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Verizon DNS problem

I had FIOS installed a few weeks ago and have been generally pleased with the service. I have a Philips Network Radio player (Streamium) connected to my stereo. Today it could not find the Philips server. Also I work for Philips Healthcare. Today I also could not connect to the commercial site, nor my corporate email site. At first I suspected that Philips was having troubles with their network, however after doing domain lookpus and other tests from various internet sites it became clear that there was nothing wrong with the Philips sites. After resetting my router and trying a few other things I finally put non-Verizon DNS servers in my Actiontec router and the problem immediately resolved. Just wonder if this is a common problem with Verizon DNS or just a strange occurrence?

Comments

jmw1950

It is often very hard to differentiate connectivity issues from DNS issues. If you suspect a DNS issue, the solution is to try a different DNS. There are many here (including some from Verizon) who are not overly impressed with Verizon's DNS. It is quite easy to configure your system to use openDNS, which most find to be more reliable. see www.opendns.com for details.

I've been usig openDNS for several years.

doubleE

Thanks for the information. I prefer not to use DNS that redirect you if the URL you put in does not exist, so I avoid Open DNS, and also some of the Verizon DNS. I find DNS benchmark (http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm) a very useful tool in choosing which DNS to use. It gives you your own statistics for response time and various other parameters, so you can make an informed decision which DNS to use. I was just trying to get a general feel for how reliable people felt the Verizon DNSs are. From what you say, a knowlegeable group looks to other DNSs.

lasagna

Just as a point of clarification ... you can disable the DNS redirection with OpenDNS under the custom settings section (NX domain redirection).

smith6612

I'm a user of 3rd party DNS Servers as well, OpenDNS to be exact here in my home. They tend to be a lot faster, are obviously far more reliable, and don't redirect typos/invalid name lookups which break some applications I run.

Pat1776

A website I had been using for over a year became inaccessable. The error message from Verizon indicated the website didn't exist, yet I was able to ping the site. I had recently upgraded from XP to Win 8.1 (that alone was pretty painful) so all things were suspect. I spent almost an hour in a chat session a verizon support person who concluded that the problem was with my computer. I called tech support for my laptop and that person said it wasn't anything to do with the hardware or software on my system.

I had suspected a DNS server problem initially, but after my conversation with Verizon tech support, I thought I might be mistaken. Finally, I picked the right search wotds and found the answer to my problem on a MAC forum. I went into my router and changed the Verizon DNS servers to OpenDNS servers, rebooted and that fixed the problem.

DNS1= 208.67.222.222

DNS2= 208.67.220.220

eljefe2

When it comes to DNS performance I've found the utilty mentioned by doubleE earlier in this thread invaluable:

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

If I ever suspect my browsing is lagging because of a DNS issue I run the DNS Benchmark to measure how the DNS servers I have selected are performing.

OpenDNS is not usually near the top of the list of the fastest servers.

VUser50

I use namebench . One of the good tips I use is varying them. Typically I use the fastet as my primary and the one that is the most accurate as secondary. (avoiding ones that use redirects) I never use the same company for primary and secondary.

db909

Google and Level 3 DNS have consistently been the best for me using grc / namebench. I tried both and since the difference is in ms, I never could see a difference between the two. I am more concerned about DNS accuracy / stability than speed anyway and both excel in those areas.

smith6612

Just as an FYI: Level3 DNS (4.2.2.1 - 4.2.2.6) now redirect you to Search pages like Verizon's default DNS Servers do if a domain doesn't exist. You may want to stick with Google DNS in that case.

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