Does using Google DNS have an effect on torrent connections?

Question

I'm using Google public DNS. Does it have any effects on torrent connections? In other words, does using public DNS decrease torrent downloading speed?

Answer 1

No, it will not have any effect. At most it might make a 1/10th of a second different in the very first connection to the tracker, but after that, all peers are provided by IP address, and does not use DNS.

Answer 2

DNS won't affect your download speed but it may or may not slow down how long it takes to connect to another peer depending whether the tracker returns the IP of a peer or the DNS name of the peer.

DNS will only be used to find out the IP of the tracker's server and if necessary convert a DNS name of a peer into the IP address for routing. After that the DNS server is not involved in any data transferred between you and a peer.

Answer 3

Yes, it can affect your connections with the trackers, but not with the peers (seeds and leaches), and this can affect how many peers you can see (depends on how your distributed hash table (DHT) is set up).

So, if the tracker is blocked by the DNS server, it cannot be reached, and the BitTorrent application cannot query it for peers. But it can get the peers from the distributed peer network (DHT). However, to get to the DHT, the BT application must have the IP of at least one peer connected to the DHT.

Answer 4

DNS (Domain name system) is usually provided by your ISP, either OpenDNS or Google DNS, which will not have any impact on torrent connection. The same question on reddit for your reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/torrents/comments/2ffn4c/question_is_torrenting_private_through_google_dns/