[Nick_DK]

Need a bit of advice. Anyone suggest what the best DNS server is to use? I've been using the OpenDNS but has problems after windows updates. Google search Google DNS but I'm unsure. I don't know if there is anymore but the one Virgin are gave me isn't great.

[c4rv]

What problems are you having with the Virgin one ?

Alternately try google's DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

[Nick_DK]

Originally Posted by c4rv

What problems are you having with the Virgin one ?

Alternately try google's DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Virgin it was Facebook was either slow or didn't load at all. Past few days with OpenDNS it's been hotmail, Xbox live anything Microsoft hasn't loaded at all.

I'll give the google one a go.

[Stig]

Originally Posted by Nick_DK

Need a bit of advice. Anyone suggest what the best DNS server is to use? I've been using the OpenDNS but has problems after windows updates. Google search Google DNS but I'm unsure. I don't know if there is anymore but the one Virgin are gave me isn't great.

Most people don't know/care about their DNS provider. What specific requirements do you have?

You need to eliminate other problems before you blame DNS.

[Nick_DK]

Originally Posted by Stig

Most people don't know/care about their DNS provider. What specific requirements do you have?

You need to eliminate other problems before you blame DNS.

I've tried different computers same problem, different routers, taking down my firewell, different brawsers, deleting my history/cache and all. Hotmail would not work as soon as I switched from Open to the Virgin worked fine and I switched back didn't work again. Same happened with Facebook but other way round. Odd I know friends with the same package and no problems at all.

[flagpole]

Those are not DNS issues. Or are not likely to be.

[c4rv]

Originally Posted by Nick_DK

I've tried different computers same problem, different routers, taking down my firewell, different brawsers, deleting my history/cache and all. Hotmail would not work as soon as I switched from Open to the Virgin worked fine and I switched back didn't work again. Same happened with Facebook but other way round. Odd I know friends with the same package and no problems at all.

There was a posting somewhere regarding the youtube stuttering that virgin media are having ongoing peering issues. This could be effecting opendns connectivity as well

[spiney2]

quite a few. use google if you want them to know everything u do (as well as your isp knowing).

https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/

comodo firewall and avg antivirus both allow use of their own dns servers if u install.

http://theos.in/windows-xp/free-fast...s-server-list/

[flagpole]

Originally Posted by c4rv

There was a posting somewhere regarding the youtube stuttering that virgin media are having ongoing peering issues. This could be effecting opendns connectivity as well

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11...o_peering_woe/

[c4rv]

Originally Posted by flagpole

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11...o_peering_woe/

thanks, I remember reading it earlier today. Couldn't remember where. But no mention of this on the VM support forum.

[Loobster]

Originally Posted by c4rv

What problems are you having with the Virgin one ?

Alternately try google's DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

... or 4.2.2.2 ...

[flagpole]

Originally Posted by Loobster

... or 4.2.2.2 ...

doesn't that belong to verizon or something?

EDIT: no it belongs to level 3. http://www.tummy.com/Community/Artic...us-dns-server/

[Desolate one]

If it were a DNS sevrer issues i would expect it to be affecting all websites and email accounts on all computers.

Google DNS servers are ok if you live in the US but if you live outside as you do in the uk use UK DNS servers. Using google DNS would involve many hops to get to their servers and may slow down the internet connection so will not be beneficial to you stick with virgins DNS for time being.

I do not think it is DNS issue, please try a system restore to a date before the windows updates were installed and the problems started.

Let us know whether it improves things.

[Thine Wonk]

The best DNS servers are almost always your ISPs as they are the closest to you in network terms and they will have a wide range of similarly cached UK sites due to being UK based.

Sometimes alternative DNS servers can be slightly faster, but usually it's not noticeable. If you want added value services like per-category blocking or phishing protection then there are services out there which would be worth the very slight trade off in speed which won't be noticeable in most cases.

[Maxatoria]

Its always possible its one of virgins invisible proxy servers having a bad day, but as for dns once its been resolved its cached for so long on the machine itself so only the first lookup will take time and given the size of a dns request its a very quick thing

[Loobster]

Originally Posted by Desolate one

Using google DNS would involve many hops to get to their servers and may slow down the internet connection

Nonesense.

DNS happens in the blink of an eye. The only issues are if the DNS servers you are using are overloaded or non-functional.

Using Google's as opposed to your ISP's should make no discernable difference, providing they are all functioning normally.

