DNS Benchmarking is a process of choosing the best DNS (Domain Name System) for our internet connection. In order to know if your ISP’s DNS server is reliable, fast and secure, you have t perform DNS benchmarking first and then change to relevant DNS server depending on the benchmark result. DNS Jumper DNS Jumper helps to find the DNS servers very fastly and efficiently. The good thing about this tool is. DNS Benchmark This DNS Benchmark software is simply good and it just shows the response time. It gives you some. (Mac users could have once used Namebench, but this project has been abandoned and we’ve heard it doesn’t work properly on the latest versions of macOS.) Just download DNS Benchmark, launch it (no installation required), select the “Nameservers” tab, and click “Run Benchmark”. It’ll benchmark the top 72 DNS servers.
Latest Version:
DNS Benchmark 1.3.6688.0 LATEST
Requirements:
Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10
Author / Product:
Gibson Research Corporation / DNS Benchmark
Old Versions:
Filename:
DNSBench.exe
Details:
DNS Benchmark 2020 full offline installer setup for PC 32bit/64bit
Since nothing can happen until IP addresses are known, the use of slow, overloaded or unreliable DNS servers will get in the way, noticeably slowing down virtually all of your use of the Internet.
Unless you have taken over manual control of the DNS servers your system is using (which, as you'll see, is not difficult to do), your system will be using the DNS servers that were automatically assigned by your Internet connection provider (your ISP). Since they are likely located close to you on the Internet (since they are provided by your own ISP) they may already be the fastest DNS servers available to you. But they might be in the wrong order (the second one being faster than the first one, and that matters) or, who knows? Many people have discovered that their own ISP's DNS servers are slower than other publicly available alternatives on the Internet, which are faster and/or more reliable.
This DNS Benchmark will give you visibility into what's going on with your system's currently assigned DNS servers by automatically comparing their performance with many well known publicly available alternatives.
GRC's DNS Benchmark performs a detailed analysis and comparison of the operational performance and reliability of any set of up to 200 DNS nameservers (sometimes also called resolvers) at once. When the Benchmark is started in its default configuration, it identifies all DNS nameservers the user's system is currently configured to use and adds them to its built-in list of publicly available “alternative” nameservers.
Each DNS nameserver in the benchmark list is carefully “characterized” to determine its suitability — to you — for your use as a DNS resolver. This characterization includes testing each nameserver for its “redirection” behavior: whether it returns an error for a bad domain request, or redirects a user's web browser to a commercial marketing-oriented page. While such behavior may be acceptable to some users, others may find this objectionable.
Once the benchmark finishes, the results are heuristically and statistically analyzed to present a comprehensive yet simplified and understandable English-language summary of all important findings and conclusions. Based upon these results, users may choose to change the usage order of their system's own resolvers, or, if alternative public nameservers offer superior performance or features compared with the nameservers currently being used, to switch to one or more alternative nameservers.
Features and Highlights
- Cached lookups – the time to return a domain name that is already in the resolver's name cache.
- Uncached lookups – the time to return a sub-domain name that is not already in the resolver's name cache.
- Dotcom lookups – the time to consult the nameserver's chosen dotcom resolver(s) for a dotcom name.
- Reliability – the number of queries not replied to during the benchmark.
- Optionally verifies whether nameservers provide DNS security (DNSSEC) record authentication.
- When using a list of (provided) DNSSEC-signed domains, benchmarks DNSSEC authentication performance.
- Graphs and compares all four benchmark parameters with easy-to-read bar chart.
- On-the-fly hierarchical sorting of performance results by cached (default) or uncached performance.
- (Sorting is “hierarchical” because cached is sorted first, followed by uncached, then dotcom.)
- Auto-scaled bar chart that can be manually overridden for chart-to-chart comparison.
- Pop-up value “inspector” (left click in nameserver list) displays precise values on bar chart.
- Detailed tabular result report for non-graphical detailed reporting.
- Full detailed, locale-aware (internationalized), CSV results export.
- Automatic logging to CSV file for long-term background results monitoring and collection.
- Simultaneously compares the performance and reliability of up to 200 DNS nameservers.
- Determines nameserver network name (reverse DNS), ownership, operational status.
- Determines whether nameservers intercept and redirect bad domain names.
- Comprehensive, heuristic “Conclusions” generation summarizes all results and suggests useful system changes, if any, in easily readable English.
- All results are analyzed for statistical significance with a 95% confidence threshold.
- Bottom of tabular data page contains built-in quick-reference “reminder” help.
Whenever you try to access a website, a DNS server is the one that is responsible for resolving the IP address of the website address you just typed. Typically, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides with a default DNS server so that you can access the internet properly. However, the default DNS server provided by the ISP may not be that fast, secure, or reliable. Especially, they won’t have a huge infrastructure like Google Public DNS or OpenDNS which arguably provide faster and better DNS services.
Read: How to change DNS Server in Windows|Mac|Android|iOS
Fortunately, there are a ton of third-party DNS services to choose from. However, you can’t just randomly choose one and hope it is faster than the one provided by your ISP. To deal with that, here are some of the best DNS benchmarking tools that can reliably test the speed and security of a wide range of DNS servers so that you don’t have to do the guesswork.
