Well ...

I have a buddy that switched DNS servers a few months ago and he says things feel snappier. Is it overwhelmingly better? No - but "snappier" can be good. I think that in most cases, ISP-provided DNS services are good enough that replacing them won't significantly improve the browsing experience. It definitely won't improve your download speeds, VoIP line quality, or stock trades. I don't have any "authoritative" evidence on this topic, just a lot of years troubleshooting networks and rarely finding DNS problems of a scale that are very discernible.

I'm sure there are numerous cases where getting a new DNS server is warranted. I'm also sure that the OpenDNS marketing / PR machine is taking full advantage of any examples that show this. The quote you included from their web site is technically true, but it is also easily interpreted in a way that makes the situation seem worse than it really is. We hear a *lot* about network problems here, and DNS problems are not often an issue.

- Pete