OpenDNS Blog

Quick performance test comparing these 4 players:

* Google: 8.8.8.8
* Quad9.com: 9.9.9.9
* http://OpenDNS.com: 208.67.222.222
* https://CleanBrowsing.org: 185.228.168.168

Results:

New York:
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=60 time=1.62 ms
64 bytes from 9.9.9.9: icmp_seq=2 ttl=60 time=0.924 ms
64 bytes from 208.67.222.222: icmp_seq=2 ttl=60 time=1.18 ms
64 bytes from 185.228.168.168: icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=1.93 ms

Montreal:
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=13.0 ms
64 bytes from 9.9.9.9: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=16.7 ms
64 bytes from 208.67.222.222: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=16.5 ms
64 bytes from 185.228.168.168: icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=9.18 ms

Dallas:
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=61 time=1.09 ms
64 bytes from 9.9.9.9: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=29.8 ms
64 bytes from 208.67.222.222: icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=1.03 ms
64 bytes from 185.228.168.168: icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=1.29 ms

Paris:
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=4.61 ms
64 bytes from 9.9.9.9: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=6.71 ms
64 bytes from 208.67.222.222: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=4.60 ms
64 bytes from 185.228.168.168: icmp_seq=2 ttl=54 time=3.85 ms

Tokyo:
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=1.10 ms
64 bytes from 9.9.9.9: icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=65.7 ms
64 bytes from 208.67.222.222: icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=1.57 ms
64 bytes from 185.228.168.168: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=0.551 ms

Only New York and Paris were close. Their performance in Tokyo…

This has a lot of good information in it and I put a lot of time into it, but I do realize it is hard to read since Hacker News doesn't start things on new lines. If someone can tell me how to do that if it is possible that would be great. If not here it is on Pastebin - http://pastebin.com/MspKq8sz.

Here is what I recommend for website security (this is a lot of advice and is not perfect - if you want me to write this up in a detailed blog post and cover more things let me know)... I also provided my contact information at the bottom if you have any questions or need any help settings this up.

Domain Registrar:

1. Melbourne IT - https://www.melbourneit.com.au/
2. Namecheap - https://www.namecheap.com/
3. Gandi - https://www.gandi.net/

- Enable WHOIS protection
- Enable domain locking - if you want more details on how to set this up let me know
- Enable email notifications and make sure you keep your account information up to date
- Log in from a computer using a VPN (I use and recommend proXPN - https://proxpn.com/) which encrypts your connection

DNS

1. Any of the domain registrars mentioned above
2. CloudFlare - https://www.cloudflare.com/ (offers performance benefits as well) Their DDOS protection, DNS, and performance benefits are why I use and recommend them. They are not very good in terms of their WAF or website security and that is why I use and recommend Sucuri as well.
3. DNS Made Easy - http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/

- Follow advice from passwords section
-…

There are different reasons to use the various dns servers:

Both Google (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4) and OpenDNS (208.67.220.220 / 208.67.222.222) can be troublesome on small networks when trying to reach local LAN devices because they resolve failures to their own search pages. My fallback here is to always try one of the L3 servers (4.2.2.1 - .6)

OpenDNS is my goto when I need filtering. OpenDNS is also great when changing ip addresses on domains because you can clear their public cache and make sure everything is updated and is working immediately. http://www.opendns.com/support/cache/

Google DNS tends to make youtube streaming work much better for me.

Even Comcast has even recently changed their dns to memorable numbers 75.75.75.75 / 75.75.76.76

Gonna skip a few but:

a: http://archive.org

b: http://bandcamp.com

d: http://discogs.com

f: http://facebook.com

g: http://google.com

h: -local hotel website-

i: http://instagram.com

j: -local technology retail store-

k: http://kahoot.it

l: http://last.fm

m: http://m.facebook.com/

n: http://netflix.com/

o: http://opendns.com/

p: http://play.google.com/

q: -local government website-

r: http://reddit.com/

s: -local school website-

t: http://twitter.com/

u: -local (very good) computer store-

w: http://whosampled.com/

y: http://youtube.com/

z: http://zippyshare.com/

* GitHub - StevenBlack/hosts: Extending and consolidating hosts files from a variety of sources like adaway.org, mvps.org, malwaredomainlist.com, someonewhocares.org, yoyo.org, and potentially others. You can optionally invoke extensions to block additional sites by category. || https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

Direct link:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

Also, I think OpenDNS blocks ads too. Haven't tried it in a few years though.

* Home Internet Security | OpenDNS || https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/

This is the first time I have heard of OpenDNS Umbrella. I just gave it a try (they have a free trial) and it's really nice--after some simple configuration you pretty much just set your router's DNS to OpenDNS and then your DNS requests are both monitored and lightly protected.

The product is geared towards medium-to-large networks so it's a little hard to find the prosumer $20/yr plan. Here's a link if anyone else is interested:
https://www.opendns.com/enterprise-security/threat-enforcement/package-comparison/small-teams/