Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

Now i know this may sound like a daft question but im just wondering what DNS people use and if they have any issues with it.

Im currently using Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 but finding downloading slower than using Virgins own DNS, i can hit 51mb/s on Virgins DNS but on cloudflare between 29 - 35mb/s only especially on US based sites.

Ive asked Virgin and they claim not to be oversubscribed and not to have any issues so i have to look elsewhere...

Thanks Guys.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

I use Google's DNS on 8.8.8.8 (also 8.8.4.4) with free DNS as backup. Been rock solid for years.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

DNS has nothing to do with attainable speeds.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

If you need to shave a few milli. secs of your DNS servers, a very good benchmark prog. can be downloaded from here.

A simple exe. no requirements to install.

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

Google (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4)

Sorry, but DNS has absolutely nothing to do with download speeds at all.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

I use Google 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. This improved my browsing noticeably. VM DNS servers can be slow and temperamental. However, this will not affect your download speed, even though most tests are through your browser.

Your speed test result is more to do with the quality of your connection, the kit you are using on your premises and the speed test servers.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

Uhhhh, not quite.

It's true that DNS only plays a very small (but extremely important) part in your download - by translating a domain name to a resolved IP address, however it can definitely affect your download speeds if it gives you a non-optimal geographical CDN endpoint.

In other words, say you want to download a file and that file is on a CDN. Chances are there's a CDN endpoint near you, either London or Manchester (or both!) but there's likely CDN endpoints all over the world as well. Ideally, you want your DNS lookup to point you at the CDN closest to you to get the best (hopefully full) speeds, but there's a chance (and Google's DNS definitely used to have this problem) that it'll instead resolve to a CDN endpoint in another country entirely. This is definitely going to affect your download speeds.

Having said that, Cloudflare is a CDN provider so I suspect they shouldn't have this issue, at least for content that's on a Cloudflare CDN.

It would depend entirely on what and where content is being downloaded from.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

Most folk use pretty much the same speed testers wouldn't you agree? They use speedtest.net and dslreports, but perhaps other UK-based tests like USwitch's or broadbandspeedchecker. If they want to compare their performance between single thread and multi-thread tests they use Thinkbroadband. They might just use a direct file download test with servers in the UK. TBB runs one of those.

What speed testers do you have in mind, that we use widely in the UK, that might have CNDs in some distant country or other non-optimal location?

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

Well referring to OP's post:

OP is specifically referring to real world download speeds, not speed tests (which shouldn't be as impacted by a DNS change).

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

Again, DNS has no effect on your download speeds.

Yes, it provides the IP address for the source, and yes, a few CDNs have multiple sources, but DNS plays no part in the actual download, it simply helps connect you.

I have no figures, but I doubt most internet sites are using multi-source CDN's.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

My bad. I didn't spot that. Main reason: Why would anyone want to test their connection speed or quality using US-based sites, with servers in Dallas or wherever? There are some US sites with London-based servers, but generally not. e.g. testmy net

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

I don't think we're disagreeing here, just arguing semantics. From a very simple perspective, a change in DNS can cause slower download speeds but it's not DNS itself that's causing them, just the hosts that are being resolved.

The issue isn't if sites are (or aren't) using a CDN, it's more that if they are using a CDN then you can end up using an endpoint that's not geographically close to you. It's been written about plenty:

http://www.apcmag.com/why-using-goog...-bad-idea.htm/

https://www.sajalkayan.com/in-a-cdnd...the-enemy.html

https://00f.net/2012/02/22/akamai-vs...c-dns-servers/

The very issue is that, historically, these DNS providers end up selecting US endpoints for a lot of people, despite us being in the UK. Now I appreciate the above links are pretty old and I believe they've been largely resolved by Google et al having much better (read: more distributed) infrastructure for their DNS systems, but it's still a very real problem that can raise its head and it's not worth dismissing outright.

Having done some research, here's an interesting read: https://community.cloudflare.com/t/c...olving/16275/2

Basically, Google has (largely) fixed the above issue by passing along the client's IP as part of the lookup, meaning it should in most cases resolve to the closest endpoint - however, Cloudflare does not for privacy reasons.

Cloudflare does have a lot of endpoints distributed around so theoretically it should get you to an endpoint within your home country, but that doesn't mean it's the one closest to you specifically. So there will be a (hopefully small) impact from using 1.1.1.1 over 8.8.8.8, which will have its own impact over your ISP's own DNS.

All that being said, I use Cloudflare's and I'm very happy with it and I use Google's as a secondary. I wouldn't touch any ISP's with a barge pole.


Without knowing which sites OP is using, it's impossible to say. My guess is that they've managed to find a site that's US-based but is using some kind of CDN and as a result they're actually downloading from a US endpoint instead of a UK endpoint, depending on which

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

Ive tried Microsoft, Corel and Apple.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

why don't you try google's dns then and see if your speeds are normal or diminished. Going by Kush's explanation above (and personal experience) I expect you will get full speed and this may be an option for you going forward so you don't have to rely on VM.

Re: Best DNS For Virgin Internet
 

I agree with you but most users haven't the patience or experience to run the "Build custom list" which can take up to 35mins. The built-in list is all US DNS.

To use the benchmark correctly you need to run the Build custom list which will give the fastest DNS from your location. It may also need to be pruned before saving.