[Fury]

Do you think Hard Light Productions or Game Warden is slow? Try OpenDNS or Google Public DNS. They're both quite likely to give you better internet experience, because not all internet service providers are maintaining their DNS servers properly.

It is also possible that you may not notice an improvement in loading times of HLP or GW, but you may in other sites. So don't give up on them right away, try one a few days, then another the next few days and decide for yourself if they're worth keeping.

[Rodo]

thanks, I have a huge amount of problems to open HLP and GW from home, will try this when I get back tonight.

[MatthTheGeek]

Err, I didn't know HLP was doing in advertising...

[jr2]

Err, I didn't know HLP was doing in advertising...

Yes, HLP gets at 7% cut of all the profit that Open DNS and Google Public DNS make when you switch to either of them.  Didn't you get the memo?  And we get a 2% cut of all GOG.com FS1 and 2 sales and we're negotiating for a 1% cut of all Descent1 and 2 sales.



It's called passing the word.  Let your fellow HLPer know where the good stuff is.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Err, I didn't know HLP was doing in advertising...

Advertising is usually done with the intention of earning money. Hence, advertising an open-source project would be... odd.
This ain't advertising, it's just giving good advice.

[Mongoose]

I can't say I've ever experienced enough widespread site slowdowns to make fiddling around with DNS worth the bother.

[jr2]

The slowdown would be the lag you get just after you click a link or after you hit the enter key when typing a url in address box, before the status bar says waiting for site: zzz.yyyyy.com  If the page contains data stored on multiple such sites that have to be looked up with DNS queries, then you get more slow downs.  And, if you use your ISP's DNS servers, certain sites just won't load for random reasons. *coughcensoringcough* (such as PirateBay, www.drudgereport.com .. and others that I've seen)

[SpardaSon21]

Why would the Drudge Report be censored?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Google DNS faster?  I doubt that.  The slowest part of the pages loading are the connections to Google for adds.  Can't see the connections for DNS look ups being any faster. 

[Mongoose]

Yeah, either the Google ads or that annoying little ICQ icon is usually what keeps the page busy for me, but those are after everything else has already loaded.

[Rodo]

well I don't know about you, but I tested both and I'm keeping google's dns... for some reason they seem to load faster than opendns and the regular "automatic" setting (so far).

[jr2]

Why would the Drudge Report be censored?

I really don't know - it was working fine, then it stopped.  But the only way around it was to do a Google search for it and then click that; then it worked.  But I use OpenDNS now.

[Jeff Vader]

Better late yadda yadda. Be quiet, it hasn't even been a month.

Thought I'd mention Comodo Secure DNS as yet another option. Haven't tested it myself much. Or any of the mentioned ones. Usually my ISP's DNS servers function well enough and I've tried OpenDNS and Google Public DNS recently mainly because
- my ISP's DNS servers seemed to lose HLP, so I tried OpenDNS
- OpenDNS claimed that Facebook was banned at the uni, so I tried Google Public DNS.

People who care can always try Comodo as well. I might also do that.

[Colonol Dekker]

I don't even know what a DNS is/does so i'm a gonna opt out of this topic :D

[Jeff Vader]

I don't even know what a DNS is/does so i'm a gonna opt out of this topic

Think of it this way. You enter www.hard-light.net to your address bar (or open a bookmark). Your browser doesn't just go to www.hard-light.net and get the contents. No. Nonono. First, your computer will contact a DNS server and ask "wtf is the IP address for www.hard-light.net" and it'll get a response. The response may be "I dunno lol but you should ask ***.***.***.***" and then your computer will contact ***.***.***.***. And this may occur several times during the process. Finally, the computer will get the answer "oh ya I know that fella, it's at ***.***.***.***", your browser will connect to that IP address and you'll get the site you wanted.

DNS is just a way to interpret those numeric IP addresses into URLs like www.google.com. The point of this thread is to make people aware about the fact that performance between DNS servers can be noticeable. Regardless of connection speeds, a poor DNS does have an impact if you have to scour the entire Internet through while looking for the IP for the site you wanted.

Or at least that's how I think it is. I didn't get a very good grade from Computer Networks I.

[jr2]

You've got the gist of it if you don't actually have it.  I can't be arsed to remember how it actually goes but that's pretty much it in a nutshell.  Here's something to try: clicky here:  http://96.31.94.83

OK, how about here: http://207.67.217.231

Here?: http://67.195.160.76

:evil: here http://207.46.170.123

Those are the "actual" websites.  when you punch in the address, the IP address must be retrieved.  Keep in mind the IP can change, too.  xD

EDIT: Apparently very rapidly, too.  If those links don't work, well... here's how I got them:

open command prompt
punch in
ping www.hard-light.net

note the IP address that is pinged.

punch in http://<IP address> into your browser.

[chief1983]

Hmm.  I hadn't heard of Comodo, will give it a shot.  OpenDNS has become too annoying for my liking, and Google's has a lot of tracking involved from what I've heard.

Besides Comodo, I've seen recommendations for Level 3's DNS servers.

4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4

Sorry for necro, but it is only news, and we've had some recent issues with routing lately I think, that these might help with.