Verizon’s DNS Sucks
Jeff Darcy September 30, 2006 22:50
A while ago, Verizon started offering their new Fios – their new fiber-to-the-home service – for less than we had been paying for DSL, so we signed up. The service really is pretty zippy. One one occasion recently I was able to sustain over 600KB/s (4.8Mb/s) for the duration of a 32MB download. However, I quickly noticed that pages were often slow to load because of the time it took to translate host names into IP addresses. Not suprisingly, others have also noticed this deficiency in Verizon’s network. Oddly, their public servers (4.2.2.1 through 4.2.2.5) are pretty well respected and often suggested as an alternative for people who are having problems with other ISPs’ name servers, but those aren’t the ones Verizon tells your computer to use. Well, I can override what Verizon tells my computer – in fact my whole home network – to use. I have in fact done so, and I can report that surfing has improved considerably as a result. I don’t know why Verizon points subscribers’ machines toward servers that significantly degrade those subscribers’ net experience and thus cast their product in a bad light, when they themselves already have far better servers available, but that seems to be what they do.
By the way, for anyone else considering a similar trick: be very careful whose name servers you use. An unscrupulous person could easily set up a name server that would, for example, resolve your online banking system’s host name to an IP address that is actually their own password-stealing machine. Only use name servers that you have very good reason to trust.
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- Comments(19)
Reasonable article..
Good to see the touch of trust/sense advice added at the end..
As for your password method – fair enough, but… if somebody were to code a spambot to grep the word, to spam your comments (you know they will if many start doing it)
You may find it beneficial to photoshop a quick image of the word – thus making it more difficult
If I added an image, it would make my site inaccessible to the sightless, and spammers write code to decipher graphical CAPTCHAs as well. My method works because it’s not common, and not worth the effort for anyone to code up a countermeasure. It’s a good example of the web acting like an ecosystem, with diversity the key to good health.
Just got Verizon FIOS here in Sarasota, FL and totally agree about the DNS. The Actiontec router does not even show or allow DNS entries… don’t even know what the DNS server(s) are; assuming they’re the 4.2.2.x ones. How do I discover my WAN DNS (ipconfig only shows 192.168.1.1 [the router] as dhcp, gateway and dns)? Do I have to give my LAN PCs static IPs to change DNS servers they use? I know how to do that, no problem but I’d rather change the DNS being handed out by the router like can be done with a Linksys but can’t find it in the Actiontec they gave me (for free and its otherwise pretty sweet). I kept my Comcast cable modem service (yeah I’m geeked out and have 2 kids too
, and Comcast’s DNS is much faster than Verizon’s. The Comcast circuit clocks at between 5 & 6mb downstream and surfs much faster than the fios circuit which clocks at over 20mb (blazing for downloads!). I’m thinking of going static w/ the fios gateway and Comcast DNS. What do you think?
Dug a little deeper into this and found out about “OpenDNS” which is pretty kewl; even provided instructions for configuring DNS in the Actiontec router (it was nested deep in the interface where I hadn’t found it!). So now I’m using OpenDNS servers, which are definitely much faster, via DHCP to all my LAN PCs. OpenDNS has other features to benefit web surfers too such as improved “error page”.
i am having truble with my xbox 360 connection dose any body know what to do
Which DNS servers are you using with FIOS?
Take an old PC, install Ubuntu, install DNSMasq, a local cacheing DNS server, and point your internal machines DNS settings to that server. Doesn’t work transparently (without some hand configuration) with all routers, but it does with my Netgear FV318. I don’t have FIOS just 1.5meg DSL but their DNS bog factor was noticable. I have had this thing running 24/7 for 2 years without a hitch. Just a thought.
Good luck
Mike
I used to run a server farm in Sarasota and the 4.2.2.x family was what Verizon had us using for our T1’s – we never had a problem. Now away from that business I have FIOS in my office and was given some other servers to point to. At first it wasn’t to bad but, as of late, it’s SUCKED (Google should –NOT– take 30-60sec to come up!). After reading what you folks shared here I switched back to the other DNS and, lo-and-behold – SCREAMING FAST FIOS.
Make the switch – it’ll take 15sec and save countless hours. Happy surfing!
I called Verizon FIOS to order phone, internet, and cable prior to my move in. My Consumer Order Summary was dated 3-28-08, and the scheduled installation date was 4-7-08. I reviewed the e-mail and all looked well. I move into my new house and install date comes. They setup an 8 AM-noon window. I already had the Optical Network Terminal unit (ONT) in my house, so I figured this would be cake for them. I am a Sys Admin at an ISP, so the internet stuff I could do myself with ease.
On install day, no one showed, no one called. I had my mobile with me at ALL times. So around 1:30 PM I called Verizon to see what was going on. If something came up, I had a week off to move in and if they needed to come by in a day or two, I was totally cool with that. After about an hour on hold I got in touch with a “state level” dispatcher. That said that there were “no facilities available for my order” and I was called. Nope, I wasn’t called; they did have my cell (which I had with me all of the time) in their records. I wanted them to come out later in the week if possible since I was home. They said that their next available time for me was 4-12-08, which was a day where I was going to a wedding. The next available time after that was at the end of the month, on a work day for me.
Basically because they did not show up, or even notify me with a reason, they put me at the back of the line. I was trying to escalate my request and the support only gave me unreasonable dates and that “no facilities available for my order” BS. I later wanted to get my copper line put back so I could at least get phone service, and after a long wait in hold they gave me the end of the month as a date. Basically I was being run around in circles and being shoved to the end of the line because Verizon screwed up my installation. I was told the only way I could get it sooner is if I “knew an installer who’d do me a favor,” and I was pretty much screwed with the window of time I had to get the service installed. The salesperson fed me a load of bull and the installer didn’t even call me with a reason. I tried to figure out what “no facilities available for my order” meant, and why this was such a problem since I already had the ONT in my house. Half of their work was already done.
The same day, I called a local cable company who installed my phone, internet, and cable the next day. They showed up on time and did the normal pre and post appointment verification. I unplugged the ONT in my house and let the battery go out. Verizon gave me such a lousy customer experience I swore I would never do business with them, and be sure to let other people know about their awful customer service and commitments they setup and do not honor. Verizon screwed up prior when they bought Bell Atlantic, and screwed up our perfectly find DSL service I had around 98/99. My money is going to a competitor, and Verizon won’t see it because they have abysmal customer service. I am certainly interested in fiber optic lines connected to my house, but so long as Verizon is the only provider, I will happily do without.
James
Herndon, VA
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
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.
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.
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
Thanks! This helped me speed up my boss’s home Fios.
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.
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!
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
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.
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