How Fast Is Your ISP’s DNS Server; Compare with Speed of OpenDNS

Open DNS speeds up your web surfing because their DNS servers have a large cache and hence can resolve web domains into IP addresses much faster than your local ISP.

But how do you confirm if the DNS Server speed of your local ISP is slower than that of Open DNS (or vice-versa) ? Simple – use some DOS commands.

Step 1: Open Command Prompt (Start -> Run, Type cmd and press Enter).

Step 2: Type prompt $t – That changes the DOS prompt to the current time, we will need this to calculate the time it takes to execute any DOS command.

Step 3: Now run the following command where 208.67.222.222 is the standard IP address of Open DNS server.

nslookup www.google.com 208.67.222.222

You can find the time OpenDNS takes to resolved the address by calculating the difference between the two timestamps.

Step 4: Run the same command again but replacing it with the IP Address of your local ISP’s DNS server – in my case, it is 125.22.47.125 (Airtel).

nslookup www.google.com 125.22.47.125

As you can see, the DNS server of the local ISP (Airtel) was slightly faster than OpenDNS in resolving the IP address of www.google.com – something good to know but the difference is insignificant and there are plenty of good reasons to continue using OpenDNS.

Update: You can execute all these commands in a batch file for more accurate results.

ver | time 
nslookup www.google.com 208.67.222.222 
ver | time 
nslookup www.google.com 125.22.47.125 
ver | time

This is based on a comment from Resolver – "I found that my ISP’s DNS server is much faster than OpenDNS… because at the moment there are only OpenDNS Server for Europe in London. I’ll wait until OpenDNS Server are in Germany."

More Internet Hacks using DOS commands:

» Is Your Computer Secretly Connecting to Internet

OpenDNS ShortCuts Make Your Browser Address Bar More Powerful

Do you use the browser address bar as a Google or Yahoo search box ? Here's a much better and more useful solution from OpenDNS. 

Long time readers of Digital Inspiration may know that we are big fans of OpenDNS service as it makes our internet much faster and more secure with a very simple tweak.

Just change the default DNS server address provided by your ISP with the following DNS addresses and you may immediately notice that websites load much faster on your computer:

     208.67.222.222
     208.67.220.220

The DNS server can be changed from the TCP/IP Properties section. [Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Local Network Connection -> TCP IP Properties]


OpenDNS today launched another useful service today called OpenDNS shortcuts that make your browser address bar more useful and somewhat intelligent - you can control how the address bar reacts to your commands.

With OpenDNS shortcuts turned on, the address bar of your Firefox, IE or other browsers can be used to launch websites via shortcuts (like c for cnn.com or m for gmail.com) or web queries with parameters (like g for google.com/search/q=%s).

It is also possible to start your favorite messenger clients like AOL or Google Talk from the address bar and chat with buddies quickly. Haven't tried yet, but should be fairly simple to launch iTunes music software from the browser bar now.

A lot of IE and Firefox users set their address bars to behave as I'm Feeling Luckyfeature of Google. OpenDNS shortcuts, that will be switched on in few hours, will offer a more functional address bar not just limited to Google or Yahoo search.

Update: Though I am still waiting for an official confirmation, it should be possible to use the OpenDNS shortcuts feature with the modified keyword.URL property of Firefox

Speed Up Your Internet Connection With A Simple Tweak: Replace your ISP DNS Server with OpenDNS

When we type a web address in our browser [like www.google.com] and hit go, the request goes to our local ISP servers who translate that domain name into a hard-to-remember IP address [like 66.102.7.104]

While this address resolution mechanism is transparent to the average internet user, it can sometimes be the main reason for slow internet access if the DNS servers of your ISP are acting choppy or not working at all.

To overcome these problems, you can consider changing your DNS server name to a more reliable but free service called OpenDNS. There's no software to install, just a small tweak in your internet connection settings. 

