Alternative DNS Resolvers May Not Always Be For the Best
February 25th, 2011
Here at the Chad’s News network command center, we use OpenDNS and have previously written about using Google’s DNS resolver instead of the one provided by your ISP. Google and OpenDNS are recommended because of their reliability, speed, and features, but it may not always be advantageous to use them. Akamai is a content delivery company with web servers around the world. They deliver content for their customers using algorithms to determine which Akamai server is physically closest to the location of the person downloading the material. This significantly speeds up the delivery and also balances the load across multiple sources. But it appears that one of the ways Akamai determines your physical location is via the DNS resolver that you’re using. And as the linked article explains, this creates bottlenecks for OpenDNS and Google DNS. By switching back to his ISP’s DNS resolver, the author was able to shorten a 2+ hour iTunes video download into less than 20 seconds.
Link: http://joemaller.com/…
(via Slashdot)
