Faster, safer, more reliable web surfing

By
PeterK
Published: December 6, 2009Posted in: InternetTags:
Faster, safer, more reliable web surfing

Google has launched its own public DNS system which it says can make web browsing faster, safer and more reliable.

The Domain Name System (DNS) converts web addresses, such as cbronline.com, into a unique Internet Protocol (IP) number, which computers use to communicate with each other.

Google believes that its own public DNS system should speed up the web browsing process, which can be slowed down by multiple DNS requests on a single site. “The average Internet user ends up performing hundreds of DNS lookups each day, and some complex pages require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading,” said Prem Ramaswami, product manager, on the official Google blog.

“Our research has shown that speed matters to Internet users, so over the past several months our engineers have been working to make improvements to our public DNS resolver to make users’ web-surfing experiences faster, safer and more reliable,” Ramaswami said.

DNS provider Nominum earlier this year launched Intelligent DNS, which it said makes Internet browsing safer. The new platform can block access to any site that is carrying malicious software such as botnets, phishing attempts and illegal content. This also uses real-time visibility to protect against attacks within seconds of their launch.

Speaking to CBR about the launch of Intelligent DNS, Gopala Tumuluri, Nominum’s VP of marketing and business development said that legacy DNS did not adequately protect users from online threats. “All legacy DNS did was get the request for a domain name and get the IP address from that,” he said. “It didn’t check whether the site was safe, secure or even whether it was the intended destination.”