Comments on: Verizon’s DNS Sucks

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:18:53 +0000

Another new alternative is Google DNS:
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

By the way, you can opt out of Verizon’s “DNS Assistance” (aka hijacking) by changing the last octet to 14 on your FiOS router:
http://www.verizon.net/central/vzc.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=vzc_help_contentDisplay&objId=23998

By: Jeff Darcy

Jeff Darcy — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:46:22 +0000

Note the date, Jonathon. At the time this was written, nearly three years ago, those addresses resolved to verizon.net. Even today, a traceroute from Level 3's own alice.eng.level3.net will resolve those addresses as either gtei.net or genuity.net. The relationships between these companies are hard to unravel since Genuity went under, but the important thing to remember is that there are a lot of things in Level 3's netblock that don't belong to Level 3 themselves. This is true for any company that sells connectivity/bandwidth to others, such as GNAX which sold the address for this website either directly or indirectly to GlowHost, who in turn let me and a hundred others use it. Good advice about avoiding servers that hijack your DNS requests, though. I wrote about Verizon adopting that sleazy tactic in February last year.

By: johnathon

johnathon — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:34:50 +0000

Just a few notes for everyone. First 4.2.2.1 thru 4.2.2.6 are not Verizon, they are Level 3 Communications. They pay to use the domain name, but they do not own the Servers. The actual DNS Servers Verizon uses as a default with all of their offered internet services (DSL, Fios, etc.) are monetized. This means that if you were to type in any sentence in your browser, Verizon would hijack your browser and direct it to their own private monitized search page. Of course, they are also slow as hell, too. But if you use the 4.2.2.1 thru 4.2.2.6 DNS servers, then Verizon doesn’t make one additional dime because Level 3 does not redirect your browser anywhere. And of course, the Level 3 DNS Servers usually are lightning fast.

A lot of big ISP’s have hijacking DNS Servers, that redirect your searches for to make extra $$. Because of TONS of complaints, a lot of them now offer alternative Servers that do not redirect. I know for a fact that Earthlink for instance does. You do have to complain to your ISP and demand, what they refer to them as, “OPT OUT” servers.

Level 3 is just an alternative, and can be used by anyone. They are not the only ones you can choose instead. Just be careful, because alot of the Public Ones like OpenDNS pulll they same crap with the hijacking. The amount of extra cash that can be made is just too tempting for them to pass on, it seems. A simple google search for “non hijacking public DNS servers” should get everyone started in the right direction.

Hope this helps someone out there !

jonathon in florida

By: Arcair77

Arcair77 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:30:39 +0000

I did a Google search tonight, looking for “Fastest DNS settings for Verizon FiOS” and landed here. My problem has been a veritable nightmare…First with Apple, then (and more accurately) with Verizon. I purchased my first Mac (MBPro) last November, along with a Time Capsule Base Station/500GB HD). I could NOT get the Mac to connect to my TC. After countless calls to Apple (they were great, BTW!), they finally sent me a new TC. Upon receiving the second unit, the same problem occurred! I was furious and ready to drop kick the TC out the window. A friend of mine who had Verizon FiOS told me to call their tech support as he was having problems in Fort Wayne (IN), the same city I lived in.

In the middle of the night, some tech in Cleveland gave me a bunch of settings (Subnet Mask, correct IP Address, and a couple others) to put in the TC–and FINALLY, everything worked! I was thrilled.

Part II: A few months later, we’ve had ongoing issues with connecting 3 PC’s to our network in our basement. I finally purchased a AirPort Express AND a Netgear Ethernet switch and 25′ of ethernet cable (to hardwire the 3 computers into the ethernet port in the AirPort Express). Two computers launched, but one didn’t. I called Apple (again, this wasn’t their problem, and, again, they couldn’t help me with this one), and called another IT friend, and he had me pinging my computer, the TC, the other computers. Finally realized the DNS settings on the TC were empty (Verizon, for whatever reason which is beyond me) told me to leave them blank! I Googled another site, which told me to set the first DNS to 4.2.2.1 and for the alternate 4.2.2.2 . I couldn’t believe how much faster all the computers were on my network (including my MBPro that sits right by the TC)!

I’m not sure what Verizon’s deal is, but they are reticent to hand out DNS server numbers. I’ll see if this remains fast, but for now, all computers are on, and the speed is blazing fast!

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:42:17 +0000

Just found this site while searching for speed problems. I have Verizon Fios and my router is Actionec MI424WR. How do I change to public DNS

thanks in advance for anything you can give me.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:50:02 +0000

Thanks! This helped me speed up my boss’s home Fios.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:46:28 +0000

Thanks a million. I had all the symptoms listed here and figured there was a DNS server problem, but I was not looking forward to convincing Verizon tech support I knew what I was talking about. Now I don’t have to and my browsing performance screams (and my wife stopped complaining

By: James

James — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:42:01 +0000

Wow, thank you. I have FiOS here in Delaware and I was annoyed by their constant downtime which lasted a few minutes. I switched to their Public DNS (4.2.2.1/4.2.2.2) and I can notice an immediate _boost_ in responsiveness. Sometimes Firefox timed-out accessing google.com, which is simply ridiculous.

Again, thank you very much.

By: James #2

James #2 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:05:24 +0000

Interesting to see all the Northern Virginians here. I’m visiting some friends in Delaware, and while here I’ve discovered all of their perceived internet connectivity problems with Verizon are due to DNS failures. So a quick google on slow verizon DNS brought me to this page. Anyway, like James and Mark, I live in the DC Metro Area. In fact, I moved out of Reston, VA and into Washington, DC proper in February. My new apartment only has a single cable jack, and it’s above the front door in the ceiling — tragic. So I conceded that short of running coax around the house, I’d do best to just go with DSL service from Verizon. I entered my address into their website, and was told I was too far from the central office to receive service. Funny thing is, I’m in the heart of DC 10 blocks from the White House, and my neighbors all around me — above, below, and adjacent, all have Verizon DSL. So I call to have this rectified and after 3 days and HOURS on hold later, disconnects, misdirects, etc, I finally reach a lady who says she can help me; she puts in some kind of special ticket, and promises to call me back the next day to schedule installation. A day passes, then two, then five. Ultimately, I had to concede that Verizon’s customer service just sucks, and ended up calling Comcast. Much like James #1, they arrived the next day and I had Internet then and there; they even matched Verizon’s price for me. Interestingly enough, about 10 days later, the Verizon lady did call me back to let me know they’d fixed the problem in their database and could provision DSL for me, and I had to tell her I’d already received service from someone else, if only she’d called as promised, even if just to let me know they’re still working on the issue. Oh well. Apparenlty more than just their DNS servers suck.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:49:21 +0000

Verizon’s customer service is horrible. I ordered FiOS TV at the end of November and it wasn’t finally installed until the end of March. I tried getting them to give me a discount for their inept service (5 visits) but even then, I had to be transferred yet to another department. Anyway, Cox Cable wasn’t giving me anything much and it was costing me even more. So my patience lasted and I was rewarded with excellent TV signal and robust broadband (I had Comcast before and it was always down). The bottom line is their customer service sucks but the product is cheaper and better than the competition’s (for now).

Mark
Falls Church, VA