This came up from a discussion last night on Facebook, about helping web pages like Amazon.com, Google.com, Netflix or Yahoo.com resolve (“find the websites“) faster.
When you type in “Google.com,” your computer has NO IDEA what that means. So it contacts the DNS Server (like the Yellow Pages, but for computers) and says “Hey! Do you have something called Google.com?” The DNS server will respond back with the location and say “Yes! Google.com’s IP address is 216.58.195.78!” Your computer will go to this instead. Google.com is much easier to remember than 216.58.195.78. This is why we have DNS.
So, now rather than using the default DNS servers that your ISP tells your router to use, you can override these and set them yourself.
This won’t make your internet faster as per say, but it can improve the response times and the reliability of looking up server names.
Why would you want to do this? A couple of reasons.
- Faster performance
- Security or Privacy
- Adult content filtering
Most people use 8.8.8.8 for their primary DNS and 8.8.4.4 for the Secondary (the back up). These are owned by Google. They are smokin’ fast, and work great. If these guys go down, the world is probably experiencing a nuclear world war… but they scrape your data to analyze.
There is a new player to the game, CloudFlare. They do other really cool things (I dont want to dive deep into) that help prevent websites from being killed by a surge of visitors. E.g. Say you own SallysHomeStyleCookingKitchen.com and CNN displays your website in the news. Now you have 18 million people visiting your website. It will crash and die. CloudFlare prevents this from happening, using Magical CDNs.
Anyway, CloudFlare saw this other DNS problem and said… “Hey! Google is still not fast enough, and we want to offer the same DNS service with better security and privacy.” So they came out with their own DNS servers 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. These work great! If these guys go down, we’re also experiencing a nuclear winter.
There are thousands of DNS servers out there. Some of them, will help you “filter” adult content. If you have a router and you want to help block content… then you have services such as OpenDNS & SafeDNS.
You can use Their DNS servers to help block, automagically (dont want to explain this one) adult content or other malicious sites. Are there ways around this? Of course… but it definitely helps prevent kids from accidentally stumbling across a site they shouldn’t be on.
OpenDNS’s Family Shield DNS servers are 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123.
Anyway, here are some additional links for you to now do your own research and pick the DNS services that are best for you. Best part, the majority of these are completely, 100%, free.
I hope this helped!
CloudFlare
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1
https://1.1.1.1/
Google
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/
OpenDNS
208.67.222.222
208.67.222.220
https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/
OpenDNS Family Shield
208.67.222.123
208.67.220.123
https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/#familyshield
Norton
199.85.126.10
199.85.127.10
https://dns.norton.com/faq.html
Comodo
8.26.56.26
8.20.247.20
https://www.comodo.com/secure-dns/
Level3
209.244.0.3
208.244.0.4
http://www.level3.com/en/
DNS Advantange
156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1
https://www.neustar.biz/services/dns-services
OpenNIC
46.151.208.154
128.199.248.105
https://www.opennicproject.org/
Dyn
216.146.35.35
216.146.36.36
https://help.dyn.com/internet-guide-setup/#setup
SafeDNS
195.46.39.39
195.46.39.40
https://www.safedns.com/order-safedns-online
DNS.Watch
84.200.69.80
84.200.70.40
https://dns.watch/index