i was like OMG ROADRUNNER HAS H4XED MY FIREFOX

checked my keyword.URL key in about:config and everything

NCSU DNSes to the rescue

[For those of you wondering what the fuck i'm rambling about, RR now redirects any unresolved names to their search engine. Used to be the name wouldn't resolve, FireFox would catch it, and use whatever you have stored in keyword.URL (which is default 'Im Feeling Lucky' in Google) to return something. It startled me.]

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 8:59 PM. Reason : goddamnit it's still not fixed :/]

2/6/2008 8:56:57 PM

i have RR and have yet to see this happen to me.

2/6/2008 8:58:23 PM

it's fairly recent

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 9:02 PM. Reason : http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19806831-Road-Runner-catchingredirect-mistyped-DNS-names]

2/6/2008 8:59:50 PM

^Exactly

Anyone that is looking for the NCSU DNS addresses:

152.1.1.22
152.1.1.208
152.1.1.206
152.1.1.161
152.1.1.248
152.1.2.22

Enjoy.

2/6/2008 9:22:32 PM

opendns ftw

208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

once i used it once, i was hooked

2/6/2008 10:23:15 PM

opendns +1

2/7/2008 12:02:13 AM

wow I just found out about opendns, very useful. Haha too bad it doesnt have a few more options to mess with my friends.

2/7/2008 1:41:26 AM

i've been using verizon's west coast dns servers since like 99

4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3

2/7/2008 7:41:59 AM

Server: rdc-24-25-161-3.nyroc.rr.com
Address: 24.25.161.3:53

*** rdc-24-25-161-3.nyroc.rr.com can't find w w w.somenonexistantdomainname.comNon-existent domain

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 9:12 AM. Reason : stupid tww auto url]

2/7/2008 9:12:11 AM

just goto http://ww23.rr.com/prefs.php and set them all to "disable" and you wont have that shit anymore

2/7/2008 11:28:44 AM

Or use a DNS that won't do that to you.

2/7/2008 11:53:36 AM

opendns +1

2/7/2008 12:08:18 PM

What does opendns really do for you other than act as a DNS server that is not hosted by your ISP?

It would seem that you should use one that has the lowest latency between you and them, so that the lookup time is reduced.

Or a better idea, is to run your own DNS server that looks up all your records from a root server.

Just my 2 cents...

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 1:05 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2008 1:00:46 PM

Honestly I don't get why so many people rave about OpenDNS ... I mean, I understand what it does, but I don't want it to do anything that a DNS server doesn't natively do. So that's why I stick with proper DNS servers. NCSU happens to run some very nice ones.

2/7/2008 1:32:27 PM

openDNS benefits that your average ISP doesn't have

a) privacy, this can work 'at work' as well to prevent people from seeing your DNS lookups
b) block phishing sites
c) statistics and charts
d) zero downtime
e) customization and shortcuts
f) typo correction
g) larger cache than your average DNS

2/7/2008 2:31:44 PM

a) Um, how do they protect your privacy vs. using another ISP's or university's DNS?
b) I'll grant this one. +1
c) Interesting, but not compelling by any stretch of the imagination.
d) I can say the same about most any DNS servers, but, yes, they are spread out nicely. +0.5
e) Exactly what sort of customization does someone need for a DNS server? It performs one task, and that is to translate a name into an IP for you.
f) Useful for many I guess, but I'd still rather realize that I typed it in wrong and fix it (I know, I'm that way) +1
g) Larger cache? Honestly, that shouldn't even be a reason.

So I give you 2.5/7 reasons to use OpenDNS instead of proper no-nonsense DNS servers.

