OpenDNS Problems

[cet]

I have been using OpendNS for a long time.But this week I noticed that I can not enter Wilderssecurity most of the time because of time- out. I get nameservers failing prompt.Is anyone experiencing similar problems?
I am now using my ISP's DNS servers.Everything seems normal.

[Fad]

I have been using OpenDNS for a couple of years without issue, but had exactly the same problem as you just over the past few days, so I have also gone back to using my ISPs servers.

[Boyfriend]

OpenDNS is also causing problem for me. I switched to Norton DNS. It is working flawlessly.

[iceni60]

did you see this -
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1783598

[noone_particular]

I ran into the same problem today using Open DNS. Couldn't reach this site. I'd originally switched to Open DNS because my ISPs DNS servers were unreliable. Until now, I had no reason to consider switching back.

At the moment, I'm trying a different idea. I left Open DNS as my primary DNS server and added my ISPs DNS server as the secondary. When I set the firewall to alert to DNS traffic, it shows that this is working as I'd hoped, checking Open DNS first, then my ISP if Open DNS fails.

For sites that you commonly use, like this one, you could always add it and its IP to your hosts file. That was its intended purpose.

[funkydude]

Dyn worked fine for some reason.

[jasonbourne]

Yeah same here. Says. did not load properly or something. Had no problems with Google DNS, Comodo DNS, DynDNS and ClearCloud. But with OpenDNS it may open but when I open a different page or search it's hit and miss then wham all does not properly load for wilders'.

[MikeBCda]

Maybe a little off-topic, but ...

The only problem I've had with OpenDNS is with keeping my dynamic IP current ... I installed that utility client they offer, and (I think) set it up properly, but still have to go to their site and hit that Update icon to recover my settings. I'm on PPPoE DSL, if that's relevant.

And their "haven't visted recently ..." cutoff for keeping stats must be very short, possibly no more than 24-36 hours ... I frequently get that (even after updating IP) if I'm not on their site at least once a day, which is ridiculous. Both problems are essentially equivalent to having to visit Javacool daily to keep my SpywareBlaster updated and working properly.

[zapjb]

I use Googles DNS 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4. Pretty good.

[iceni60]

i use openDNS and don't have any problems with them. however, i downloaded steve gibson's Domain Name Speed Benchmark (http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm)

and once i worked it out and ran a benchmark test i saw my openDNS were near the top. however, my first openDNS wasn't slower than the first!

223489

[The Seeker]

DNS Benchmark is a great program. It proved what I'd long suspected, i.e my ISP's DNS servers were by far the fastest available, followed by Level 3. I suggest users take the time and run the 37 minute test to get a custom list.

[noone_particular]

It's pretty much expected that your own ISP will be the fastest, since all your traffic goes to them first. For me, the speed difference is low on the list of considerations. The difference between the fastest and a slow one is at most .2 seconds, barely noticeable. IMO, reliability is what matters here. I originally switched to Open DNS because my ISPs DNS servers were very erratic, working good one day and not the next. Until this incident with Wilders, Open DNS had proven to be quite reliable, which only shows that anyone can have problems at any given time, no matter how well designed their systems might be. Whatever the problem is/was, it affected both Open DNS servers. That calls into question the wisdom of having both the primary and secondary DNS servers pointing to the same place. IMO, the best setup is to specify the fastest DNS server as the primary and a reliable, unrelated DNS server from a completely different source and location as the secondary.