So you read about Google’s new Public DNS service, or maybe you’ve heard of Open DNS and you know DNS has something to do with your internet connection. So should you “switch your DNS”? What does that even mean?

DNS – What Is It?

The quick and dirty explanation is: Domain Name System aka DNS makes it possible for you to type in a domain name into your address bar, instead of an IP address. DNS translates the domain name back into its IP-address equivalent. There’s more to what DNS does but for our purposes here, this is what matters.

Why a third party DNS?

One reason for using a service like Open DNS is because it lets you do some things like filter out certain sites at the DNS level (popular with schools and corporations), among other control-y things.

What’s the fastest DNS then?

Sometimes an ISP’s DNS service happens to be slower than another one. Sometimes your ISP is just fine. If sites are coming up slower than usual, or not at all, a variety of reasons could be to blame, one of them a problem with the DNS service. By the way, a neat way to see if a site is having problems, or just you, check out http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ . It does exactly what the name says.

Switch? Yes? No?

So if your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is already doing this then why would you want to switch to another DNS service? You probably don’t need to.

But how do you know if your DNS is the fastest one? What about Google’s new Public DNS. Or Open DNS? Those are not necessarily faster for you and in order to find out you can download a free program/app that runs a test to see which DNS service is faster for you. It’s called Namebench.

Find the fastest DNS

Namebench is free (Windows/Mac/Linux) and runs for a few minutes before showing you a detailed page with the fastest DNS service, and slower ones in ascending order below that. For example, running Namebench on one of my machines I found out that my ISP already offers me the fastest DNS service, far faster than Google’s Public DNS or Open DNS.

Check out the screenshot above: in my case here, you’ll see Primary Server which is actually my gateway’s (router) IP address, under “Recommended configuration”. Below that it lists my ISP and the IP address it has assigned to me at this time. I blurred that out because I don’t trust none of you motorscooters.

In the Tested DNS Servers section you will again see your IP address, as well as all the other DNS servers tested for you. Look in the “Avg (ms)” column. The lower the number the faster the connection. In my example, my ISP-provided DNS connection is already faster than any of the other servers tested. Good news for me!

If you scroll down further, Namebench gives you a bunch of graphs that give you more detail about the test results than you need. Point is, pick the fastest DNS service if you are unhappy with your current DNS’ performance. If you do want to switch from your ISP’s DNS to another one do a quick Google search on how to do that. It’s much easier than it sounds, but unless you are constantly experiencing problems, or wish to explore some of the more advanced options a DNS service like Open DNS offers, you probably won’t need to.