[EDIT-> - I'm now using Clear's DNS: 203.97.78.43 and 203.97.78.44 thanks to freitasm


I've been a paradise customer for many, many years and the one bad thing about Paradise/Telstra (Other than the helpdesk wait times!) is their DNS Servers.

I've noticed things have been much worse with Paradise over the last 6-8 months.

• -Often get sites unavailable or very slow to initially display




• -Youtube clips often sit there without loading




• -Linux / BSD Package mirrors are often slow / laggy




• -Problems with websites that run elements on different servers (i.e. embedded chat clients)

The simple fix is to change to someone else's DNS server (I tried to call Telstra last night to let them know my findings but there was a 17min wait time)

I've changed to using Xtra's two DNS servers and the difference on our network is AMAZING, I didn't realise just how bad Paradise's DNS was until I stopped using it.

For example, I use PFSense (a BSD based firewall / router) - It was taking up to 30mins to update Snort (IDS) rules, after changing my DNS they took less than 1 minute!


202.27.184.3   - Xtra DNS 1
202.27.184.5   - Xtra DNS 2


# dig ftp.freebsd.org

; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P2 <<>> ftp.freebsd.org
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 17796
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;ftp.freebsd.org.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
ftp.freebsd.org.        180     IN      A       87.51.34.132
ftp.freebsd.org.        180     IN      A       204.152.184.73

;; Query time: 325 msec
;; SERVER: 202.27.184.3#53(202.27.184.3)
;; WHEN: Thu Nov 12 08:55:02 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 65


--> This was instant



203.96.152.4     - Paradise DNS 1
203.96.152.12   - Paradise DNS 2



# dig ftp.freebsd.org

; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P2 <<>> ftp.freebsd.org
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 56721
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 5

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;ftp.freebsd.org.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
ftp.freebsd.org.        180     IN      A       87.51.34.132
ftp.freebsd.org.        180     IN      A       204.152.184.73

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
freebsd.org.            3600    IN      NS      ns1.isc-sns.net.
freebsd.org.            3600    IN      NS      ns2.isc-sns.com.
freebsd.org.            3600    IN      NS      ns3.isc-sns.info.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.isc-sns.net.        169563  IN      A       72.52.71.1
ns1.isc-sns.net.        170205  IN      AAAA    2001:470:1a::1
ns2.isc-sns.com.        169563  IN      A       38.103.2.1
ns3.isc-sns.info.       369     IN      A       63.243.194.1
ns3.isc-sns.info.       83163   IN      AAAA    2001:5a0:10::1

;; Query time: 143 msec
;; SERVER: 203.96.152.4#53(203.96.152.4)
;; WHEN: Thu Nov 12 08:55:37 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 257

#


--> This took AGES to resolve