topic Re: Fastest DNS settings in Broadband

Fastest DNS settings

Kevinm100 — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:35:47 GMT

My Sky Gigahub router has the DNS hard wired I believe and uses 90.207.238.97. AI suggested the following adjustments to my PC to maximise performance. Wonder what others views are or would the changes be too small to notice.

Cloudflare is typically faster than both Google and Sky's default DNS on global and UK-based benchmarks, though individual real-world performance depends heavily on your local network routing.

Speed and Performance Comparison
Cloudflare (1.1.1.1): Consistently ranks as the fastest public DNS provider globally and in the UK, with average response times typically clocking under 10 ms to 15 ms. Its massive Anycast network edge footprint allows queries to resolve closer to your physical location.

Google (8.8.8.8): Usually trails Cloudflare by a small margin of 2 to 5 milliseconds, averaging around 12 ms to 18 ms. While slightly slower in raw lookup speed, Google offers exceptional caching efficiency and deep integration with global content delivery networks.

Sky Default (90.207.238.97): ISP-assigned DNS servers are adequate for normal day-to-day browsing, but they often lack the optimized edge-routing infrastructure of dedicated providers like Cloudflare or Google. During peak evening traffic hours, ISP resolvers can suffer from higher latency spikes than major public network

Re: Fastest DNS settings

jamesn123 — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:09:15 GMT

@Kevinm100

3rd party DNS can be a good change to make and often does make noticable difference to page loading times as DNS response time makes much more of a difference than internet speed once you are past a certain speed. Personally I use 1.1.1.1 and i have never had an issue with it.

Re: Fastest DNS settings

Me134 — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 11:19:51 GMT

Certainly doesn't hurt if you have to retain the Sky router. It won't necessarily reduce the ping by that much however as distance plays the largest leveller, we're in Scotland so it's maybe 350-450 miles to London dependant on the routing and even the speed of light can't be ignored over FTTP.