DNS optimisation

Speedster

Speedster

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I've been using Adguard Home for DNS (and DHCP) at both home and our office and recently changed the DNS setting to "parallel requests" meaning it always queries all the configured DNS servers and just uses the fastest. This also means I've gotten a pretty decent view on the current fastest DNS server for the two locations. Having local DNS speeds up requests quite a bit as the majority of requests are handled locally, with only new and expired requests being sent upstream.

I'm open for suggestions for any DNS servers I should try.

Here are the average response times for the last 7 days for work network. I'll post the home stats this afternoon.

ICTglobe (business fibre)
  • 149.112.112.112 22 ms
  • 8.8.8.8 35 ms
  • 1.1.1.1 41 ms
  • 9.9.9.9 54 ms
  • 1.0.0.1 180 ms
  • 8.8.4.4 190 ms
 
Telkom (Openserve)
  • 9.9.9.9 9 ms
  • 1.1.1.1 41 ms
  • 149.112.112.112 27 ms
  • 1.0.0.1 32 ms
  • 8.8.8.8 41 ms
  • 45.90.28.127 43 ms
  • 8.8.4.4 43 ms
  • 45.90.30.127 406 ms
 
Last edited:
Speedster said:
I've been using Adguard Home for DNS (and DHCP) at both home and our office and recently changed the DNS setting to "parallel requests" meaning it always queries all the configured DNS servers and just uses the fastest. This also means I've gotten a pretty decent view on the current fastest DNS server for the two locations. Having local DNS speeds up requests quite a bit as the majority of requests are handled locally, with only new and expired requests being sent upstream.

I'm open for suggestions for any DNS servers I should try.

Here are the average response times for the last 7 days for work network. I'll post the home stats this afternoon.

ICTglobe (business fibre)
  • 149.112.112.112 22 ms
  • 8.8.8.8 35 ms
  • 1.1.1.1 41 ms
  • 9.9.9.9 54 ms
  • 1.0.0.1 180 ms
  • 8.8.4.4 190 ms
Click to expand...

Since DNS hardly uses any traffic and is very lightweight , i don't see the point in trying to do any dns optimization .Even DNS servers with high latency vs low latency ,there is no noticeable difference .If there is any slowness , its latency to the website and not DNS.
 
ubercal said:
Since DNS hardly uses any traffic and is very lightweight , i don't see the point in trying to do any dns optimization .Even DNS servers with high latency vs low latency ,there is no noticeable difference .If there is any slowness , its latency to the website and not DNS.
Click to expand...
I'm using the DNS to block adverts and other unwanted websites, optimisation is a byproduct
 
Yep, resolve time is pretty insignificant for the most part if you compare the big providers.

I have monitoring in SmokePing which tracks resolution time and then another which is the RTT. Essentially just choose one that has a server closest to you, but most have a local presence.

Resolution times:
1764602384775.png

RTT (Ping):
1764602410608.png
 
Is there much point in 10ms difference on a DNS server? AFAIK it doesnt decide your routes and requests are not made that often. If you doing 1000`s of requests a minute I could understand, but most people are not. Is there something I am missing here or do people really like that 10ms faster load time on a page?
 
Been looking at setting up a better DNS solution due to recent outages causing issues (ie. Cloudflare outage, and other routing problems from my ISP to Google), so interested to see the outcomes from this thread. I'm in CPT, so focus on DNS servers with CPT relays, such as Cloudflare, Google and Quad9, but having additional backups is worth it too. The plan is to implement dnsdist on my Synology NAS with fast failover and see how that works out.
 
I also dont see the point in using one that has 10ms vs another that has 15ms latency. It's not going to make any difference to network request. The client will make a dns request and then cache the result so any future dns requests will be done from cache. It's not like you are doing mission critical requests that will have a big impact if there is a 1ms delay.

Go with 8.8.8.8 and it's backup 8.8.4.4.

If both dns server drop off the internet then there are far bigger problems to worry about.
 
w1z4rd said:
Is there much point in 10ms difference on a DNS server? AFAIK it doesnt decide your routes and requests are not made that often. If you doing 1000`s of requests a minute I could understand, but most people are not. Is there something I am missing here or do people really like that 10ms faster load time on a page?
Click to expand...

Exactly my point i made previously .Optimizing DNS would be the last thing i would be looking at.
 
ubercal said:
Exactly my point i made previously .Optimizing DNS would be the last thing i would be looking at.
Click to expand...
But it's an interesting side project, no? I've got 5 or 6 upstream servers configured there and it's intriguing to see how they compare
 
Register a Cloudflare Teams account (free up to 50 users) and then take full control of your upstream DNS server.

Yes you do this already locally but then you’ll also have full logging and can also block stuff upstream.

Side benefit is you can use Warp as a VPN when travelling etc or go full on and setup tunnels to your home etc.
 
carbz771 said:
Give ControlD a shot - https://controld.com/

Free DNS resolvers - https://controld.com/free-dns
Click to expand...
Here's the scorecard after adding ControlD a week ago

- 149.112.112.112 23 ms
- 1.0.0.1 24 ms
- 45.90.28.127 30 ms
- 8.8.8.8 32 ms
- 9.9.9.9 39 ms
- 1.1.1.1 46 ms
- 8.8.4.4 68 ms
- 76.76.10.0 129 ms
- 45.90.30.127 369 ms
- 76.76.2.0 681 ms

EDIT: I didn't have DDNS set up on NextDNS so their response time indicated here is probably not accurate.
 
Last edited:
Speedster said:
Here's the scorecard after adding ControlD a week ago

- 149.112.112.112 23 ms
- 1.0.0.1 24 ms
- 45.90.28.127 30 ms
- 8.8.8.8 32 ms
- 9.9.9.9 39 ms
- 1.1.1.1 46 ms
- 8.8.4.4 68 ms
- 76.76.10.0 129 ms
- 45.90.30.127 369 ms
- 76.76.2.0 681 ms
Click to expand...
ControlD has DoH3, which is much faster and of course secure. I’m not sure if it’s available on the free account.
 
Last edited:
BBSA said:
ControlD has DoH3, which is much faster and of course secure. I’m not sure if it’s available on the free account.
Click to expand...
I've updated my home list to include DoH. Here's the current list:

#Cloudfare
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1

#Google
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

#Quad9
9.9.9.9
149.112.112.112

#NextDNS
45.90.28.127
45.90.30.127
https://dns.nextdns.io/xxxxx (edited out because internet)

#ControlD
76.76.10.0
76.76.2.0
 
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