Alternative DNS resolvers

Posted on: 3 April 2018 10 September 2018
Categories: Cloud, HowTo, Tips & Tricks, User Guides
Tags: Cloud, Performance

DNS is the fundamental signpost of the Internet. Your ISP or internal IT systems will provide DNS services to allow your computer to resolve names to IP addresses. Even though your DNS services may be enough to meet your needs, there are potential problems that may drive you to want to find alternative DNS resolvers.

Some ISPs may make changes (or be forced to make changes) to their DNS records for sites that they, or the local government, may wish to block. This will mean that when your computer tries to resolve a site that is blocked – the response from the local DNS server may be that the site cannot be resolved, or to direct to a different site that warns you that the location you are trying to resolve is blocked.

It may also not be official – hacking or poisoning of DNS can direct traffic to invalid (hacker) sites – either asking for subscription/payment, or trying to look valid and instead capturing details such as bank logins. Finally, the servers used for DNS are not always dedicated to be high performance – as DNS is fundamental, it may have been one of the first servers deployed, and there are alternative DNS resolvers that are faster.