So not content with their ever-expanding empire that basically covers all aspects of life on the Internet as we know it, Google went and released their own DNS system last week, taking yet another deep dig into knowing just exactly what you’re doing on your PC at all point in time, no matter where you might be.
In case you are a little lost here, Domain Name Systems (DNS) are servers that are used to translate human-readable web addresses like https://www.craiglotter.co.za into physical network addresses which correspond with where the servers actual are (e.g. 64.202.1163.87)
Now for the most part, users don’t even know of the existence of these magic translation servers and happily go about using the default DNS server that their ISP provides, but over the last couple of years there have been a bit of shift towards a more competitive market, with companies like OpenDNS and Neustar popping up and offering both free and premium services that are generally better than the ISP offerings simply because the ISPs don’t have a vested interest in actually improving upon the technology.
Anyway, Google has now joined the bandwagon and is offering their very own DNS service, which simply by the fact that it IS a Google offering, automatically means that it should be rock solid, pretty damn clever and remarkably stable right from day 1 already.
And according to Google, using their DNS servers offer you gains in terms of performance benefits and enhanced security, as outlined here and here.
You back yet?
Anyway, to test their new DNS service out, simply change your machine or browsers network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers and you should be ready to go, though more information on exactly how to do that (if you’re feeling not quite up to scratch) can be found here (thanks Google!), including instructions for getting it right on Ubuntu first time around!
Related Link: http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/