Now ranking the performance of 4,849

Now ranking the performance of 4,849

resolvers for the creation of your"Top 50 Resolvers" custom list

You must do this just once to obtain the full benefits from this Benchmark.

This GRC DNS Benchmark is scanning 4,849 global DNS resolvers to determine whether they are accessible and responsive from your present location. If so, the Benchmark measures the resolver's minimum response time, as well as whether it appears to be operating reliably and correctly.

While this is underway, every qualifying resolver is dynamically "ranked" from fastest to slowest. The top line of the display above shows the minimum response time of the fastest resolver found so far, as well as the minimum response time of the "50th fastest."

Once the ranking scan is completed, the IP addresses of those 50 fastest qualifying resolvers will be loaded into the Benchmark so that you can immediately perform a comprehensive analysis of their performance and the IPs will also be written to a file named "DNSBENCH.INI", located in the same directory as the Benchmark. This "DNSBENCH.INI" file will then automatically be loaded whenever the Benchmark is run in the future.

Four important notes:

All results obtained during this global resolver ranking process, and while benchmarking, will be far more accurate if all other network usage is minimized while the Benchmark is working.

Unlike the Benchmark's built-in default list of safe and well-known commercial resolvers, this global list contains all of those resolvers, plus others of unknown origin, ownership, disposition, reliability, availability and access. We are expressly not vouching for, or recommending, that you use any of these. So you must use your own judgement based upon the designated ownership, the resolver's network name, and anything else that might give you a clue about whether such a resolver might be wise to use.

In an effort to keep the global resolver ranking speed as high as possible, only the resolvers' cached lookup performance is being tested. This means that some manual pruning of this list will likely be required. After benchmarking the resolvers thoroughly, simply right-click on any unacceptable resolvers and select "Remove this nameserver" to remove any that are unacceptable. Remember to save the updated (pruned) .INI file using either the Add/Remove dialog or the application's system menu (Alt-Spacebar).

You may repeat this list-building anytime you wish to recreate your personalized custom resolver IP list. This should be done when this machine is moved to another location or to another ISP.

- Steve GibsonPlease Note: This program is Copyright (c) 2010 by Gibson Research Corporation -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This program is FREEWARE. Although it may not be altered in any way, it MAY BE FREELY COPIED AND DISTRIBUTED onto and through any and all computer media in ANY form or fashion. You are hereby granted the right to do so.