The news about Google’s new public DNS service seems to have ebbed down a bit after the initial announcement which can probably be attributed to the fact that reviews of the service where not all favorable. The two biggest points of criticism were privacy and speed. Some users do not want to use Google DNS servers believing that Google would be able to track them even more thoroughly than before. Speed on the other hand was tested by many users and some reported better response times while other reported the opposite.
The best way to find out is to test Google’s public DNS servers to see if they offer any speed improvements. We covered a DNS benchmark tool called Namebench a while ago which can be used for that purpose.
But the benchmark software might not be needed in some cases. Some users would probably like to test the DNS servers by simply switching to them in their operating system to see if they notice any speed improvements.
Google DNS Helper has been designed for this user group. The portable program provides one click access to switch the computer’s current DNS server to Google’s public server.
Even better is the restore DNS option to restore the previous DNS server if Google’s DNS server did not live up to the promises made.
Google DNS Helper is a portable software program for the Windows operating system. The 89 Kilobyte program can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework to run.
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This “Google DNS Helper” seems to switch one DNS server out of the two (for most users) to one Google Public DNS server (8.8.8.8). We all know the latter has 8.8.4.4 as secondary server (though primary and secondary order have no importance unless their respective speeds). Hence, I don’t see the point of mixing one Google DNS with one of my current DNS (the secondary as it seems).
Concerning Google Public DNS, I’ve used Gibson’s DNSBench to thoroughly benchmark DNS resolutions within a dozen of DNS server providers (that includes user’s current ones with others including Google’s) and the result shows that GPDNS is a myth as far as speed is concerned: fast but not the fastest, here anyway.
Hi! I’ve updated the code yesterday. Now it should switch both DNS addresses. I’ll be publishing another similar utility (that lets you switch also to other DNS services) in a week. So watch out!
Hi,
I’ll side up with Transcontinental.
Did a test with Namebench (which took for ever to do its thing!) and with Gibson’s DNSBench (which I usually use & come to trust). Results were so much different.
Then tested DNS servers recommended by Namebench with DNSBench and guess what, they did not land 1st place (not even 2nd). Still, if they had, I doubt I’d switch over coz of the privacy issues.
Won’t even bother with Google DNS Helper.
The whole Google DNS thing sounds more & more (to me) like bait to lure more people to intergrade Google into more aspects of their lives.
Thanks,
26Dolphins
“It requires the Microsoft .net Framework to run.”
ROFL
Should I change the DNS numbers in my router or my network connections or both? I use namebench to find the fastest ones for my area and google doesn’t show up in the top ones to use
thanks
Great find Martin this is a perfect program. After installing and running it main (firefox) brouwser became much faster.
Why dont you use DNS jumper v1.0.2
Its freeware , Portable (no installation needed)
-No need Netframework…
-16 DNS..
http://www.ghacks.net/2009/12/14/change-dns-servers-with-dns-jumper/