UPC - Best proxies and DNS ?

Piliger

Hi all, Suffering on going problems with UPC. 26Mb service. But I am losing connection on a regular basis and months of asking UPC has done nothing to resolve.

(Mac user btw) I have posted my DNS and Proxy settings below and wondered if anyone with a lot more nous than me can confirm if I am using the best ones ?
I amusing Google's DNS (I believe) though today I had ten minutes of proxy or DNS look up issues, according to Chrome.

ARGINITE

Google DNS are good if you live in the US otherwise a little slow. Run namebench, that will find the best DNS for you.

Piliger

Thanks ARGENITE ! I'll run it now and come back to you with the results ... is that ok ?

ARGINITE

Sure

Mr. G

I used to use OpenDNS but have started using Dyns' dns now...

Piliger

Mr. G wrote: »

I used to use OpenDNS but have started using Dyns' dns now...

If I knew what that meant I would be happy

Piliger

This is the top of the report than namebench produced. It produced a huge report, with graphs and lots of stuff. How much of that is important in this instance ?

I take it that I should replace the Google DNS numbers of 8.8.8.8 etc with these three numbers ... in order ?

Gadgetman496

ARGINITE wrote: »

Google DNS are good if you live in the US otherwise a little slow. Run namebench, that will find the best DNS for you.

Never came across that little Prog before

How does one interpret the results?

Anytime I need to set a static IP on my NIC it requires 2 DNS numbers, a Primary and Secondary but I can't see the recommended DNS reported by namebench?

Piliger

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Never came across that little Prog before

How does one interpret the results?

Anytime I need to set a static IP on my NIC it requires 2 DNS numbers, a Primary and Secondary but I can't see the recommended DNS reported by namebench?

I followed the namebench link in the comment above and on the left side of the page is a section called "Wiki Pages" and one item called "UsingNameBench". This basically explains it all.

The final results of the scan give you the box on the top right of the output page which gives you three DNS addresses to enter into the DNS section of your Internet sections.

Piliger

ARGINITE: When I ran namebench, the first two DNS entries it gave me were BT 30Gb and BT/ESAT. Unfortunately both of them ban a certain scandinavian web site ...

Q: How do I pick the next fastest from the report ? from outside the top three ?

Gadgetman496

Piliger wrote: »

The final results of the scan give you the box on the top right of the output page which gives you three DNS addresses to enter into the DNS section of your Internet sections.

That box you mention on the top right contains my existing 2 DNS numbers?

ARGINITE

Piliger wrote: »

ARGINITE: When I ran namebench, the first two DNS entries it gave me were BT 30Gb and BT/ESAT. Unfortunately both of them ban a certain scandinavian web site ...

Q: How do I pick the next fastest from the report ? from outside the top three ?

After running Namebench you will be given a long list of DNS servers to choose from in the report that opens in your web browser.

Piliger

ARGINITE wrote: »

After running Namebench you will be given a long list of DNS servers to choose from in the report that opens in your web browser.

Are they in order of speed ?

The first in the list is BT 30GB and in the notes section it says:
"www.google.com is hijacked: 173.194.67.99, 173.194.67.104,
173.194.67.105, 173.194.67.103, 173.194.67.147, 173.194.67.106
twitter.com appears incorrect: 199.59.150.7, 199.59.148.10,
199.59.149.230
www.paypal.com is hijacked: www.paypal.com.akadns.net
google.com appears incorrect: 173.194.41.134, 173.194.41.132,
173.194.41.135, 173.194.41.130, 173.194.41.128, 173.194.41.142,
173.194.41.136,"

Is this note about hijacking something to be worried about ?

Piliger

gadgetman496 wrote: »

That box you mention on the top right contains my existing 2 DNS numbers?

Subject to someone confirming it .. my guess would be that you are then already using two of the fastest DNS servers

Spear

Piliger wrote: »

Is this note about hijacking something to be worried about ?

No, they're just clueless.

ARGINITE

Piliger wrote: »

Are they in order of speed ?

Yes.

Piliger wrote: »

The first in the list is BT 30GB and in the notes section it says:
"www.google.com is hijacked: 173.194.67.99, 173.194.67.104,
173.194.67.105, 173.194.67.103, 173.194.67.147, 173.194.67.106
twitter.com appears incorrect: 199.59.150.7, 199.59.148.10,
199.59.149.230
www.paypal.com is hijacked: www.paypal.com.akadns.net
google.com appears incorrect: 173.194.41.134, 173.194.41.132,
173.194.41.135, 173.194.41.130, 173.194.41.128, 173.194.41.142,
173.194.41.136,"

Is this note about hijacking something to be worried about ?

No

Piliger wrote: »

Subject to someone confirming it .. my guess would be that you are then already using two of the fastest DNS servers

+1

Gadgetman496

Piliger wrote: »

Subject to someone confirming it .. my guess would be that you are then already using two of the fastest DNS servers

Maybe? but the DNS numbers appearing in the recommendation box on top right are UPC's own supplied DNS numbers???

If you look at the results picture below it's telling me that BT 30 GB is 71.3% faster than my current primary DNS server, yet on the recommendation box on the right it lists the recommended DNS to use which are the ones I'm already using????

89.101.160.5

89.101.160.4

Maybe I'm reading it wrong? Are they suggesting I should run with

Primary:
194.72.9.34

Secondary:
Use existing 89.101.160.5

Piliger

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Maybe? but the DNS numbers appearing in the recommendation box on top right are UPC's own supplied DNS numbers???

Yes they are.

If you look at the results picture below it's telling me that BT 30 GB is 71.3% faster than my current primary DNS server, yet on the recommendation box on the right it lists the recommended DNS to use which are the ones I'm already using????

89.101.160.5

89.101.160.4

Yes.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong? Are they suggesting I should run with

Primary:
194.72.9.34

Secondary:
Use existing 89.101.160.5

Yes. And the third should be 89.101.160.4

I don't see the contradiction myself.

dub45

I have often wondered where is the best place to put the dns settings? Which gets priority?

Suppose I put say googles in my router and open dns in the pc's network card settings. How is the priority decided?

Some_Person

Whatever DNS settings in the router are given to the clients via DHCP, but if you set your DNS statically in your computer, then those will be used instead.
I use Level 3 DNS.