We just replaced the default DSN server address of our ISP with the OpenDNS servers which are :

     208.67.222.222
     208.67.220.220

The DNS server can be changed from the TCP/IP Properties section. [Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Local Network Connection -> TCP IP Properties]

Why OpenDNS is good ? Your domain resolution request to OpenDNS is executed from the nearest physical location and the address are also cached at their end. Therefore you notice faster internet browsing. 

Second OpenDNS would auto-correct misspelled domain names [or typos]. For instance, if you type www.gooogle.com by mistake, you'll be redirected to www.google.com without any interventation. The other advantage is that you have a much safer browsing experience since OpenDNS would prevent you from visiting a scam website by error.

Some precautions before using OpenDNS

1. In the extreme situation when OpenDNS servers go down, you should keep the address of your ISP DNS servers handy.

2. You can turn off the phishing protection or auto typo correction by visiting the OpenDNS preferences page.

3. Some users might have privacy concerns with OpenDNS while some dislike seeing ads when they mis-spell domain names. The choice is completely your's here.

Most Useful Twitter Services That Can Help Your Business Grow

The concept of Twitter may seem weird at first but there’s lot of value in connecting with people though Twitter.

Businesses now use the Twitter ecosystem to pre-announce new products, get feedback, share upcoming deals or for tracking buzz around their products and services.

For instance, the Dell Outlet uses Twitter to announce deals and discounts on refurbished Dell computers. JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines use Twitter to let customers know about new routes and fare discounts. News sites like BBCand The New York Times publish breaking new stories on Twitter thus replacing the traditional email alerts.

If you also own a product or a service, here are some essential tools to help you harness the full power of Twitter without making any dent in your existing marketing budget because these tools are completely free:

1. Twitter Feed – This service fetches new content from your blog (or any site that supports RSS feeds ) and publishes a link in your twitter account. It will help your existing customers stay updated about news related to products they already own.

2. Tweet Scan – This is like Google for Twitter. It will solve two problems:

a) Tweet Scan is great for monitoring feedback about your product from conversations happening in the Twitter universe. And they provide RSS feeds so you’ll automatically know when people tweet about products.

b) With Tweet Scan, you can find existing customers who are already on Twitter and follow them so they come to know about your existence. Or you may search for the name of your competing products and track potential customers.

3. Twitter PollDaddy – This service lets you use Twitter for getting opinions or for asking questions through polls. Type your question with a list of potential answers and post it to your Twitter account.

So if you are nearing a product release and only one of the two features can make it to the final product, use Twitter PollDaddy service to learn from customers which of the two features they think is more important to them.

4. Twitter Response – TwitResponse lets you schedule delivery of your tweets just like the way you send emails in future.

Say if you are announcing a new product at 10 AM EST tomorrow, write a message through TwitResponse and it will automatically get published to your Twitter status exactly at the time you want. You need not be texting at the time of actual launch.

5. Quotably – This is another quintessential twitter service that makes it easy for you to follow conversations happening around your tweets. It arranges replies to all your tweets in a threaded form much like the way you see discussions on usenet groups.

6. TwitterReply – With Twitter, your customers get an alternate way to get in touch with you through public tweets or even direct messages. They may want to know the contact number of your support team or they could be looking for a manual which can they can’t locate on your website.

TwitterReply sends you an instant email whenever there’s a new tweet for you in the Twitter universe. You need it because customers contacting you through Twitter may be looking for instant answers.

Twitter hack: Post to Twitter Using Email

Post to Twitter from Mobile Phones Without SMS

The following two hacks illustrate how can you publish updates ( or tweets) to Twitter using email but first, if you are wondering why would anyone need an email based Twitter client when there are so many good desktop Twitter clients, read this.

Why Update Twitter through Email

#1. You can send updates to Twitter using SMS text messages but unfortunately, that Twitter short code facility is either not available in all countries or is extremely expensive.

2. You can update your Twitter status using Google Talk on your mobile phone but not everyone may be carrying a smart phone.

3: There are situations when you have email access but no Internet – so none of the mobile apps for twitter would work.

