Google's DNS service: Google public DNS

Question

Google declared their free DNS service, Google public DNS:

To try it out: Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers.

They claim that:

By using Google Public DNS you can:

• Speed up your browsing experience.
• Improve your security.
• Get the results you expect with absolutely no redirection.

What do you think about it? Should I use those DNS servers? One reason to use them is I cannot open the web sites banned by the government (such as YouTube!).

Answer 1

A quick comparison of Google Public DNS with OpenDNS (which has been around for a long time).

If you have to access sites banned by Google DNS (or, OpenDNS for that matter), you can skip these configurations when you hit a problem. However, most of the time sites blocked by OpenDNS (and, I have to still look at Google Public DNS more) are those which I would never want to go to.

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Update based on your comments on YouTube in other answers.
If YouTube is really banned by your ISP (or higher authorities), changing to another DNS will usually not help (unless this 'ban' is very weakly implemented). You would need to investigate tunneling techniques to bypass such bans.

Answer 2

Using google as DNS would mean they will see ANY DNS search or in other words they would know about any site you (likely) went to and so you provide them with a LOT of somewhat personal info, which they could collate with the other info they gather on you, make sure you are fine with that and be aware that if the law changes or there is some subpoena they could then be handing that info over to authorities who as you know will 'use anything you say against you'.

Answer 3

Try using Namebench to see if it is faster for your location

Answer 4

If you can open all the sites you want then yes.

If you can't open some sites you have to be able to access then no.

Note, I'm not saying that just because Google implements your governments banned list you shouldn't use it. I don't know what sites are on the list (nor do I wish to investigate from work), but I could see that you might have a legitimate reason for wanted to view those sites (university research say).

Answer 5

If you are worried about Google Public DNS security please read this article:

http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/12/is-google-public-dns-safe-look.html

Answer 6

I tried it last night, but noticed it was slower than Level3 DNS, so I switched back this morning. I think it depends on your location. I'm in the east coast, so I think that's why I notice better performance with Level3.

I had the same experience when I tried OpenDNS, noticing Level3 was faster. Plus I didn't like some of the redirection OpenDNS does. I don't want my DNS thinking for me. :) Just fast.

Answer 7

I did speed comparisons 3 times during the day and night yesterday, and both my ISP's DNS, and Level3 came back as faster than Google DNS.

Answer 8

I recently have to use 8.8.8.8 because I have AT&T as my Internet Service Provider.

When you try to navigate to sites like https://internal/ AT&T automatically redirects you to https://internal.attlocal.net

That is the way their default routing works.

To work around that I use 8.8.8.8 as my DNS server so that I can navigate successfully.

Answer 9

I think you should just use it if it really improve your productivity on the internet. But if you need to go to the sites banned by the government then don't use it.