Google Public DNS – free DNS resolution service

Google DNS

Google Public DNS:

Google Public DNS is a free Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service introduced by Google (on 3-Dec-2009) .It promises to speed up the web and it can be installed as an alternative to the slow unresponsive DNS systems offered by network providers. The search giant claims performance benefits for many users (depending on their geographic/network location) and security benefits for everyone who adopts the new service .But before we begin deep review of this service let us learn some basic terminologies.

Terminologies:

DNS :

The DNS is similar to your phonebook.It translates meaningful human understandable domain names to ip (binary numbers) that are associated with the network.

DNS resolution service :

A service that handles DNS queries and gives appropriate output. Examples : Google Public DNS, Open DNS.

ISP:

A company that offers internet access to its customers.

IP:

Internet Protocol , simply referred as ip address, each server in www is located using ip address.

From the blog post :

Quote from Googlecode post,

Today, as part of our efforts to make the web faster, we are announcing Google Public DNS, a new experimental public DNS resolver.

The DNS protocol is an important part of the web’s infrastructure, serving as the Internet’s “phone book”. Every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they complete loading. As a result, the average Internet user performs hundreds of DNS lookups each day, that collectively can slow down his or her browsing experience.

We believe that a faster DNS infrastructure could significantly improve the browsing experience for all web users

Why should you use Google Public DNS ?

Provides global coverage using its vast infrastructure hence you can have fast DNS lookup times.
Google Public DNS’ prefetching system improves performance, provides fringe security benefits.
Checks the validity of nameservers’ responses.
Follows strict Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard.
Prefetching name resolutions.
More…..

Setting up Google Public DNS :

If you are an advanced user then ,

Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers

else visit this page – http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

Frequently Asked Questions :

For support visit their FAQ page – http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/faq.html

Privacy Concerns :

Though we are happy to see new services from Google, many users believe that it will create net monopoly and already many critics say “Google already sees enough of my ‘Net activity, thank you very much.” If that’s a concern of yours then their privacy policy will ease your mind. Note these points that help you to get rid of your privacy concerns.

Google stores two set of logs, temporary and permanent.
Temporary logs stores your IP information and is deleted within 24-48 hours.
Permanent logs doesnot contain personally identifiable information or IP information.
They don’t correlate or combine your information from these logs with any other log data that Google might have about your use of other services, such as data from Web Search and data from advertising on the Google content network.

Alternative to Google Public DNS :

Open DNS is a famous alternative to Google Public DNS. We have made a detailed review here. David Ulevitch, Founder of OpenDNS shares his thoughts on Google DNS and the importance of DNS in the internet infrastructure here

The best DNS resolution service :

- Using your ISP’s DNS resolution service may not be reliable in few cases but faster.

- Open DNS is well known for their advanced features such as Parental Controls etc. and are experienced in this field. But they are criticised for redirecting search results in browsers such as firefox (A fix is available in our review of OpenDNS). – Preferred

- Google Public DNS is a new beta service but the name says it all.It needs new features to compete with OpenDNS.

So we recommend you to ping a website using these three DNS and choose the right one.