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OpenDNS services: Are there really OpenDNS caches in DFW, LAX, and MIA?

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    • CommentAuthoreri3k
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2009 edited
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    I can't find any evidence that these locations exist other than the OpenDNS system status page and CacheCheck. Are they real caches available to OpenDNS users? Or are they just figments of OpenDNS's imagination?

    Let me give you a little background on my interest in this. I participate on a product forum for the Roku Digital Video Player:
    http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewforum.php?f=28

    The player streams video from the Limelight CDN. To achieve optimal streaming performance, Limelight routes users to different IP addresses based on the user's location (i.e., spit-horizon DNS). Run CacheCheck on netflix.vo.llnwd.net to see what I mean. With caches in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami available to users OpenDNS (in theory) has caches near every Limelight POP.

    However, Roku owners in Southern California who use OpenDNS report that they are still being routed to the IP addresses resolved by OpenDNS's Palo Alto cache, not to the addresses shown for the Los Angeles cache. My curiosity piqued, I checked to see if OpenDNS has any subdomains on opendns.com for their new locations like they have for the older ones (nyc.opendns.com, pao.opendns.com, ash.opendns.com, etc.). Nope, nothing listed. As a last attempt I tried to if OpenDNS would resolve any bld*.lax.opendns.com URLs as it does for - say - bld4.pao.opendns.com. Again, no dice.

    So, do they exist?
  2.  permalink
    They aren't online yet.
    • CommentAuthorerik.topp
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2009
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    It's really weird that there would be publicly viewable CacheCheck results and system statuses for locations that are not - and have never been - online. Any idea when they will go live?
  4.  permalink
    So any way out...???



    ________
    pcsubwoofer.org
    • CommentAuthorrotblitz
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2009
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    Way out - from what?
    See what OpenDNS server location you are using, and that's it what you need to live with for the time being.
    http://www.opendns.com/support/article/208
    •  
      CommentAuthormiked
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2009
     permalink
    Administrator
    I can tell you the newer locations do exist and all the hardware is fully operational. They are even handling a subset of production traffic. =)

    I can't give an exact timeframe, but expect them to go into full service very soon.
    Thankful People: unoriginal, dreamsburnred, maintenance
    • CommentAuthormwestfall
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2009
     permalink
    Interesting, it tells me 4.ash, but there's not even an ASH listed on the system status page.

    And that is a good point, how do the cache's affect GEOip based CDN services like limelight or other CDNs, you are basically routed to whatever node the first person that hit the cache selected!!!
    • CommentAuthorrotblitz
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2009 edited
     permalink
    "how do the cache's affect GEOip based CDN services like limelight or other CDNs"
    As far as I know, ASH is Ashburn/VA and is what is WDC at http://system.opendns.com/
    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ashburn&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.136115,50.449219&ie=UTF8&ll=39.001043,-77.313538&spn=0.538947,0.788269&z=10

    Further, same as with any other DNS lookup service, the OpenDNS servers are fed with the information according to their location, so it is quite usual that different locations return different results (IP addresses) for a domain. A good example: check www.l.google.com at http://www.opendns.com/support/cache/

    "you are basically routed to whatever node the first person that hit the cache selected!!!"
    Nope - nonsense. You are (hopefully) always routed to the (network vice) closest OpenDNS location, same as any other user around. And the cache is not filled depending on the user location, but depending on the OpenDNS server location.
    See http://forums.opendns.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=4670 about Anycast.
  9.  permalink
    ASH is WDC(Washingon, D.C), they just figured people in the US would understand WDC as a location better then ASH, I beleive...
    • CommentAuthormwestfall
    • CommentTimeAug 27th 2009
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    Then why don't they return WDC in their query..

    and I think you misunderstand rotblitz....

    I live in Richmond, VA
    Say someone lives in Nashville, TN

    Say both of us are using the same OpenDNS cache.

    Say there is a CDN service with nodes in Richmond, VA and Nashville, TN.

    Say Person B hits a CDN like amazon, internap, limelight etc... They are routed to the Nashville Server

    I go to pull a file from the same CDN, I get routed to Nashville instead of to Richmond, because OpenDNS has cached the query from his location.

    I'm not talking about routing to the OpenDNS location that is or isn't nearest to me, I'm talking about getting GeoIP DNS Results from the OpenDNS cache, that are not actually closest to me.

    Any additional thoughts?
    • CommentAuthorrotblitz
    • CommentTimeAug 27th 2009
     permalink
    Why ask? Just try it!
    nslookup CDN-Domain 208.67.222.222 - returns the OpenDNS result.
    nslookup CDN-Domain <YourISPsDNSip> - returns your ISP's result.
    nslookup CDN-Domain 4.2.2.1 - returns another 3rd party result.
    See how different they are, and if they are, what the speed difference is while visiting the site...
    • CommentAuthoreri3k
    • CommentTimeAug 28th 2009
     permalink
    @mwestfall

    In your example the IP address of the Nashville CDN node would never make it into the OpenDNS cache.

    When a user queries OpenDNS for resolution of the CDN URL, the server storing the OpenDNS cache then queries the authoritative name server for the domain. The authoritative name server would respond with the IP address of the CDN server topologically nearest to the IP address making the query. Since the originating IP address for the query belongs to the WDC OpenDNS cache, that nearest CDN server would always be the one in Richmond.

    The location of the user only has bearing on which OpenDNS cache they go to. Beyond that, it is the location of the OpenDNS cache that determines what IP addresses are ultimately resolved.
    Thankful People: rotblitz

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