[Desolate one]

It can and does happen using local DNS servers is preferable to your country you are in because of distance and hops there will be a slight overhead on each hop which can slow down the speed a user receives.

I am not saying it will slow down to a crawl but that can be possible depending how overloaded any hops are or functionality is.

You would not expect to connect faster or equal speed from UK to USA than a UK to UK DNS server i think not i am sorry.

If the distances and hops are greater then it may be more discernable.

[c4rv]

Originally Posted by Desolate one

It can and does happen using local DNS servers is preferable to your country you are in because of distance and hops there will be a slight overhead on each hop which can slow down the speed a user receives.

I am not saying it will slow down to a crawl but that can be possible depending how overloaded any hops are or functionality is.

You would not expect to connect faster or equal speed from UK to USA than a UK to UK DNS server i think not i am sorry.

If the distances and hops are greater then it may be more discernable.

DNS shouldn't take more then couple of hundred milliseconds at worst. Compared to time it takes to actually to download data, it should not cause a problem. Don't forget that once an address has been looked up it will be cached by your PC anyway.

if you type ipconfig /displaydns at a command prompt to view what your PC has cached

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by Loobster

Nonesense.

DNS happens in the blink of an eye. The only issues are if the DNS servers you are using are overloaded or non-functional.

Using Google's as opposed to your ISP's should make no discernable difference, providing they are all functioning normally.

If I ping 8.8.8.8 it's 39 to 50 ms and my ISP it's between 15 and 35 ms.

So my local ISPs severs, which are close to me from a network point of view are at least twice as fast.

However there's a thousand ms in 1 second, so we're only talking about fractions of a second, it's not really possible to notice it.

[LION8TIGER]

Sometimes I seemed to have a more trouble free time using OpenDns 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 than the TT one but once I set it to those I never switched back.
Joined Sky in Feb and left it to default, never crossed my mind to change it to anything else cos it works.

[Desolate one]

Originally Posted by c4rv

DNS shouldn't take more then couple of hundred milliseconds at worst. Compared to time it takes to actually to download data, it should not cause a problem. Don't forget that once an address has been looked up it will be cached by your PC anyway.

if you type ipconfig /displaydns at a command prompt to view what your PC has cached

Agree once an ip address is looked up it is cached.

I use my ISP DNS servers, but did try googles DNS and noticed higher latency and jitter resulting in webpages taking longer to load and bandwidth reduction thru speedtesting and download speed reductions.

When i go back to my ISP DNS servers everything is fine no lag.

Doing tracerts to googles DNS servers will show the time taken over each hop although milli seconds can have an affect to some degree.

So if you use DNS servers further afield you will get worse results.

So for OP it will be best to use Virgin's DNS servers and the problem may lay elsewhere.

[Loobster]

Originally Posted by Desolate one

You would not expect to connect faster or equal speed from UK to USA than a UK to UK DNS server i think not i am sorry.

I absolutely would expect there to be no discernable difference, regardless of location, unless, as I say, one of the servers is not performing correctly.

You are getting hung up on physical distances. IP packets don't care about distance.

[flagpole]

Originally Posted by Desolate one

Agree once an ip address is looked up it is cached.

I use my ISP DNS servers, but did try googles DNS and noticed higher latency and jitter resulting in webpages taking longer to load and bandwidth reduction thru speedtesting and download speed reductions.

When i go back to my ISP DNS servers everything is fine no lag.

Doing tracerts to googles DNS servers will show the time taken over each hop although milli seconds can have an affect to some degree.

So if you use DNS servers further afield you will get worse results.

So for OP it will be best to use Virgin's DNS servers and the problem may lay elsewhere.

BIB not possible. the DNS only resolves the domain. once you have the IP address your connection is direct to the server. DNS does not enter in to it.

[Desolate one]

We have differing opinions on the subject so will agree to disagree.

[flagpole]

Originally Posted by Desolate one

We have differing opinions on the subject so will agree to disagree.

in the nicest possible way having differing opinions is not what is happening. if you said you wore red shoes once and you noticed it rained more i would treat it exactly the same as you saying changing your dns affected your throughput.

that is to say i would acknowledge that you think it's true, it may have been anecdotally true, but the fact remains that their is no causal link, wearing red shoes does not make it rain.

everything else is very possible. pages could take longer to load for example. a page like this would not only require a look up of digitalspy.co.uk, but the cdn, and ad providers there could be a dozen look ups required.