Submitted by OpenDNS today announced that its users now represent a full one percent of all 1.67 billion global Internet users online today. The total OpenDNS user count has now surpassed 18 million, according to leading analytics firm Quantcast, doubling in just 12 months. “We see this milestone as incredibly significant, and a true testament to both the unmatched quality of the OpenDNS service and the world’s demand for a better DNS service,” said OpenDNS Founder and CEO David Ulevitch, “One percent of all of the world’s Internet users is a momentous achievement and our growth rate indicates that number will climb at an even more rapid pace going forward.”
I’ve used OpenDNS with my current home ISP (who has had unreliable DNS servers from time to time) for a few years now and have been generally happy with it. I don’t have any sort of OpenDNS account – I just set my DNS servers to 208.67.220.220 and 208.67.222.222 and away I go.
However – and I don’t know if a registered account can switch this off – I *hate* that failed DNS lookups actually return a “good” lookup to their Web search service (guide.opendns.com = 67.216.65.132) which is surely against some sort of RFC guidelines? Wasn’t this a trick that Verisign played a few years back and got such negative feedback that they had to stop doing it?
OpenDNS is a huge step back. Whilst its touted as “Premium DNS”, it breaks IPV6 BY DEFAULT! Set up an IPv6 tunnel if you don’t believe me, and you’ll discover all IPV6-only websites don’t work over OpenDNS (not even obviously, just time outs).
OpenDNS is the ONLY DNS on the planet that breaks IPV6 HTTP browsing support, and they don’t even care. You’d think a premium DNS would support the next generation internet protocol, but apparently, breaking it is a feature!
I now regret having set it up on many customers computers (and suggesting to them that they use it). I suggest everyone else does too. OpenDNS ISN’T open (it’s totally closed off). It’s nothing more than a name. Don’t make the same mistake I did…