When I saw this claim over at E61Life, that changing your DNS server address increases your bandwidth, I wanted to call bullshit because anyone who knows even a little bit about networking will know that changing the DNS address doesn’t affect network speed. The resolve time may be decreased yes, but the connection speed should remain constant. I decided to try it out myself. Ran a mobile speed test 6 times, 3 time under my automatic DNS settings, 3 times under this custom address. The phone was kept on my desk and wasn’t moved. I want this to be as scientifically accurate as possible.
Test 1: 114 kbit/sec
Test 2: 103 kbit/sec
Test 3: 144 kbit/sec
Average: 120.33 kbit/sec
Now let me change to the "supercharged" DNS server
Test 1: 164 kbit/sec
Test 2: 176 kbit/sec
Test 3: 179 kbit/sec
Average: 173 kbit/sec
OK now something must be happening here, this doesn’t make sense networking wise. At this point I go back into my phone and put my DNS records back to automatic. I run 3 more tests.
Test 1: 187 kbit/sec
Test 2: 163 kbit/sec
Test 3: 144 kbit/sec
Average: 164.66 kbit/sec
So it’s slower than the "supercharged" DNS server, but faster than the first results … ?
Let me continue the tests on automatic DNS mode
Test 4: 207 kbit/sec
Test 5: 189 kbit/sec
Test 6: 171 kbit/sec
Average: 189 kbit/sec
Now these are the fastest numbers I’ve gotten yet. My hypothesis has been proven wrong, the network speed hasn’t remained constant at all, it has increased. More so it has increased independently to the DNS address used.
I can only come to one conclusion: At the carrier level, bandwidth is allocated to everyone equally. When their systems start seeing that you need more bandwidth they give it to you. They do this in order to maintain QoS (Quality of Service). That or GPRS is too unpredictable to gage network performance.
Do I recommend changing your DNS address? No
Just for shits and giggles I want to see what connecting via WiFi will do to these numbers:
Test 1: 2001 kbit/sec
Test 2: 1677 kbit/sec
Test 3: 1710 kbit/sec
Average: 1796 kbit/sec = <3 WiFi