OpenDNS, Want to improve your internet connection speed?

[slacker9876]

In the Pub a few folks mentioned OpenDNS a little over a month ago. I am here to tell ya, if you have a cable modem, there is nothing that can juice your connection more. check it out at OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster DNS, it's fast, free and safe! I was rated by speedtest.net at over 20MBps and my sustained download rates between 1.2 & 3.1 MBps. For fun I just pulled Dreamweaver CS3 trial. 285MB file 3:02 was my DL time. Not too shabby.

It is a piece of cake to configure in your wired or wireless router.

Just wanted to share.

 

[markrubi]

This will not increase your download speed. It might speed up the DNS resolution, but you are still limited to your speed set by your ISP. Most ISP DNS is ok, but if you are one of the few who constantly have problems then openDNS might be your fix.

 

[TheForce]

Talk to your cable co about their commercial speed packages. Mine are now at 8 mb's download 1.2 upload sustained. Used to be 6 download. A friend here has the consumer package that starts out at 15Mbs and settles down to 1.5Mbs for very large file downloads, usually 25 Mb or more. But his web surfing is snappier than mine.

 

[cybok0]

Before Open DNS.




After.

 

[diu.steve]

I can see how this may help with overall translation from domain name to IP address, but overall performance is going to be helped by a negligible amount. Overall download / upload speed is determined by your ISP, and in the case of cable modems, the number of people online in your neighborhood. OpenDNS is just a fancy firewall / proxy system. Most of the stuff described by the website can be done with a spare x86 computer and the Smoothwall Linux firewall (Welcome! - SmoothWall). Before I went wireless and allowed my wireless router to takeover firewall duties, I used smoothwall as a proxy to cache webpages for fast access and also installed DansGuardian to filter out internet ads and also any content I didn't like. This is the fastest method because it is hardwired into your home network. A local server of this type communicates up to 54 mbp/s for wireless or 100 mbp/s for ethernet connections. This is faster than any service offered over the internet.

For the average Joe, OpenDNS would be an easy to set-up added security measure, but overall, most of the things OpenDNS does can be done at home with little or no cost.

 

[digiblur]

OpenDNS will not increase your download speed, nor is it designed to.

 

[Van]

I dont use it but Charter has been good enough to goof a bit on my consistant download speed wich for any size file is 5.8mg down and Im only on a 3 meg with a 5 meg preview.

 

[cybok0]

OpenDNS will not increase your download speed, nor is it designed to.

I didn't see any noticeable difference between the two, I see no reason in using it.

 

[Van]

Aparently for the OP it solved a problem that had been going on maybe.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I have had numerous DNS problems with Bresnan (my crappy cable company), so I think I might just give this a try, and see what impact it has.

Of course, I think I will wait until my wife goes to work - don't want to mess with her internet just now