Google DNS vs OpenDNS: Google Rocks for International Users

Slow DNS resolving is one of the major causes of browsing slowdowns. (If you don't know what is DNS look at the end of the post). The DNS services provided by the ISPs were often crappy and erratic and OpenDNS had emerged as the de-facto alternative. OpenDNS was not without its faults. Though it was rarely erratic, the performance was not blazing fast. Also if OpenDNS did not find a site, it redirected the user to a generic search page. This was not good user experience. Another alternative was the DNS server 4.2.2.2 (owned by Level 3 I believe). But this server was not that fast outside United States.

Google in its quest to make the internet faster has stepped into the arena with Google Public DNS. In their own words -

As web pages become more complex and include more resources from multiple origin domains, clients need to perform multiple DNS lookups to render a single page. The average Internet user performs hundreds of DNS lookups each day, slowing down his or her browsing experience. As the web continues to grow, greater load is placed on existing DNS infrastructure. Since Google's search engine already crawls the web on a daily basis and in the process resolves and caches DNS information, we wanted to leverage our technology to experiment with new ways of addressing some of the existing DNS challenges around performance and security. We are offering the service to the public in the hope of achieving the following aims:

Google Promises us good Performance, Security and Correct Results. Correct Results here refer to the practice of redirecting the user to an alternate page when the domain was not found (like OpenDNS does). Google has provided an extensive guide to help users start using their DNS service.

In my tests, Google DNS consistently outperformed both OpenDNS and Level 3. For Americans the Level 3 server (4.2.2.2) might offer as good performance as Google. But if you are living outside US and you care about your browsing experience you should switch now :). The results are below

The shell script I used to get the results is this.

Updated: Reader Stevan Bajić sent in an awesome bash script which gives you nicely formatted results.

Results are in ms

OpenDNS 4.2.2.2 Google Domain 224ms 259ms 110ms lifehacker.com 197ms 258ms 112ms facebook.com 215ms 259ms 112ms manu-j.com 202ms 259ms 159ms reddit.com tb4.fr 111ms 440ms 195ms bbc.co.uk 111ms 256ms 220ms

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 21 22 19 facebook.com 20 22 19 manu-j.com 21 44 42 reddit.com 30 73 20 tb4.fr 125 22 157 bbc.co.uk 103 22 98

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 11 24 88 facebook.com 12 23 88 manu-j.com 12 22 88 reddit.com 12 22 87 tb4.fr 12 22 88 bbc.co.uk 12 22 88

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 73 21 50 facebook.com 72 18 54 manu-j.com 74 103 52 reddit.com 72 19 53 tb4.fr 72 290 50 bbc.co.uk 72 134 52

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 29 125 13 facebook.com 24 47 18 manu-j.com 179 32 13 reddit.com 742 56 15 tb4.fr 43 57 14 bbc.co.uk 67 29 24

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 23 33 116 facebook.com 23 30 108 manu-j.com 24 30 108 reddit.com 181 33 118 tb4.fr 24 32 114 bbc.co.uk 24 29 107

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 36 174 168 facebook.com 36 163 186 manu-j.com 36 163 186 reddit.com 38 163 191 tb4.fr 37 174 183 bbc.co.uk 37 174 173

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 18 17 10 facebook.com 17 17 10 manu-j.com 19 16 9 reddit.com 224 17 10 tb4.fr 24 122 562 bbc.co.uk 19 98 92

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 40 158 167 facebook.com 41 157 168 manu-j.com 40 156 165 reddit.com 45 170 166 tb4.fr 39 156 171 bbc.co.uk 39 160 165

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 65 12 52 facebook.com 65 16 50 manu-j.com 62 11 56 reddit.com 63 13 52 tb4.fr 62 11 51 bbc.co.uk 63 9 51

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 23 34 39 facebook.com 22 28 40 manu-j.com 22 28 42 reddit.com 332 199 41 tb4.fr 22 27 40 bbc.co.uk 24 26 40

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 31 52 39 facebook.com 29 60 39 manu-j.com 30 51 41 reddit.com 105 50 41 tb4.fr 28 49 42 bbc.co.uk 30 48 40 najdi.si (local site) 33 52 88

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 78 59 27 facebook.com 80 48 31 manu-j.com 78 280 28 reddit.com 81 183 28 tb4.fr 77 48 27 bbc.co.uk 79 47 28

