Typically, you use your ISP’s DNS servers to resolve the addresses, but you can use other DNS servers as well, such as ones provided for free by OpenDNS, or more recently by Google Public DNS. So the faster the DNS server, the more quickly your browser will be able to contact a Web page. Web servers require that you use a numeric IP address, rather than a URL with characters, and DNS servers do that translation. Why should you care about using the fastest DNS server? When you browse the Web by typing in a URL, your browser needs to contact a DNS server before it visit that page. How to do that is well beyond the scope of this short review.įree program Namebench compares the speed of DNS servers and tells you which are fastest. Once you get that recommendation, it’s up to you to configure your PC to use the fastest DNS servers. namebench info, screenshots & reviews Alternatives to namebench. Other great apps like namebench are GRCs DNS Benchmark (Free) and Family Friendly DNS (Free). The best alternative is Dns Jumper, which is free. This small, free utility performs benchmark tests on multiple DNS servers, reports back on which are the fastest, which the most secure, and so on, and recommends which DNS servers you should use. There are three alternatives to namebench for Windows and Wine.

Are you the geeky type who wants to wring every last bit of speed out of your Internet connection? Do you spend any portion of your waking life wondering how you can find the fastest DNS servers out there to speed up your browsing? Then you’ll love Namebench.

Namebench software