The Domain Name System is substantially the telephone directory of the Internet. Whenever a user searches for a domain name, the IP address is picked up to match with the existing ones in the directory. Once, the corresponding match is found, the user is direct to the site. This process is otherwise called as DNS lookup. When you look into complex websites these lookups might result in thousand per day. Thus, making the functioning of the DNS slower.
In such cases, you switch to Google DNS or OpenDNS. If you decide to go with Google DNS, all your client programs will function the DNS lookups through Google Public DNS.
What is Google DNS?
Google DNS or Google Public DNS is a Domain Name System that is offered by Google. This DNS is open to internet users worldwide. It was designed with the intention of delivering a faster and more reliable DNS. This service, however, runs recursive name servers for public use. It is mapped as per the different IP addresses.
- for iPv4, it is as follows:
- 8.8.8.8
- 8.8.4.4
- for iPv6, it is as follows:
- 2001:4860:4860::8888
- 2001:4860:4860::8844
- DNS
- dns.google.com
- dns.google
What does Google Public DNS Do?
- Speed: Google Public DNS is claimed to be fast. This service is available to worldwide internet users. It is available on a global anycast network and thus, is benefitted with the benefits of anycast. The servers provide a speed boost to the customers. The anycast resolvers are able to provide a speed boost to you as they allow the browser to make requests to the nearest available name server. Various steps have also been incorporated to reduce latency in DNS queries. This is achieved by resolving the cache issue in the infrastructure.
- Security: With public resolvers, there is a high possibility of Denial of Service and Amplification attacks. These attacks are a result of a small query that returns a large response and hence DoS. Google has security services to tackle possible attacks. Google also monitors the resolvers to make sure that their service is not being misused. Google also supports DNSSEC that allows them to ensure the responses being offered are authentic and are coming from authoritative sources only.
- Accuracy: Google’s resolvers are the best recommendation due to its network’s ability to use the improperly configured resolvers. Google Public DNS provides the correct result. This is one of the most important reasons behind its popularity. This is achieved by prioritizing the sending of correct results to a particular query. For cases where the user enters or searches for a nonexistent or misspelled domain name, Google responds with an NXDOMAIN response. This means that there was no response to the query made.
Switching to Google DNS can be really fruitful to your time on the internet. Apart from being faster and reliable, you also get accuracy. This way, you save time and get to the correct result.
