Is OpenDNS faster than your ISP's DNS servers?

I'm on record as stating that OpenDNS is faster, but have to admit this was based on little more than my own experience and anecdotal evidence, when I switched to it from my ISP's server. Response times depend on time of day, server congestion, distance to server, and the size of the server's cache of domain names, among other things.

"OpenDNS offers DNS resolution for consumers and businesses as an alternative to using their Internet service provider's DNS servers. By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, OpenDNS can process queries more quickly".
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDNS#Services

Turns out there are 2 free programs available for download that actually benchmark response times of various DNS servers (also known as resolvers), which allow you to compare OpenDNS to your ISP and others:
1) Google's namebench:  http://code.google.com/p/namebench/
2) Steve Gibson's DNS Benchmark: http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

OpenDNS is by no means the only free DNS resolver out there, and both these programs can evaluate many others that are available. Both can scan for the fastest resolvers in your geographic area. Google itself offers a public DNS resolver.

My Results:

1) First, I ran Google's namebench.

It identified 11 name servers in my area as good candidates, with OpenDNS (resolver2) leading the pack as "fastest and nearest". Average response times:
OpenDNS (resolver2): 202 ms
Radiant Alberta:  224 ms
UMBC:  239 ms
OpenDNS (resolver1): 245 ms
Google Public DNS:  247 ms
Hurricane:  248 ms
dns1.295.ca:   254 ms
UltraDNS: 261 ms
Clearwire:  266 ms
Rogers (My ISP): 303 ms
Bell: 370 ms

The full results can be viewed here, to give you some idea of how namebench works.

2) Next, I ran DNS Benchmark against the same 11 servers. Average response times for cached domains only:

Radiant Alberta:  13 ms
Rogers (my ISP): 14 ms
Bell Canada:  23 ms
OpenDNS (resolver2):  23 ms  [208.267.220.220]
Hurricane:  25 msec.
Clearwire:   31 msec.
UMBC: 31 msec.
dns1.295.ca: 31 ms
Google Public DNS: 37 ms
OpenDNS (resolver1): 53 ms [208.267.222.222]
UltraDNS:  58 ms

Comments:

-These results apply to my situation alone, and are presented for illustration only.

- Obviously Google's namebench measures more than just response times for cached domains, to account for the longer times. And the rankings do change with subsequent runs a bit. But frankly, I doubt I would notice any difference in any of these response times, with my fast broadband connection.

- Both benchmark programs consistently found the OpenDNS resolver2 IP (208.267.220.220) to be faster than resolver1 (208.267.222.22). I changed my default OpenDNS to resolver2, and didn't notice any difference. Depending on your connection speed, you might want to make this change if you use OpenDNS.

- For me, all I can conclude is that for practical purposes, OpenDNS is at least as fast as my ISP's server. When I first switched to OpenDNS, I did notice an increase in speed and reliability. Perhaps my ISP has increased its domain name cache since then, to account for its competitive test results here. In any event, speed is not the primary reason to use OpenDNS. I switched for reliabilty and security reasons (plus the filter blocking).

- My ISP only provides one DNS resolver, which occasionally would go down. OpenDNS provides two, and I can't recall ever not being able to connect since switching.

-My ISP also got carded for this:
http://code.google.com/p/namebench/wiki/FAQ#What_does_"NXDOMAIN_hijacking"_mean?

- Gibson's DNS Benchmark provides a lot of other info, is a much smaller download, and is worth exploring. It is a standalone program.

As always, YMMV.