Let me start by saying that i'm not burning anyone. I understand you all want to share for the benefit of all but i feel i need to clarify this. These kinds of misinformed posts can be more harmful than beneficial. So let's clear this up from a technical standpoint and show why it's wrong.
Oh and sorry for the long post, i need to backup my theory with examples to be somewhat credible.
DNS = Domain name system.
What it does is resolve a name to an IP. I know the IPs i use are not really possible due to class restrictions, so no need to point that out. I'm using it as a theoretical example for simplicity only.
So let's say your IP is 10.10.10.10 and you want to connect to mw3.cod.com.
Your system will ask the DNS this question: What IP is mw3.cod.com.
DNS will answer: IP is 20.20.20.20.
Your system now knows it needs to connect to 20.20.20.20.
Lets say that to get there it will go through 2 nodes (hops). So the path would look something like this:
10.10.10.10 --> 12.12.12.12 --> 15.15.15.15 --> 20.20.20.20
The speed, ping or latency is how long it takes to get from 10.10.10.10 to 20.20.20.20.
I fail to see how this will improve speeds. In the end all the DNS does is tell you where to go. It doesn't matter if it's your Internet Service Provider (ISP), Google, your own private DNS that answers so long as it can resolve the name to an IP. It doesn't change the route you take to your destination.
So in this situation, it'll still take 2 hops no matter what DNS is specified. As mentioned by Golagoda, your better off not touching it as the DNS assigned by your ISP's DHCP; as it's the optimal one for your network.
Here is an example using DNS from opendns and google. You will notice that the number of hops does not change. Now before you point out that 3 IPs differ, understand that this is most likely the server load balancing redirection from google. I'm also going to put stars to hide IPs that can be traced back to me. No, i'm not in the mood to be hacked! =p
For those who don't know, the ms is the response time (speed). As you'll notice, changing DNS doesn't do anything for it.
Possible IPs for google.com:
C:>nslookup
Default Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
> google.com
Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Addresses: 74.125.113.104
74.125.113.103
74.125.113.106
74.125.113.147
74.125.113.105
74.125.113.99
Example 1:
C:>nslookup
Default Server: resolver1.opendns.com
Address: 208.67.222.222
C:>tracert
You must login or register to view this content.
Tracing route to
You must login or register to view this content. [74.125.113.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 9 ms 10 ms 192.168.1.1
3 9 ms 9 ms 12 ms *.*.*.*
4 28 ms 18 ms 10 ms *.*.*.*
5 23 ms 25 ms 26 ms *.*.*.*
6 36 ms 34 ms 33 ms *.*.*.*
7 41 ms 42 ms 41 ms 209.85.252.80
8 45 ms 47 ms 45 ms 209.85.243.114
9 46 ms 45 ms 45 ms 64.233.174.117
10 52 ms * * 216.239.47.242
11 47 ms 47 ms 48 ms vw-in-f103.1e100.net [74.125.113.103]
Trace complete.
Trace 2:
C:>nslookup
Default Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
C:>tracert
You must login or register to view this content.
Tracing route to
You must login or register to view this content. [74.125.113.147]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 9 ms 9 ms 192.168.1.1
3 10 ms 11 ms 10 ms *.*.*.*
4 14 ms 11 ms 11 ms *.*.*.*
5 25 ms 23 ms 24 ms *.*.*.*
6 57 ms 32 ms 33 ms *.*.*.*
7 40 ms 42 ms 40 ms 209.85.252.80
8 47 ms 47 ms 46 ms 209.85.243.114
9 46 ms 45 ms 45 ms 64.233.174.87
10 50 ms 53 ms 53 ms 209.85.243.1
11 47 ms 47 ms 48 ms vw-in-f147.1e100.net [74.125.113.147]
Trace complete.
---------- Post added at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------
IMO, your better off not touching these setting unless you have a very specific reason to. It's probably more a coincidence that it seemed better.
Then again, if you really think it makes a difference then stick with it. Placebo effect can be very powerful indeed.