Now that you know the benefits of using Twitter via email.

Here’s another solution to the same problem – it uses Blogger instead of Posterous.

Step 1: Go to blogger.com and create a dummy blog (say,mytwitter.blogspot.com)

Step 2: From the Blogger dashboard, go to Settings -> Email and set up your own private mail-to-blogger address – something like abc.twitter@blogger.com – save this email address to your mobile phone address book.

Step 3: Go to twitterfeed.com, login with your OpenID and associate the feedmytwitter.blogspot.com/rss.xml to your twitterfeed account.

That’s it. When you have something to share with the Twitter universe, send that as an email message to the address created in Step 2. Your tweet may take few minutes to show up on the Twitter homepage but it will be there definitely.

The Best Twitter Apps for your Mobile Phone

If you try accessing Twitter from the browser of a mobile phone, Twitter will automatically serve you the mobile-optimized version of their site. However, if in case Twitter fails to recognize your smartphone, you can manually type m.twitter.com to directly access the mobile site of Twitter from your phone.

The Best Mobile Applications for Twitter

Now that’s one way to use Twitter from your mobile phone. You also have a wide variety of mobile apps for Twitter that not only offer a much better experience than Twitter’s mobile site but they also integrate with some of your phone functions like the built-in camera. Have a look!

1. Twitter Apps for BlackBerry

1a. OpenBreak – Originally known as TwitterBerry, OpenBreak is one of the most popular Twitter apps for BlackBerry. You can take a picture with your BlackBerry camera and directly post it to Twitter via TwitPic or yfrog using TwitterBerry.

The app will automatically recognize #hashtags in the tweets and a notification icon will show you the number of new messages in your Twitter timeline just like your BlackBerry displays notifications for unread emails or missed calls.

1b. UberTwitter – Another popular Twitter client for BlackBerry, UberTwitter is location-aware so it can automatically update your location based on the cell tower information even if your BlackBerry phone doesn’t support GPS (likeGoogle Latitude). The latest beta of UberTwitter also includes support for Twitter Lists.

1c. Seesmic – With Seesmic, you can track all your saved searches and Twitter lists inside your BlackBerry phone. Just like most other BlackBerry apps, Seesmic can run in the background and notify you of new direct messages and @replies via the famililar notification icons.

2. Twitter Apps for Nokia Phones

2a. Tweets60 – As the name suggests, Tweets60 is a native Twitter client for Nokia S60 smartphones that is available in both free and pro versions. This application is primarily for users who just want to quickly update their own status on Twitter as well as follow what their other friends are saying on Twitter.

The pro version supports additional features like the ability to post images to TwitPic and follow search terms on Twitter.

2b. Gravity – Gravity is a hugely popular and powerful Twitter client for Nokia S60 smartphones. With Gravity, you can manage multiple Twitter accounts, save links from tweets to your delicious account, post pictures to any of the Twitter-friendly photo sharing site like TwitPic of YFrog and it obviously supports all the other Twitter functions like retweets, direct messages, favorites, etc.

You can download a 10-day trial version of Gravity from the Ovi Store.

2c. Snaptu – Snaptu is an all-in-one application that lets you manage your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and even your Google Picasa account from the mobile phone. Snaptu’s Twitter application provides all the basic Twitter functionality – status updates, direct messages, @replies – while their Facebook component lets you update statuses and you can also read and write messages using Facebook email.

Snaptu works with any Java-enabled mobile phone including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola models.

3. Twitter Apps for Windows Mobile

3a. Tiny Twitter – This is a free Twitter application for Windows Mobile that provides all the basic Twitter functionality. One of the unique features in Tiny Twitter is that you can temporarily suspend a Twitter user so that his tweets won’t appear in your timeline though he would still remain in your follow list.

3b. PockeTwit – This is another popular Twitter client for Windows Mobile with support for multiple accounts. You can take a picture from your camera and post it directly to Twitter via PockeTwit. The application features a nice sliding interface so you can drag the tweets to the left to see all the actions that you can take on that tweet. PockeTwit is free and open-source.