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 25 49 118 facebook.com 27 43 118 manu-j.com 24 44 125 reddit.com 431 43 118 tb4.fr 25 50 115 bbc.co.uk 25 44 116

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 158 185 184 facebook.com 159 185 185 manu-j.com 158 184 183 reddit.com 158 184 183 tb4.fr 157 184 183 bbc.co.uk 432 184 183

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 53 111 47 facebook.com 58 113 47 manu-j.com 57 113 47 reddit.com 63 108 51 tb4.fr 58 107 46 bbc.co.uk 57 110 50

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 17 18 21 facebook.com 24 17 24 manu-j.com 19 22 22 reddit.com 183 25 16 tb4.fr 15 17 32 bbc.co.uk 15 20 18

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 205 135 196 facebook.com 206 135 199 manu-j.com 208 133 195 reddit.com 205 143 330 tb4.fr 207 194 195 bbc.co.uk 205 133 414

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 160 174 167 facebook.com 159 178 170 manu-j.com 167 176 169 reddit.com 383 389 192 tb4.fr 159 175 162 bbc.co.uk 165 253 258

OpenDNS 4.2.2.2 Google Domain 21 41 14 lifehacker.com 32 44 10 facebook.com 29 36 8 manu-j.com 25 233 90 reddit.com tb4.fr 13 37 19 bbc.co.uk 8 35 20

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 13 16 14 facebook.com 14 182 15 manu-j.com 14 13 10 reddit.com 13 177 13 tb4.fr 13 179 14 bbc.co.uk 14 180 13

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 37 355 30 facebook.com 40 46 32 manu-j.com 37 196 32 reddit.com 60 44 29 tb4.fr 36 89 31 bbc.co.uk 37 47 30

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 16 34 33 facebook.com 16 31 34 manu-j.com 17 355 33 reddit.com 18 31 33 tb4.fr 16 54 34 bbc.co.uk 84 34 32

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 181 143 151 facebook.com 186 151 186 manu-j.com 146 180 154 reddit.com 196 143 158 tb4.fr 156 182 150 bbc.co.uk 152 142 166

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 24 41 30 facebook.com 26 23 35 manu-j.com 29 29 37 reddit.com 27 26 190 tb4.fr 23 58 54 bbc.co.uk 25 26 39

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 69 81 60 facebook.com 71 68 61 manu-j.com 68 68 63 reddit.com 74 66 63 tb4.fr 70 67 63 bbc.co.uk 86 89 60

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 55 58 53 facebook.com 54 53 63 manu-j.com 54 53 72 reddit.com 667 195 53 tb4.fr 55 52 55 bbc.co.uk 55 51 59

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 70 77 98 facebook.com 70 54 98 manu-j.com 98 271 63 reddit.com 75 78 96 tb4.fr 99 236 399 bbc.co.uk 224 77 98

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 102 67 102 facebook.com 107 73 100 manu-j.com 102 66 103 reddit.com 107 67 108 tb4.fr 103 65 271 bbc.co.uk 103 66 101

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 18 723 27 facebook.com 18 699 27 manu-j.com 20 732 27 reddit.com 20 651 28 tb4.fr 17 899 28 bbc.co.uk 17 644 27

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 36 110 123 facebook.com 49 110 125 manu-j.com 38 268 121 reddit.com 38 111 133 tb4.fr 40 462 707 bbc.co.uk 38 110 124

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 22 22 24 facebook.com 21 21 21 manu-j.com 31 38 29 reddit.com 19 20 22 tb4.fr 29 29 34 bbc.co.uk 30 37 29

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 58 143 74 facebook.com 59 80 140 manu-j.com 58 145 71 reddit.com 60 79 140 tb4.fr 58 79 137 bbc.co.uk 58 144 73

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 111 390 279 facebook.com 111 399 274 manu-j.com 107 399 281 reddit.com 108 400 279 tb4.fr 107 397 278 bbc.co.uk 132 399 351

Domain Google 4.2.2.2 OpenDNS lifehacker.com 32 40 49 facebook.com 32 40 53 manu-j.com 33 39 49 reddit.com 210 40 51 tb4.fr 34 38 48 bbc.co.uk 33 39 51

What is DNS

DNS is what helps your browser to identify the correct machine which corresponds to the domain names like "google.com", "facebook.com" etc. Each machine has a unique record called an IP Address (like zip code). DNS is like the postal system of the internet which helps to identify which domain name (like google.com) belongs to which address.

The wikipedia as usual has an in-depth article.