HowTo Search the fastest DNS Server with Namebench for Faster Internet In Linux

Namebench is a Open-source DNS Benchmark Utility used to test, compare and make recommendations for the fastest DNS available to you. Using Namebench is very easy, we simply insert the nameservers we want to use in Namebench or it usually auto-detects nameservers in /etc/resolv.conf and reports the current fastest nameserver. Reports generated by Namebench are very easy to analyze as the results are exported into the /tmp/ in html format. Reports can also be exported in csv file.

To use Nambench please follow the steps below:

NOTE:I'm using Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 as my platform, but you can use it on other distributions with certain settings.

1) Install python-tk package first:

$ sudo apt-get install python-tk

2) Download the Namebench package from Google Code:

$ wget -c https://code.google.com/p/namebench/downloads/list

3) Extract the tarball which you downloaded in last step :

$ tar -zxvf namebench-1.3.1-source.tgz

4) Change your present working directory to the Namebench directory you got from extracting the tarball:

$ cd namebench-1.3.1/

There are two ways to use Namebnch, you can install it permanently in your system or you can temporarily use it like a portable application.

To install Namebench permanently in your system, run:

$ python setup.py install

OR to try Namebench temporarily without installing it, run:

$ python nambench.py

NOTE: Make Sure you are running the above command from inside thenamebench-1.3.1 directory.

Once you run Namebench, it will look something like this: I am currently using Google DNS, when I open the application namebench, it automatically read the contents of /etc/resolv.conf. To start the namebecnch benchmark to determine the fastest nameserver, click the Start Button.
After completing the benchmarking, namebench will store the reports in htmland csv format in the /tmp/ . Here's an example screenshot of my benchmark results: Once you get the advice for the fastest DNS, you can change your/etc/resolv.conf file to use that nameserver according to the recommendation of namebench.
For Example:

$ sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 202.43.160.51

When finished editing the /etc/resolv.conf, please try with your new, hopefully more stable and faster nameserver :)