Hi All, Now keep in mind this may not be the solution but I made this change several days ago and it definitely seemed to help.  I did some research and was led to some info regarding GTE's level 3 DNS servers.  Specifically that they do have problems and have, in the past actually become restrictive regarding open, free public use ... thought level 3 DNS were for that exact purpose ... but... anyway, I switched my DNS server addresses to these (which belong to Fibercloud-which is more local).  My up and down speed/rates has been much better ever since I made the change. Here are the addresses I changed too:

DNS Servers . . . . . . .  216.145.7.18
                                     216.145.7.19
                                     216.145.7.117

Please don't be surprised if we hear from Aaron or Dennis or Ben that this should not be done and that we should change back or to something else... but until that happens I am going to leave mine at these new settings.

Mike

Hi John,

Yes, it was the intent to give information to two separate issues but I can see how that could be misinterpreted by the way I wrote and posted them.  The two - DNS and Speed should be completly separate but  DNS has a cost and they can be related but not in an obvious manner. It typically takes 20-120 milliseconds for DNS to lookup the IP address for a given hostname. The browser can't download anything from this hostname until the DNS lookup is completed; all very dependant on web site/page content and how it is structured.

DNS lookups are cached for better performance. This caching can occur on a special caching server, maintained by the user's ISP or local area network, but there is also caching that occurs on the individual user's computer. The DNS information remains in the operating system's DNS cache (the "DNS Client service" on Microsoft Windows). Most browsers have their own caches, separate from the operating system's cache. As long as the browser keeps a DNS record in its own cache, it doesn't bother the operating system with a request for the record.