What is a good local Windows DNS Caching Server/Service?

Question

My ISP constantly has trouble keeping their DNS servers up (or so it seems). Does anyone have any good suggestions for a local caching server that can be installed on Windows Vista?

Answer 1

Well, it sounds like what you need is a backup service - so in that case I'd recommend OpenDNS. It's free, and it works and you could switch to it whenever your ISP's DNS servers are giving you issues.

The service doesn't require registration, but if you register there are some added benefits. I should probably add that some people view the offering in a more paranoid way (because OpenDNS gets to see all your traffic), but I haven't found any pointers to give in to that.

Been using them at home for over a year. Or maybe two. :)

Their DNS servers are:

• 208.67.222.222
• 208.67.220.220

Answer 2

Take a look at treewalk

Answer 3

ISC Bind 9

BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is an implementation of the Domain Name System (DNS) protocols and provides an openly redistributable reference implementation of the major components of the Domain Name System, including:

• a Domain Name System server (named)
• a Domain Name System resolver library
• tools for verifying the proper operation of the DNS server

The BIND DNS Server is used on the vast majority of name serving machines on the Internet, providing a robust and stable architecture on top of which an organization's naming architecture can be built. The resolver library included in the BIND distribution provides the standard APIs for translation between domain names and Internet addresses and is intended to be linked with applications requiring name service.

• Checklist for installing Bind 9 on Windows.

Simple DNS Plus

The simple yet powerful DNS Server for Windows (runs on Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008)
With Simple DNS Plus you can host your own domain names, or simply speed up Internet access by running your own DNS server. Simple DNS Plus can easily be integrated with your web-site for ISP customer signup etc., or even a full web-based DNS solution. Simple DNS Plus also comes with a DHCP server plug-in, a DNS Look Up tool, and many other features...

Answer 4

Use DNSBENCH.EXE on you home network. READ the instructions. You usually do not need a local. level 3 servers are very very fast. Some examples; 4.2.2.3 4.2.2.4 4.2.2.5 4.2.2.6 (In use by me now) They are literally faster than my ISPS.

Answer 5

Windows XP and Vista both create a local DNS cache by default. You can use ipconfig with the following options, /dislaydns, /flushdns, and /registerdns, to examine and control the cache. Also, you may want to add a few of you favourite sites to your hosts file for when their servers are down.

Answer 6

next to opendns there is google's public dns-service:

Configure your network settings to use the IP 
addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers

(i personally use tinydns and dnscache on a freebsd-machine which does the paketfitlering and the routing)

Answer 7

I've just installed ISC Bind 9.3 on a Windows XP box at it appears to be working fine. I plan to move it to a Vista box and upgrade to 9.5 sometime very soon. So far I have not seen anything to suggest that it won't run on Vista.

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I've since moved it to Vista. No problems.