Fixing RoadRunner
I’ve been having some trouble lately with RoadRunner from Time Warner Cable. Their DNS servers are ridiculously slow and I decided to take some action and switch to OpenDNS. Details follow.
First, I configured my Buffalo router running DD-WRT to use OpenDNS and to update DynDNS of my dynamic IP address. Then I configured dnsomatic to update OpenDNS so that my custom network settings will follow my home network as the address changes. Actually, my dynamic address at home hasn’t changed more than a couple of times in more than a year, but it’s nice to have a static domain name to use when connecting to my network from elsewhere.
I think my tubes are considerably faster and I’m not getting the flaky name resolution failures that I’ve been getting recently. Plus, when I don’t have to support TWC in their ignorant and greedy bid to redirect DNS requests from nonexistent domains to their advertisements.
Tags: computing, freedom, linux, open-source, software
Comments (RSS)
March 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I’m having the same trouble with Time Warner. Its really frustrating to have EVERYTHING taking forever lately. I was using OpenDNS before but got really frustrated with their redirection of incorrect DNS entries to adds. Now you’re telling my that Time Warner is going to be giving me poor service and crappy adds. :-(
March 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
You may not have to support “TWC in their ignorant and greedy bid to redirect DNS requests from nonexistent domains to their advertisements” but OpenDNS is doing basically the same thing:
http://forums.opendns.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=226&page=2
Basically, if you search google through OpenDNS, they catch it and put it through their servers first. One problem with that (although, admittedly, not a problem here in the Triangle) is that if you try to search from a localized Google (the example I heard was from Canada) you would instead get a search from Google.com instead of the local google.ca (or whatever country).
It’s not that hard to set up your own caching DNS server, so perhaps that’s the better thing to do.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am
It’s not basically the same thing. I pay TWC for internet access and they’re trying to make ad revenue on top of that with their crappy DNS service. I don’t use Google so don’t really care about that. See if you insist on Google results. Anyway, I could run a caching DNS server at home if I didn’t care about how much electricity I use, but I do. My router and modem are the only piece of equipment always on.
OpenDNS uses ads, which I never see since I use Firefox with Adblock Plus, but it’s all opt-in, unlike TWC. And the service is better.