3c. Twikini – The app integrates with Windows Media Player so you can tweet the name of the song that you are currently listening to. Twikini can shrink URLs using Bit.ly or TinyURL so you have more space for text and it also displays Twitpic images inline. If you have a GPS enabled mobile phone, you can also add your location to the tweet with Twikini. The app costs $4.95 though a 14-day trial is available for free.

4. Twitter Apps for Android Phones

4a. Twidroid – This is probably the most popular Twitter app for Android phones – the basic version is free but you’ll have to get the PRO version in case you want to manage multiple Twitter accounts from the same application.

Twidroid supports all features of Twitter including Twitter lists. You can shake your Android phone to fetch the latest tweets but this again requires the pro edition.

4b. Seesmic – With Seesmic for Android, you can capture photos or record videos and share them on directly Twitter via yFrog. The app will also let you share you current location on Twitter. You can configure Seemic to notify you with a custom ringtone (or a blinking light) when there’s a new @reply or direct message for you on Twitter.

5. Twitter Apps for iPhone and iPod Touch

5a. Tweetdeck – TweetDeck is a brilliant application that you may use to manage both Facebook and your multiple Twitter accounts from the iPhone or iPod Touch.

The app will automatically sync with TweetDeck Desktop so if you have created any custom search columns on the desktop, they’ll also become available inside the mobile app (and vice-versa). Just shake your iPhone to check if there are any new updates.

5b. Tweetie – This $3 app is one of the most popular Twitter client for iPhone with a very impressive UI. There’s an offline mode so you can do things like reading past tweets, following new people, replying to tweets, etc. even without a data connection. You also get a bookmarklet that lets you post links from Safari directly to Twitter via the Tweetie app.

5c. Twittelator – One of the unique features of Twittelator is that it lets you record and tweet both audio and video clips from your iPhone. You can even tweet the name of the song that’s currently playing on your iPhone. The basic version of Twittelator is available for free on the iTunes store.

5d. Echofon – This is light-weight Twitter client for the iPhone that is free and supports nearly all the basic function of Twitter. The $5 pro version of Echofon supports push notifications so you’ll get an alert when another Twitter user sends you a direct message or mentions you in his or her tweet.

More ways to use Twitter on mobile phones

If you can’t find a decent Twitter application for your mobile phone, you should check out Dabr. This is like an improved version of Twitter’s mobile site.

Dabr will display a more detailed profile of Twitter users so you can quickly decide whether or not to follow a particular user. It will auto-convert Twitpic and other picture URLs into thumbnails so you can view images directly in your Twitter timeline without having to click the click. And since Dabr is a mobile website, you can use it from just about any mobile phone, not just a smartphone.

Another option is email. Just associate your Twitter account with Posterous and then you’ll be able to post updates on Twitter by sending emails to twitter@posterous.com. Whatever you put in the email subject will be converted into your Twitter status.

This email to twitter option will be quite handy if your phone plan allows unlimited email but you need to pay for every extra byte that you download on the phone (lot of BlackBerry plans are like this).

Related: Best Twitter Apps for Windows

Twitter SMS Arrives in India via Airtel

If you are in India and an Airtel customer, the good news is that you can now send updates to your Twitter account from the mobile phone itself via SMS.

To get started, send an SMS message from the Airtel Mobile Phone to 53000 with “Signup” (if you are never used Twitter) or “Start” (if you already have an account on Twitter). The other option is that you can directly open the Twitter Devices page on twitter.com and link your  mobile phone number with your Twitter ID online (see video below).

You can then send an SMS text message to the 53000 number and it will post directly to your Twitter profile, and will be visible in the timeline of all your Twitter followers. Here’s an official list of all Twitter text commands that you can send from a mobile phone to interact with your Twitter stream.