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 2:42 PM. Reason : typo ]

2/7/2008 2:41:29 PM

^for example, at work instead of using your work's DNS you can use OpenDNS to keep your work from looking at your DNS records, it won't increase your security, only increase your privacy while at work or school, they can obviously still be subpoenaed for records though.

customization means you can put your own logo to control what your network sees when being blocked from a URL (like phishing site, blacklist site, etc) custom message... not relevant to home user but for small businesses a plus

larger cache means more local records meaning less hops = faster, if any reason this is one of the best reasons... statistics are more or less to help troubleshoot.

point being when you compare the two, OpenDNS does more than your ISP's DNS does, and the typo correction, shortcuts, and larger cache should be more than enough to make it an obvious choice

to each their own, but i'll take an improved product versus an out-of-the-box product anyday.

and for those +2.5 points you gave OpenDNS, that's 2.5 points more than your ISP's DNS

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 2:53 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2008 2:46:13 PM

See, the whole "larger cache" thing is only worthwhile if it doesn't update the records very frequently. Back in the day of the slow internet (ie, ~7+ years ago) my DNS servers set the TimeToLive for records at 3 hours, and many people thought that was too frequent. Today I wouldn't set a TTL to anything greater than 5-10 mins, it's just irresponsible to your DNS customers in the event that some webserver should decide to change their IP on a whim. To check/update/pull a DNS record takes so few resources and so little time these days that it's just not worth hanging onto potentially expired domain data.

I don't care about the 2.5 points, I keep multiple DNS servers in my settings ... so if one goes down I honestly never have any idea that it does. The phishing sites are only moderately useful, but I'm savvy enough that they won't affect me, just giving the point for other people's sakes. Again, I don't need the typo correction either.

NCSU DNS is my current choice ... basically I pick my primaries to be whatever servers are closest and able to maintain uninterrupted service at a low latency.

Edit: The privacy thing, it doesn't prevent your work from monitoring what you view on the internet ... any traffic that flows through their network, they can monitor! All a DNS server does: Translate a domain name into an IP address. This can be accomplished with ANY server, not just OpenDNS.

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 3:01 PM. Reason : you and your edits...]

2/7/2008 2:55:47 PM

you were talking about using opendns at work. But wouldn't you still need to tunnel outside the firewall to access the dns servers (assuming the firewall is pretty latched down)?

2/7/2008 3:30:53 PM

^well there's actually more issues than just that as well as some major corporations (mine included) have custom internal hostnames that would not work if you used an external DNS, i was more or less referring to small business setting... there's always the option of pulling your home DNS through your home router as well.... the point was not using your ISP's or work's DNS would prevent them from seeing your DNS records

^^larger cache = more local records = less hops = lower latency

TTL is set by the domain owner, not OpenDNS, the domain tells the DNS how long to hold the record, the larger cache means they can hold on to it until expiration, 99 times out of 100 means that your latency will be LOWERED using this method, in the rare case that an IP has changed you might have a slight delay, but I'm not sure how often OpenDNS refreshes, i'm pretty sure it's instant upon a request.

in regards to privacy... they aren't going to sniff my packets to see the URL, DNS records are the easiest way to track what URL's people are going to, if they don't see it there, they aren't going to track it otherwise, so your argument against privacy is incorrect, while they "could" they quite simply "won't"

shortcuts alone make this worth it in terms of time savings, and having extra features never hurts... i don't really see your points on why "not" to use OpenDNS, other than you "choose" not to... which is fine, I just don't think your points against OpenDNS are valid.
in terms of what's "closest" and whatever about low latencies, i get a faster response from OpenDNS fwiw.

while the initial hop might be a couple ms longer than your local DNS, the fact that it has less of a time looking up the actual record can result in a quicker response, hence why cache matters. fwiw though i'm not sure that their cache is larger than any ISP's, it's just how they are marketing it... but it seems faster than my local comcast DNS for sure

at work it's not, OpenDNS is actually 20ms slower, so a big YMMV, then again i work in Denver and goes over to San Franscisco before reaching the real world, so it really depends on how your network is set up

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 3:55 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2008 3:43:12 PM

rr business doesn't have the dns redirect stuff, but I am getting it on rr at home. The typo correction is pretty cool, but you cant have it without having the non-existant domain redirect on Dont know if i'll leave it on or not.

2/7/2008 10:35:39 PM

Quote :

"Today I wouldn't set a TTL to anything greater than 5-10 mins, it's just irresponsible to your DNS customers in the event that some webserver should decide to change their IP on a whim. To check/update/pull a DNS record takes so few resources and so little time these days that it's just not worth hanging onto potentially expired domain data."

If everyone felt this way, my job would be much easier

2/8/2008 4:17:21 AM

i notice they dropped em down from 150/149 to 148/147 or so. also saw that website BS

2/8/2008 1:42:29 PM