Slashdot Mirror
Beware of Using Google Or OpenDNS For iTunes
Relayman writes "Joe Mailer wanted to download an iTunes movie recently and his Apple TV told him it would take two hours. When he switched his DNS resolver settings, the download time dropped to less than 20 seconds. Apparently, iTunes content is served by Akamai which uses geolocation based on the IP address of the DNS request to determine which server should provide his content. When you use Google or OpenDNS to resolve the Apple domain name, all the requests to Akamai appear to be coming from the same location and they're all directed to the same server pool, overloading that pool and causing the slow downloads. The solution: be wary of using Google or OpenDNS when downloading iTunes files or similar large files. Use your own ISP's DNS servers instead or run your own resolving DNS server."
Such a basic operation, and still not working as intended? Something is terribly wrong here if you ask me...
It must be Apple's "magic" that's causing the trouble.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Umm no, I think I'll just pass on those services if they are that daft, thanks.
Fuck akamai... if any software delivery system or service is slow for me because of content distribution tomfoolery, I simply won't use it. I would never have anything to do with iAnything in the first place, though.
Most ISP's DNS servers suck... and the whole reason I started using OpenDNS is because the ISP's were slow to respond, and the primary was often out and there were delays until the resolvers queried the secondary.
Hell, even my ISP's DNS servers that I would otherwise get assigned aren't exactly local.
A big, fat, monopolistic communications company that didn't get broken up on our side of the fence (in Canada) that doesn't care about their customers. Unfortunately it's the best Internet connection (DSL) I can get where I live. I could throw a stone and hit houses on nearby streets that have fiber, but they aren't bringing it to me because there's nothing but dead people that live on my street. (and the rest are just summer cottages)
DNS is only meant to be used for resolving hostnames and IP addresses. Any other inference people choose to make from any part of it for any purpose is wrong.