If you are not using an Airtel connection, there’s no reason to worry as the Twitter-Airtel deal is not exclusive and will probably end after a month. Here’s the official word:

Twitter will be available in India on SMS only on the Airtel network. There is exclusivity for the same for 4 weeks, in which only Airtel consumers will be able to use the service on SMS across the nation. This period of exclusivity is something that we want to take advantage of and make sure that Brand Airtel can own the property Twitter in consumer mind space.

You save money because you don’t have to send an international SMS for using Twitter but the service is still expensive. Twitter doesn’t charge anything for sending updates but you’ll have to pay a buck to Airtel for every tweet that you send from the phone. To stop getting Twitter updates on your mobile phone, just send OFF, STOP, or QUIT command from your mobile phone to 53000 or use “ON” to start again.a

Send Yourself an Email in the Future Using Google Calendar

Ever wanted to send yourself emails that are scheduled for delivery sometime in the future – say ten years from now ?

Now there are some services that allow you to send email messages with a future send date but there aren’t any guarantees that the email will get delivered to your Inbox on the scheduled date as that service itself may not stick around for that long a period.

Therefore a more reliable solution for sending future emails to yourself is to create an event reminder in any web based calendar from Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft or AOL – some of these companies may merge in the future but they’ll definitely be around in some form in the coming decades.

To compose an email with a future date, just create a new event in any of the web calendars and set the event date same as the email delivery date. Then set an email reminder 5 minutes from the start of the event.

You can use the same trick to schedule SMS messages in the future as all web calendars can send event alerts to your mobile phone.

I prefer Google Calendar or Windows Live Calendar over Yahoo! Calendar since the latter only permits your to create events within 7 years while the Google or MSN impose no such restriction.

Has Twitter Replaced Your RSS Reader

Eric Berlin prefers using Twitter over his RSS Reader. He writes – "I’ve been using my RSS reader more selectively of late, as a place to browse around when I have the time rather than looking at it as a mountain must be climbed everyday.

TechCrunch and Mashable are great places to catch up on the newest product releases but keeping up with them can be a nearly full-time endeavor." Link.

Open Your Google Docs Presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint

Forget the hack, Google Docs now lets you export presentations as PPT files in addition to supporting the PDF format. You can also view your Google Presentations offline in the web browser using the Google Gears extension.

To save a Google Presentation in PPT format, go to the File menu and click "Save as PPT". The export feature has been simultaneously enabled both in standard Google Docs and the Google Apps version. From Google Blog and What’s new.

Related: Where to Upload PowerPoint Files?, PowerPoint Tips

How to Make Videos for Flickr From Your Photos

Flickr Pro members can now upload videos along with photos. Flickr support most video formats (FLV ?) but the duration of each clip should be 90 seconds or less – you can upload longer videos as well (up to 150 MB) but the system will truncate anything that’s after the 90 second mark.

Flickr is perfect for sharing short family videos that you have captured with a digital still camera or your mobile phone. It’s a no-brainer that Windows Live Gallery and Flickr Uploader will get upgraded soon so you can push both videos and still photos from the camera to your online Flickr account in one shot.

The level of spam should be negligible since video hosting is only available to Pro members who have actually used their Credit Card to buy a Flickr account. Also expect to find lot of screencast videos on Flickr once screen recording apps like Jing and SnagIt upgrade their output options.

Another important point – though Flickr allows you to upload photos not meant for kids, your videos should be G-Rated – content that may be unsuitable for children or grandmother are not permitted on Flickr videos.

Yahoo! will probably introduce video editing in Flickr viaJumpcut (an online video editor) just like the way you edit still images in Flickr using the Picnik editor.

Am not sure when that integration will happen but if you already have a bunch of photos that you want to upload to Flickr as a video slideshow, here are some good options:

1. Windows Movie Maker – Included by default in Windows XP and Vista. Drag a bunch of photos, add transitions, sounds and output your photos as a video file.

2. Microsoft Photostory – If you are on Windows XP, this is the best bet. This software can make your still photos look like a real video – you an also create your own music loops inside Photostory.

