Is it ok to use root DNS servers instead of opendns/google dns?

[sam1275tom]

Hello.
Just as the title says, they should be the most reliable ones aren't they?
Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

There is no single root dns server there is technically one for every possible domain. Most the core central ones only accept connections from other DNS servers.

Still you can pretty much use any dns that will respond to you and it will work fine. The reason a lot of people use 8.8.8.8 from google is that IP does not represent a single machine. They have a server in almost all major cities so you get fast response. If it would fail then it would just go to the next closest 8.8.8.8 ip address. Now if you are worried about google data collection you can use 4.2.2.2 what works the same way but is not in as many location. This is level3 dns.

 

[sam1275tom]

There is no single root dns server there is technically one for every possible domain. Most the core central ones only accept connections from other DNS servers.

Still you can pretty much use any dns that will respond to you and it will work fine. The reason a lot of people use 8.8.8.8 from google is that IP does not represent a single machine. They have a server in almost all major cities so you get fast response. If it would fail then it would just go to the next closest 8.8.8.8 ip address. Now if you are worried about google data collection you can use 4.2.2.2 what works the same way but is not in as many location. This is level3 dns.

Thank you, but some root DNS use anycast to present multiple physical servers, as you said for google DNS, they still cannot look up all domains? Also, do you mean that google DNS and OpenDNS can solve more domians than root DNS?

 

[bill001g]

It would be crazy if all dns could not look up all domains. You would have to connect to every domains dns server directly. All public ones should be able to resolve all names. Maybe you mean something different. If you mean the ones for .com or .gov or .tv Those are not designed for public access.

 

[sam1275tom]

It would be crazy if all dns could not look up all domains. You would have to connect to every domains dns server directly. All public ones should be able to resolve all names. Maybe you mean something different. If you mean the ones for .com or .gov or .tv Those are not designed for public access.

But you said "There is no single root dns server there is technically one for every possible domain."?
Thanks...

 

[bill001g]

Yes each domain like tomshardware.com or cnn.com etc has a root domain server. Now there is no way to say for sure if these are really separate servers or they buy hosting services. Large companies/domains have their own small guys pay one of the large hosting things like godaddy to keep them.

Maybe you should read about the concept of "authoritative and non-authoritative answers" if you want to really understand how dns works.

 

[sam1275tom]

Yes each domain like tomshardware.com or cnn.com etc has a root domain server. Now there is no way to say for sure if these are really separate servers or they buy hosting services. Large companies/domains have their own small guys pay one of the large hosting things like godaddy to keep them.

Maybe you should read about the concept of "authoritative and non-authoritative answers" if you want to really understand how dns works.

Thank you, I'm not really going to use a root DNS as primary DNS, google and opendns are enough, but I'm just read about those 13 world root DNS and curious why people never mention it as a personal choice.