DEC 2022 Fastest DNS servers on the FTTC Vodafone network

[gipjon]

Test results for the fastest DNS servers on the FTTC Vodafone network in the Midlands. It may not be correct if you are in another area or FTTP Vodafone city fibre or other isp 

fastest first 

Quad9                       = 9.9.9.9

NNT LTD 2914          = 129.250.35.250

Cloudflare                 = 1.1.1.1

Sprintlink                  = 204.117.214.10

AdGuard                   = 94.140.14.14

google                      = 8.8.8.8

Vodafone Euro cw   = 141.1.1.1

Uunet                       = 158.43.128.1

OpenDNS                 = 208.67.222.222

way down the list was Vodafone = 90.255.255.90

[Ripshod]

I don't actually use M247. As mentioned elsewhere I use quad9 DNS over TLS.

Queries to a DNS server travel down the same fibre and copper the data does.

Your reference to the fastest in the midlands is irrelevant for the many here who are connected to the edinburgh gateway. A DNS server in Holland would likely be faster than one in a London datacentre.

[purrbox]

Thanks for doing this. I did a similar test before but found that cloudflare was fast in the benchmark but slow in real world usage. I'm currently using Google.

I wonder if your local gateway effects this. My local gateway is Edinburgh and my nearest/ lowest latency shows 

up as neustar / ultradns. I'm guessing they must have a server near Edinburgh.

What's important is the time it takes for the DNS to process the request as well.

[Jayach]

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@purrbox wrote:

What's important is the time it takes for the DNS to process the request as well.

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Surely that is the whole point of the test?

[purrbox]

@Jayach 

I did the same test but the results didn't reflect real world performance.

Maybe the best option would be to find the top 5 DNS's and run continuous tests on them for a few days running. It depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. I just decided to stick with Google as it is better than VF's DNS.

@gipjon 

I don't have a raspberry / pi-hole. Some Asus routers can be patched with Merlin firmware and you can run scripts such as diversion to block ads etc. I've never bothered as we all just use adblockers in our browsers.

There is an ad blocking DNS service (Ad Guard). I've never tried it.

[Jayach]

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@purrbox wrote:

There is an ad blocking DNS service (Ad Guard). I've never tried it.

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Don't bother, the free one is useless.

[CrimsonLiar]

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@purrbox wrote:

@Jayach 

I did the same test but the results didn't reflect real world performance.

Maybe the best option would be to find the top 5 DNS's and run continuous tests on them for a few days running. It depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. I just decided to stick with Google as it is better than VF's DNS.

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On the Asus routers if you use DoT (DNS over TLS) you can pick up to 8 DNS servers (they need to be similar or it's pointless) and the router will send the majority of requests to the fastest DNS, changing it's pick as conditions change.  So there's nothing wrong is using both Quad9 and it's Cloudflare equivalent (1.1.1.2 & 1.0.0.2)

As for on-page blockers then uBlock Origin seems pretty decent!

*Way more interested in preventing a member of the household from getting Viri and Malware, ad blocking is a bonus.  7 years back I had a HD imaged so I could restore that one device every time it was compromised, and it had to run in it's own private network.  Since initially setting up the Pi-Hole and now running Diversion too (in parallel), it's never been compromised (and I still check regularly).

[gipjon]

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@purrbox wrote:

Thanks for doing this. I did a similar test before but found that cloudflare was fast in the benchmark but slow in real world usage. I'm currently using Google.

I wonder if your local gateway effects this. My local gateway is Edinburgh and my nearest/ lowest latency shows 

up as neustar / ultradns. I'm guessing they must have a server near Edinburgh.

What's important is the time it takes for the DNS to process the request as well.

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I think Cynric got the right idea 

for the average user, DNS security is more important than speed  

If you are an advanced user then you will probably be using a pi-hole 

but for the average user, I would recommend this thread

 https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Broadband-connection/How-to-protect-your-PC-and-family-on-the-intern...