Most of the web surfers might have heard about Open DNS and newly launched Google Public DNS resolution services. Currently they are the most popular and can use as an alternative to your current ISP’s DNS for faster and secure web surfing.

But, how to find out which DNS service is fastest for you? Here is a free benchmarking tool to determine the performance of local and remote DNS nameservers.

Here is how to use it. Download GRC's Domain Name Speed Benchmark tool. The tool is already comes with OpenDNS and many other different domain name servers. Add your ISP’s DNS and Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) by clicking on ‘Nameservers’ – ‘Add/Remove’ buttons, then click on "Run Benchmark".

After analyzing you will get final benchmark results sorted by nameserver performance (average cached name retrieval speed, fastest to slowest).

On clicking the ‘Conclusion’ button, you will get detailed information about your current DNS settings and required recommendations. Download GRC's Domain Name Speed Benchmark [Via]