
Google and OpenDNS made the web faster for everyone today - ukdm
http://www.extremetech.com/internet/94408-does-your-web-feel-faster-today-thank-the-global-internet-speedup
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someone13
This is pretty interesting, and I've never heard of it before today. However -
I am a little worried that this seems to allow anyone that enables this option
to track all users that make DNS lookups. And it doesn't say if there's a way
to disable the behavior, short of switching to a DNS server that doesn't do
this.

~~~
davidu
We've thought about letting people turn it on or off, but have held off for
now. We're only sending the edns-option to authoritative DNS providers who
also handle the HTTP request, and thus would have seen the entire src_ip
anyways.

~~~
stock_toaster
> We're only sending the edns-option to authoritative nameservers who also
> handle the HTTP request

Authoritative nameservers handling http requests? Mine certainly don't.

Or did you mean to say that you only send edns-option to the server that is
authoritative for the domain being requested?

~~~
davidu
clarified language.

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_delirium
The article exaggerates the most likely effects of this, which are a mild
improvement in latency and very little in throughput. If you're in a country
with very poor international connectivity, it might be possible that your 20
Mbit connection is downloading at Kbit speeds due to choosing the wrong CDN
site, but that won't be the case for most people. The common case is that
throughput is not really affected--- typical downloads from well-provisioned
sites on the wrong side of the Atlantic max out my DSL anyway. When they
don't, it's almost always a problem with the particular mirror's last-mile
connectivity, not with the transatlantic cable.

~~~
davidu
I think you misunderstand how this works. Poor geo-targeting results in
increased latency which is directly correlated with throughput and it
increases congestion.

Fixing that has tremendous benefits.

~~~
_delirium
I've never seen a significant difference in throughput on a home connection
due to a US/EU mistargeting, at least, certainly not on the level of Mbits
being reduced to Kbits. I just tested now, and downloading from a California
mirror is able to max out my DSL quite easily (I'm in Denmark). I do get lower
latency from European mirrors, but not higher throughput, because both can
saturate the link.

~~~
nl
Are you using the Google or OpenDNS DNS Servers?

 _That's_ the real issue - previously these DNS servers did not work well with
CDNs because they didn't send the location of the client making the request to
the origin server. This extension fixes that problem.

If you aren't using these DNS servers then CDNs probably route your requests
properly.

~~~
_delirium
I am using Google's, but that isn't really the point; the point is that in
real-world usage, the example in the article of a multi-Mbit connection ending
up with Kbit-level throughput due to being routed to the wrong CDN is very
unlikely if you live in the U.S. or Europe. It would require either a really
broken TCP stack, or gigantic satellite-internet-level latencies for latency
to constrain throughput that much.

~~~
nl
Yes, you are probably right about the throughput. The latency problems are
very valid though, and make websites seem remarkably slower.

I live in Australia at the end of a _very_ long trans-pac pipe, and properly
configured CDNs make a huge difference. A great example is how a few cheap
ISPs here route based on price, not latency. That meant that when Amazon
opened their Singapore dataceter a visitor from Australia (using one of these
ISPs) could be routed via the US West Coast.

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dougb
The title is misleading. It not going to make the web faster for everyone.
Content hosted on CDN's that don't support the proposed DNS extension
([http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-vandergaast-edns-client-
ip-...](http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-vandergaast-edns-client-ip-01)) ie
Akamai, is probably going to be slower (higher latency.) In fact, worst case
is that you will be mapped to a server that is not allowed to serve your ip.
CDN's get a lot of free traffic by helping isp's with peering imbalances. But
this free traffic is restricted to specific ip blocks.

~~~
davidu
This option isn't enabled for Akamai. There is no way it can make Akamai
slower.

Title isn't misleading, but your comment is.

~~~
sirn
I thought the parent is trying to say accessing content via Akamai will be
slower when using Google Public DNS/OpenDNS because _they don't support the
purposed DNS extension thus the request is routed to a non-local server
instead of local one_?

(Akamai is my main reason of not using OpenDNS to this date, otherwise I would
make a switch for long)

~~~
davidu
Ahh, this is possible. Not as likely in the US, but possible. We're working on
it. At least it's fixed for Youtube, all Google properties, a bunch of other
CDNs now.

But yeah, some big guys still remain! We'll get 'em.

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blibble
don't most people use their ISPs DNS servers, making this mostly irrelevant?

~~~
jcampbell1
I have found setting custom DNS breaks many coffeeshop and airport wifi
hotspots, and so I don't recommend it for the general user. I can't imagine
there are that many people using Google's DNS or OpenDNS.

~~~
CraigRood
You could change the DNS settings on your home router, so when your machines
pull the DHCP data you will receive the modified DNS. But when out and about,
everything will work as expected.

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gst
There is a good reason why this feature is not part of the official DNS spec,
as it breaks DNS caching: Once you cache results those three octets are pretty
useless.

~~~
davidu
That's not true at all.

[http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-vandergaast-edns-client-
sub...](http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-vandergaast-edns-client-
subnet-00#section-5.3)

Caching works just fine. There is some cache inefficiency, but memory is
cheap. Really cheap. <http://www.jcmit.com/mem2010.htm>

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eridius
Sounds like this still won't fix the Netflix issues with OpenDNS/Google DNS,
since Google doesn't have Amazon on board.

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newman314
HN post to the original site. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2941991>

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RexRollman
Does ChromeOS use Google's DNS by default?

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mauriciob
No, it uses the same DNS server your OS uses.

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cpeterso
Chrome OS, not Chrome browser.

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dennisgorelik
"The first three octets provide more than enough data to divine the country
you are surfing from,"

divine???

~~~
cmhamill
divine _v. [trans.]_ : to discover or locate (as water or minerals
underground) usually by means of a divining rod.

<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divine>

~~~
dennisgorelik
That definition is not there (merriam-webster.com).

Even more - when I Google for "divine v. [trans.]: to discover or locate" --
the only link is to your comment on hackerstream.

~~~
yohui
You need to click on "divine (verb)", third on the list of "entries found". Or
the direct URL: <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divine[3]>

