After reading
this story last week about Comcast responding to invalid DNS queries with their own little search page, I decided I was pissed off. This deplorable behavior can be found in an increasing number of locations on the web, but is utterly unacceptable to most power users, and is blatant money grabbing otherwise.
The first port of call for users unhappy with their ISPs DNS service is typically "Open"DNS. Unfortunately, they're
doing the same thing, and have been doing so with an alarming level of success for quite some time (please, I don't want to hear any of this "it's for security" crap, this is a blatant lie and fundamentally breaks DNS for any non-browser client; they do it to make a easy, fast buck).
You have only two remaining alternatives, use a random public DNS server, or run your own. Selecting a public DNS server can be a perfectly acceptable solution. US ISPs host a set of very stable and high availability DNS servers freely (4.2.2.1-6), but if you're outside of the US, latency will start getting a little ridiculous. Your choices become limited outside of those as you have very little indication of future availability and trustworthiness, indeed there's no assurance that 4.2.2.1-6 will remain online in the future. However, you can find a list of some well known public DNS servers in
this post on DSLReports.
The only remaining option is to host your own server. I strongly advocate this option, as it gives the end user the best possible experience, ensures no interference from external entities trying to make a few illegitimate bucks, and is a largely set-and-forget option.
You can find a tutorial for configuring
BIND on Windows
here (my choice), and instructions for setting up the
TreeWalk DNS server
here. Give them a go guys, our ISPs charge us enough without making a quick few dollars off our DNS queries.
Ehtyar.