Best DNS Benchmarking Tools
1. DNS Jumper
If you are using Windows for any part of the time, you might be familiar or even used some free and small software from Sysinternals or Nirsoft utilities. One such other developer who creates small, lightweight and free software is Sordum.
Off all the software from Sordum, DNS Jumper is the one that I’m using for years. Personally, it is one of the best when it comes to finding and setting fastest DNS on your system. The good thing about DNS Jumper is that it is not only lightweight but is also portable. Moreover, the software packs a lot of features within its small file size. For instance, DNS Jumper has a pre-configured list of 27 different DNS services. If you cannot find the DNS service you are looking for, you can add it with the name of your choice with just a few clicks.
Of course, you can benchmark all the DNS services in the list with a single click. To benchmark the available DNS services, just click on the “Fastest DNS” button appearing at the left-hand side of the window.
Read: How to Bypass Chromecast DNS and Circumvent Geo-Blocking
When the software finds the fastest DNS, it highlights that specific DNS in the list. You can set it as your DNS by clicking on the “Apply DNS Server.” If need be, you can mix and match DNS addresses for more reliability and speed. Just select the checkbox “Mixed” before starting the DNS benchmark test.
To set a custom DNS server, simply select the checkbox “Custom DNS Server,” enter the DNS addresses in the available fields and click on the “Apply DNS” button appearing on the left side of the window. If you want to, you can benchmark the DNS response time by clicking on the “Check Resolve Time” button under address fields.
Like I said, for ease of access, you can add your own custom DNS servers to the list. To do that, click on the “Gear” icon appearing in the Choose a DNS Server field. Now, Enter DNS Server Name, first and second DNS addresses and click on the “Add” button and you are good to go. When you benchmark next time, your custom DNS server is also tested.
If you want to, you can create DNS groups and divide the available DNS servers into different folders like family safe, secure, unblock, etc. To create a DNS Group, click on the “+” icon next to the “Default DNS List,” type a name and press “Enter.”
So, if you are looking for a fully featured DNS benchmark tool which does more the benchmarking different DNS servers then DNS Jumper is for you. Being a free software, give it a try and see if it fits your needs.
2. DNS Benchmark
If you are looking to benchmark various DNS servers with comprehensive reports then you should try DNS Benchmark from GRC. The software may look simple at first glance but it is pretty good at what it does.
Dns Benchmark For Macos X
The best thing about this software is that unlike other software which just shows the response time, DNS Benchmark gives you some extensive data like minimum response time, average response time, maximum response time, the standard deviation of each DNS Server, and their reliability.
To benchmark, all the available DNS servers, simply go to the “Nameservers” tab and click on the “Run Benchmark” button. When benchmarking each DNS server, the software does three different tests like Cached Name, Uncached Name, and DotCom Lookup for accurate results. While at it, DNS Benchmark also does the DNSSEC Authentication test on every DNS server. Due to all these tests, it can take some time to complete the benchmark.
Dns Benchmark Free
Read: SmartDNS vs VPN – What’s the Difference?
Once the test has been completed, DNS Benchmark will sort the servers by fastest first. If you go to the “Tabular” tab, you can find the detailed test results.
Just like DNS Jumper, DNS Benchmark has 20+ pre-configured DNS Servers to benchmark. If you can’t find your favorite DNS server, simply click on the “Add/Remove” button to add the DNS server.
Unfortunately, DNS Benchmark doesn’t offer any way to set the DNS server directly. You have to manually set it on your OS or router. All in all, DNS Benchmark is a pretty good software to have in your repository. After all, it is free, lightweight, and portable. So, give it a try.
3. Namebench
Namebench is one of the simplest and oldest software to benchmark DNS servers. Of course, just like the other software on this list, Namebench is also free, lightweight and portable. Though the developer has not released any new update for quite a long time, it still works like a charm. There is also a MacOS version. The DNS servers it tests include but not limited to Google Public DNS, OpenDNS, UltraDNS, RoadRunner, Comodo Secure DNS, DynGuide DNS, etc.
The cool thing about Namebench is that it can even do censorship checks on all the DNS servers in the list. Moreover, depending on where you live, it can also add best available regional DNS services which often provide better speed by virtue of being near to you. Other than that, you can also customize other settings like your location, health check, number of quires, and query data source.
If you can’t find your favorite DNS server within the list, simply enter those DNS IP addresses in the Nameservers field and then click on the “Start Benchmark” button. Unfortunately, there is no way you can add your own DNS server addresses to the list. You have to manually enter them each and every time you want to benchmark the DNS servers.
Dns Benchmark For Macos 7
That being said, the other thing I really like and that is sorely missing from the other two software I shared earlier is that it can detect when your ISP is disregarding your custom settings and redirecting all the DNS traffic via their own servers. When an ISP is redirecting all your DNS traffic, no matter what DNS server you set in your OS or Router, the DNS quires will still go through the ISPs DNS server.
Simply put, you won’t get the benefits of speed, security, and parental control provided by the third-party DNS servers. If your ISP is doing such a thing, all you can do is ask or petition them to respect your changes or move to another ISP who respects your configurations.
That’s it for now and if you think I missed any other good DNS benchmarking software then comment below sharing it with us.
Dns Benchmark For Mac Os X
Read: How to Flush DNS Cache on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS