Is your DNS OK?
A half dozen national Internet security teams around the world have created special web sites that will display a warning message to potential victims of the DNS Changer infection. For example if you visit http://dns-ok.de/ then you'll get a German language page saying either that you appear to be infected or that you appear not to be infected. Andrew Fried and I created http://dns-ok.us/ for the same purpose, though of course our page is in American English. The full list of these "DNS Checking" web sites is published on the DCWG's web site along with a lot of information about the threat, the arrests, the takedown, the court orders, and clean-up information for victims. Now that we've got all these web sites that are able to tell someone if they are a victim and that tell victims what to do to clean up their computers and their home routers, the problem seems to be getting people to care.

Think you're getting faster performance by using Google DNS or OpenDNS? Think again -- especially if you're outside the US.

A post at TUAW today recommends you change your DNS provider for faster performance. If you are located outside the US -- like I am, and like most APC readers are -- this is a bad idea. I only discovered why after experiencing slow download speeds for several months.

Like other tech enthusiasts, I jumped on the opportunity to switch my computer's domain name server settings away from my ISP's defaults to -- I assumed -- the much larger and faster Google DNS servers at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 when they were first announced.

While many people are happy with using DNS service providers such as OpenDNS, Google, etc… I will show you here why they may not produce optimal results.

The way most CDNs work is by using DNS routing. When a user attempts to resolve a hostname, the CDN’s DNS server responds with an IP which is closest based on the IP address of the requester. A more detailed insight into the workings of a CDN can be found on an earlier post “Make your own cheap charlie CDN”

Last night we tried to rent an iTunes movie on our newish Apple TV. Instead of starting right away, the Apple TV said it would be 2+ hours before we could start watching. I’ve got a healthy 15-20Mb/s connection and a clean wire to the Apple TV, so this shouldn’t be happening.

A little bit of research turned up a surprising fix: Don’t use Google DNS.

The iTunes Store has thousands of entrances. Everyone using Google DNS is trying to get in through the same door.

Configuring your network settings to use Google Public DNS
When you use Google Public DNS, you are changing your DNS "switchboard" operator from your ISP to Google Public DNS.
In most cases, the IP addresses used by your ISP's domain name servers are automatically set by your ISP via the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). To use Google Public DNS, you need to explicitly change the DNS settings in your operating system or device to use the Google Public DNS IP addresses. The procedure for changing your DNS settings varies according to operating system and version (Windows, Mac or Linux) or the device (computer, phone, or router). We give general procedures here that might not apply for your OS or device; please consult your vendor documentation for authoritative information.