use Google's public DNS servers.

To be honest, though, I think that glitches such as what the writer experienced are extremely rare.  Maybe in the first few days of the service, but to be honest, Google is generally orders of magnitude more reliable than ISPs.

If you're like me and don't like using ISP DNS servers but want a different public DNS server than the Google monster, try OpenDNS (http://www.opendns.com/).  Yes, queries to invalid domains still redirect you to a search page (at least it's not too adtastic), but it also has other nifty features such as parental control over domain blocking and such.