Alternative DNS

[briareos_kerensky]

Since last week, I saw some websites getting their speed cut, often in drastic ways (from being able to saturate the bandwidth to 56k levels); I've contacted the ISP but they don't have any errors and the slowdowns don't affect everything.
Can switching DNS help? If so, which do you recommend?

[Mayhem]

DNS just resolves the pathway from typed URL to IP address. Once you're there, the speed is entirely down to the delivery speed of the server, and the connection speed to your computer through the lines and router.

[charlesr]

Slight addition to that: if you change DNS, it can speed up the initial seek time by noticeable fractions of a second (if your provider's DNS is rubbish)

[MartyG]

Google have an analytic tool for checking your DNS, it'll also show how censored your ISP is: https://code.google.com/p/namebench/

DNS Jumper is a useful tool that lets you change DNS servers on the fly with a button click which is quite handy: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download...301-26272.html