Any webpage you visit may have images, ads, or other content from multiple internet addresses (domain names). Each time your computer needs to load something from a site like “apple.com”, it has to first translate that nice looking name into an IP address like “17.172.224.47”. This translation is done with a DNS server, and so if you are using a slow DNS server it will take longer to load web pages.<\/p>\n Most all internet companies run their own private DNS servers for their customers to use. However, if your internet company doesn’t keep their DNS server in tip-top shape, or if they attempt to hijack\/redirect your domain name translation attempts to other sites (it happens more than you think!), then you may really want to consider using a different public DNS server so you get fast, reliable and unfiltered internet.<\/p>\n namebench started off as a Google project in 2009, but has been mostly abandoned since 2010. I’ve updated the configuration files with new source data and fixed a couple bugs, particularly for Safari (Mac) users.<\/p>\n I took a list of valid public DNS servers from public-dns.tk<\/a> (May 2015), meaning those which do not hijack DNS results. I then culled out all DNS servers younger than 180 days, or ones less than 90% reliable over 30 days. What’s left is a list of the most reliable, longest-lasting public DNS servers from around the globe. My config files are about 60% smaller than in the original namebench, and all the servers should be valid. The public DNS server list in the original namebench is only about 20% valid, meaning lots of wasted time testing servers that no longer exist.<\/p>\n I also updated the list of top 2000 sites from Alexa, and fixed a bug for Safari users that prevented namebench from picking up the domain names in Safari’s website history.<\/a><\/p>\n For convenience’s sake, I assembled new complete versions (unofficial) of namebench 1.3.1 here:<\/b><\/p>\n![\"namebench-1.3.1-kcspaceman\"](\"http:\/\/www.spaceman.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/namebench-1.3.1-kcspaceman.png\")
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