# Level3 Public DNS Servers - Search Engine Redirect



## nunim (Nov 9, 2013)

Does anyone use Level3's public DNS?

4.2.2.1

4.2.2.2

I've been using them forever because they were always better then ISP default servers.  I know a lot of people are using Google's DNS now but I've found Level3 had a better latency in most cases, and since I've been using them for years, I stuck with it.

However, tonight something odd happened that I never noticed before... Failed dns lookups, i.e. invalid domain or domain doesn't exist.. Now redirects me to searchguide.level3.com instead of simply failing.  Has anyone else noticed this??!?  I do a lot of website testing during the day and I've never seen this redirect before so it has to have been a fairly recent change.

I guess I may have to start using Google's DNS, since they have all my information anyhow... Google DNS doesn't do redirect on failure do they?  I want failure messages on failure!  Is that too much to ask?


----------



## johnlth93 (Nov 9, 2013)

Yup i have been using Level3 DNS from Malaysia for a long time.

Though i use 209.244.0.3 (resolver1) and everything seem fine, nothing as you described.

Yes, google dns doesn't redirect to a failed query AFAIK. Only one i used (that have such redirection) is OpenDNS.


----------



## nunim (Nov 9, 2013)

Strange.   I haven't installed any Toolsbars or anything silly like that, in fact I just did a full system scan using two different anti-viruses.  







This is what I'm seeing on failed lookups, and I certainly never saw this before.  I couldn't really find any info about it on Google so I'm at a bit of a loss.  I really don't want to switch to Google's DNS


----------



## Ruchirablog (Nov 9, 2013)

they decided to monetize their free DNS. OpenDNS does the same


----------



## shovenose (Nov 9, 2013)

Yeah that's a recent addition.


----------



## johnlth93 (Nov 9, 2013)

nunim said:


> Strange.   I haven't installed any Toolsbars or anything silly like that, in fact I just did a full system scan using two different anti-viruses.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Goddammit mine just changed as well  :angry:


----------



## drmike (Nov 9, 2013)

Well that was inevitable.

My browser likes to be helpful and pass fubard stuff to search engine for helping.  So I see that instead of DNS redirect.

Solution to these DNS redirects is a bit foggy.   Have to stuff DNSMASQ or other DNS piece in middle and intercept their bogus IP result to point at their own stuff.

Time for a public resolver alternative list I'd say with notes about each resolver, benefits, features, bewares, etc.


----------



## blergh (Nov 9, 2013)

http://useopennic.org/setup.php

You can thank me later.


----------



## Nyr (Nov 10, 2013)

I keep getting "Non-existent domain" responses from Level 3 DNS when needed, does this keep happening to you? Maybe they are just testing for now?

Anyway, I maintain a little list of anycast, no-bullshit DNS servers here:

http://wiki.nyr.be/dns_publicos

Both HE and NTT ones would be a good alternative.


----------



## earl (Nov 10, 2013)

This is really dissapointing.. I've used them quite a fair bit.


----------



## drmike (Nov 10, 2013)

I started a thread when this started.   It's a list of open public DNS resolvers.

http://vpsboard.com/topic/2544-free-public-dns-resolver-list-public-dns-servers/


----------

