Verisign launches Public DNS service that respects user privacy
Verisign Public DNS is a free DNS service that promises better connection times, stability, security, and privacy when compared to the majority of public DNS services available on today's Internet.
The DNS services that Internet providers offer are often not the fastest, and it is easy enough to verify that by running programs like DNS Benchmark which test the performance of multiple DNS servers on the host system to find out which performs the best.
When it comes to third-party Public DNS services, there are plenty to choose from. While speed and reliability should definitely be a point of consideration, there may be others of interest including privacy, restrictions and extras that services may offer.
Companies may sell data that they collect based on your computer's look ups, and others may redirect you to custom error pages with their ads on them instead of the web browser's default error page.
While it is easy enough to find out about custom error pages, whether a company is selling or processing your data may not always be that obvious.
Verisign's newly launched Public DNS service promises to respect user privacy:
And, unlike many of the other DNS services out there, Verisign respects your privacy. We will not sell your public DNS data to third parties nor redirect your queries to serve you any ads.
The setup guide walks you through setting up the DNS server on desktop and mobile operating systems. Note that there is no program or app that you can run to set Verisign Public DNS automatically on a system.
Before you do that, you may want to test the performance of the DNS service. This can be done with the excellent DNS Benchmark which ships with dozens of DNS servers. You do need to hit the Add/Remove button to add both Verisign Public DNS IP addresses to it. The IP addresses that you need to add are 64.6.64.6 and 64.6.65.6.
As you can see on the screenshot above, it came in second right after the local network nameserver used on the test device.
The status tab confirms furthermore that it won't intercept bad domain names which means that the browser's error page will be used whenever you try to load a domain name that does not exist.
Public DNS is a bare-bones DNS service apart from that offering no filtering options for you to configure for example. That's not necessarily a bad thing considering that you may not need these options at all. It is quick to set up and if you run into issues, quick to remove as well.
Verisign promises not to sell the data but it will still process it internally as mentioned in the Terms of Service.
Verisign uses the Service Data to provide the Service and for internal business and analysis purposes. [..] Verisign will not sell, distribute any personally identifiable information (PII) collected as a result of performing the Service. Verisign will not permanently store the PII and will retain such PII for no longer than is necessary.
Closing Words
Benchmark results may vary depending on where you connect to the Internet from. It is therefore suggested to run benchmarks if you consider switching to the DNS service.
Now You: Which DNS service are you using and why?
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.