Forum Discussion

MarkJFine's avatar
MarkJFine
Professor
7 years ago

Experimenting with Alternate DNSs

Currently using CloudFlare:
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1
2606:4700:4700::1111

2606:4700:4700::1001

 

Have set the router DNS as well as on devices (initially). Eventually I think the automatic should pick up what the router uses, but haven't seen it do that yet.

 

Seems to be faster than those originally selected by the router. But, we'll see how this works after a week or so wrt speed, accuracy and other errors.

  • GabeU's avatar
    GabeU
    Distinguished Professor IV

    MarkJFine wrote:

    Eventually I think the automatic should pick up what the router uses, but haven't seen it do that yet.


    I always wondered if that was happening for me when I'd try a different DNS, or just set my devices to Google's, which I normally use.  I would set my HughesNet modem, or 3rd party router (not presently used), to Google's DNS, and then do the same with my devices, just to be sure.  Of course, I can't set the IPv6 DNS servers in the HughesNet modem or my router, so I have to do it with my devices. 

     

    I've been reading about Cloudflare's DNS.  It's fairly new, but people seem to like it thus far.  I'll be waiting to see how it works for you.  I tend to let those who know better than I give their opinion on things like this before I switch to them.  I did the same with uBlock Origin.  

    • MarkJFine's avatar
      MarkJFine
      Professor

      Seems to be fast, but am having a problem with Bing this morning... but that could just be Bing being Bing.

       

      Edit: ...which it was. Seems ok now at 0735.

      • GabeU's avatar
        GabeU
        Distinguished Professor IV

        MarkJFine

         

        Well, I caved.  I decided to try it.  I set IPv4 and IPv6 back to automatic in my desktop, and set my HughesNet modem's IPv4 DNS to Cloudflares.  I flushed and renewed the DNS cache in my desktop (rather than restarting it) and, amazingly, it does seem to be faster.  And this is on a Sunday evening, when everybody and their brother are trying to stream a movie and my overall speeds are down a good amount because of it.  

         

        I ran nslookup to be sure my modem was using Cloudflare, and though the default server didn't quite match what it showed in an article, it was close.  The article said it should show "1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com", yet mine showed "one.one.one.one".  The article was from April 5th, so maybe it's been updated since then. 

         

        I'm a little confused about the whole IPv4 and IPv6 thing, but the article said that if my "router" only had settings for IPv4, which is the case with the HughesNet modem, it would be fine.  It said the following... "It's worth noting that you don't need to apply the IP version 6 addresses on your router if your network is already using IP version 4."  I guess this is the case if I use the IPv4 version, which is the only one I can use in the HughesNet modem, right?  

         

        We'll see how it goes.

         

         

        Does yours show the same?    

  • C0RR0SIVE's avatar
    C0RR0SIVE
    Associate Professor

    For the LONGEST time I have used Norton ConnectSafe DNS...  However, apparently (just now found out moments ago...) they are retiring the free service for users for no real reason.  A lot of their routing products had those servers hard-coded in for DNS...


    https://community.norton.com/en/blogs/product-update-announcements/end-life-announcement-norton-connectsafe


    Looks like I am gonna have to find a similar DNS that works with Hughesnet. :(

    With the way Hughesnet does things, most DNS services don't exactly work properly, especially ones like OpenDNS where you can customize things.  I have always used DNS as a first basic line of defense in fighting malware threats, and ConnectSafe always worked nice in regards to that.

    Norton is saying to use "Neustar" but I am hesitent, and BLEH.  Someone shoot me.

    • C0RR0SIVE's avatar
      C0RR0SIVE
      Associate Professor

      So... I tried out Neustar, pleasantly surprised in how well it worked, but at the same time, they block far more than they admit to... They classify Torrent Trackers as Malicious/Warez/Hacking, which is a bit absurd.

      I suppose Neustar is great for a basic family, or a school or something, but for me... Yeah.. NO THANKS!

      Le'sigh.

      • GabeU's avatar
        GabeU
        Distinguished Professor IV

        C0RR0SIVE

         

        Have you checked out Comodo Secure DNS?  Just an idea.