DNS Servers

[Ellen]

Sorry if this s not the right place to post, but I recently became a FIOS subscriber. I have a Time Capsule, so when the techs came and did the install in my apt. they gave me an ActionTec modem and set Time Capsule to "bridge mode". I have a iMac and Macbook, both wireless.

I was thinking about using OpenDNS as my DNS servers, based on a review by David Pogue in yesterday's New York Times, and noticed that my current DNS servers are first, the IP address of my Time Capsule (the default address for routers) and second, a Verizon server. Is it typical for the Time Capsule's IP address (or is this the ActionTec's?) to be the primary DNS server? Is there any reason to switch to something like OpenDNS? Would my setup (Time Capsule in bridge mode w/ActionTec) create any issues? I was not sure at this point how my DNS servers are being assigned.

According to OpenDNS you can change the DNS settings on each computer or on the router, but I was also not sure how the latter would work given "bridge mode" (or if that matters).

Thanks.

 

[davidlv]

Sorry I can't answer the part of your questions about the router and bridge mode, but to find DNS servers that will speed up your internet experience, download "namebench" - a free DNS service benchmarking tool. You can find it at <http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/32784/namebench>
While good, OpenDNS may not be the best for your internet environment, they were in the middle for mine, not bad, not great. Namebench finds good local servers and compares them with the big guns, but run the benchmark when you have some free time, it can take a while to do all of the tests.

 

[Ellen]

Thanks, I tried it and the Verizon server assigned to me seems faster than OpenDNS - but the first DNS server in my DNS settings is actually the router and it's quite a bit slower. Is that normal?

 

[ae3265]

Sorry if this s not the right place to post, but I recently became a FIOS subscriber. I have a Time Capsule, so when the techs came and did the install in my apt. they gave me an ActionTec modem and set Time Capsule to "bridge mode". I have a iMac and Macbook, both wireless.

I was thinking about using OpenDNS as my DNS servers, based on a review by David Pogue in yesterday's New York Times, and noticed that my current DNS servers are first, the IP address of my Time Capsule (the default address for routers) and second, a Verizon server. Is it typical for the Time Capsule's IP address (or is this the ActionTec's?) to be the primary DNS server? Is there any reason to switch to something like OpenDNS? Would my setup (Time Capsule in bridge mode w/ActionTec) create any issues? I was not sure at this point how my DNS servers are being assigned.

According to OpenDNS you can change the DNS settings on each computer or on the router, but I was also not sure how the latter would work given "bridge mode" (or if that matters).

Thanks.

Actually, I find the best performance running my own DNS servers. Webmin (www.webmin.com) has a very useful module for setting up the Bind that comes on OS X. As a plus, I don't have to worry about someone else redirecting my DNS queries for their advertising purposes.

 

[davidlv]

Thanks, I tried it and the Verizon server assigned to me seems faster than OpenDNS - but the first DNS server in my DNS settings is actually the router and it's quite a bit slower. Is that normal?

I am not sure if that is "normal" but it sure isn't better than the faster DNS servers found by namebench. Just change the servers in your network preferences pane and see what the results are.
You may have to change them for both wireless and wired.

 

[Ellen]

Thanks. I wonder why the router assigns itself as the first DNS server. I think it is the ActionTec not the Time Capsule, since the DNS server uses .1 and the Time Capsule is showing up on the network as .2.

What happens if I go to say, a Starbucks, and use their WiFi network? Whose DNS server gets used in that case? I am confused as to the interplay between my router and the setters on the computer. Maybe a little knowledge is a dangerous thing....

 

[VideoFreek]

Thanks. I wonder why the router assigns itself as the first DNS server. I think it is the ActionTec not the Time Capsule, since the DNS server uses .1 and the Time Capsule is showing up on the network as .2.

What happens if I go to say, a Starbucks, and use their WiFi network? Whose DNS server gets used in that case? I am confused as to the interplay between my router and the setters on the computer. Maybe a little knowledge is a dangerous thing....

You may find this article helpful. Routers can assign their own address (in your case x.x.x.1), in which case the router forwards your DNS query to the DNS servers that your ISP hands out. As the linked article points out, it is often faster to bypass the router and query the DNS server(s) of your choice directly. Be aware that name resolution proceeds in order, so your Mac will query the first DNS listed, and proceed to the next only if the first doesn't return an answer. So, if your router remains listed as #1, it will use that regardless of which additional DNS servers you specify. The best approach is to set up DNS on the router, if it allows you to do this, so that the desired DNS settings are handed out to the clients automatically via DHCP.

 

[Tonsko]

I've just switched over to a secure DNS service provided by comodo.

http://www.comodo.com/secure-dns/