[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed? - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"
Sat, May 30 2009 12:37 bradley

Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2009/05/29/so-what-do-i-block.aspx

So I was asked if the use of OpenDNS makes a noticable slow down in surfing.  Not that I've seen.  And actually I think it speeds it up.  Like I said I do have little weird page issues only because I choose to block doubleclick.net but that's my choice.  (For example the final checkout page at Amazon has ads that are blocked by Opendns so as you 'exit' the store it will warn you that some content is not ssl protected.  Since I'm exiting the store anyway, it makes no impact to the security of the transaction.

Impact on surfing?  None that I can see.

Ability to instantly block bad sites across all networks?  Including my Dad's?  Priceless.

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# re: Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

Saturday, May 30, 2009 9:31 PM by Geoff

We have had one issue in the last 12 months of using OpenDNS and that happened when the internation link to the US part failed, so the servers were still there but serving up requests slowly or not at all.

We need an OpenDNS server in Australia. The Australian government should put it's money into this rather than the filtering project they have in mind.

OpenDNS is a fantastic product and the recently added benifit of indicating if the site has conficker activity is great.

Can't recommend it enough.

# re: Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:13 PM by James

Do you use OpenDNS on a business network?  

# re: Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:32 PM by bradley

Yes.

# re: Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

Sunday, May 31, 2009 9:47 PM by indy

Opendns does impact surfing speed.  type a nonsensical address, and wait while open dns attempts to resolve.  That "waiting" is one of my main complaints about the service.  The other is the quality of the search results when you do mistype an address.

Never seen the amazon issue.

# re: Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

Sunday, May 31, 2009 9:50 PM by bradley

"type a nonsensical address"

Try typing in a nonsensical address in any browser with any service and see the resolution slow down.

I'm not looking for it to be a search engine.  It's protection.

# re: Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

Tuesday, June 02, 2009 4:21 PM by Indy

It is "protection" in the same sense that you rely on a 3rd party blindly for your blacklisting/whitelisting.  It is not perfect, it returns nonstandard results on bad DNS queries.

"Try typing in a nonsensical address in any browser with any service and see the resolution slow down."

I get an instant response of a failed query, which is what I want and expect.  opendns I've seen take 3+ seconds, with results that might lead my users to associate the bad typed term with a particular site.  Somewhat dangerous.

Fine for home users, but I do not trust it for business use.

# re: Does OpenDNS impact surfing speed?

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 7:28 PM by Daniel Mundy

Thanks for the follow up post Susan :)

Geoff's point is a good one, and I can see how it may be slow for me, but not you... I wonder how many other Australian IT Pros are using OpenDNS for their clients? An Aus OpenDNS server would be a blessing! Not holding my breath though...

I also wish you could turn off the typo/yahoo thing, or at least have an option to use Google. Not that I'm going to let that influence my decision too much, speed is the real issue for me.

Having said that... I've been using it at home since reading your posts and have gained some confidence in the product, and am considering giving it a trial some time soon.