3. Pinnacle VideoSpin – I somehow find Video Spin a much better alternative to Movie Maker because it supports more 2D photo transitions and has a built-in title editor normally seen only in expensive video editing software.

4. Picasa – Yes, this free image editing software from Google can make movies of your favorite photos – select the pictures, adjust the time delay and render – you movie is now ready for uploading onto Flickr.

5. SlideRoll – This is a online clone of Photostory that will convert your existing Flickr photos into a video so you can re-upload the pictures in a video format. (See: "Make Video SlideShows with Flickr")

Related: Free Video Editing Software

Make SlideShows with your Flickr Pictures, Also Upload to Youtube

Though there exists a decent hack to create Flickr slideshows and embed them inside any website, here's a much better solution called SlideRoll that's easy and fun to work with.

Slideroll is like a web-based clone of Microsoft Photostory software - it lets you create slideshows of digital photographs that are your hard-drive or can fetch pictures directly from your Flickr account.

The advantage of using SlideRoll is that you can also add free music loops, transition effects and text titles to your Flickr slideshows and make them more appealing. 

Slideroll provides a small HTML snippet to embed the Flickr slideshow in your Myspace webpage or any other blog.

Alternatively, you can download Flickr slideshows to your hard drive as MPEG Video using the free Slideroll Videomaker application and later upload them directly to Youtube.

Slideroll | VideoMaker [Flickr Slideshows for MySpace or YouTube]. 

Embed Powerpoint Slides as Flash Presentations in your Blog without Spending a Dime

How do you share your Powerpoint presentation slides with friends and colleages in another corner of the world ? You either send them the entire PPT or PPS file or save the Powerpoint slides as a web page with Table of contents and upload it to your website.

Now consider the scenario where you want to embed the powerpoint presentation as a flash files in your website itself which visitors can click and play inside their web browser without having to download anything. 

To convert your powerpoint slides to flash swf format, you can either use OpenOffice or invest in sophisticated software like Macromedia Breeze Presenter, Adobe Captivate 2 or Articulate presenter but if you don't have that kind of money, just read this tutorial:

All you need to have is the Powerpoint slide ready, a copy of Microsoft Powerpoint and a free Flickr account. We've also illustrated this PPT to SWF technique using Google Picasa Web Albums.

1. Open the ppt file in MS Powerpoint and save it in PNG format [File -> Save As -> Choose png in the dropdown]

2. You will be now asked if you want to export every slide or just the current slide - choose "Every Slide"

How do you share your Powerpoint presentation slides with friends and colleages in another corner of the world ? You either send them the entire PPT or PPS file or save the Powerpoint slides as a web page with Table of contents and upload it to your website.

Now consider the scenario where you want to embed the powerpoint presentation as a flash files in your website itself which visitors can click and play inside their web browser without having to download anything. 

To convert your powerpoint slides to flash swf format, you can either use OpenOffice or invest in sophisticated software like Macromedia Breeze Presenter, Adobe Captivate 2 or Articulate presenter but if you don't have that kind of money, just read this tutorial:

All you need to have is the Powerpoint slide ready, a copy of Microsoft Powerpoint and a free Flickr account. We've also illustrated this PPT to SWF technique using Google Picasa Web Albums.

1. Open the ppt file in MS Powerpoint and save it in PNG format [File -> Save As -> Choose png in the dropdown]

2. You will be now asked if you want to export every slide or just the current slide - choose "Every Slide"

8. That's it - put the iframe tag anywhere in your blog post or website. You can also add the height and width code to the iframe tag depending on your side layout.

The visitor get to see a thumbnail view of your slides, a control bar and the option to change the timing of the slide. 

Flash Slideshows with Google Picasa Web Albums

The same can be achieved using Picasa Albums as well. Just upload the pictures to a new picasa album online using the picasa software. Now open the album webpage and click slideshow.

The slideshow would start playing in the same browser window. Just copy the slideshow URL from the address bar and embed that in your blog using the iframe tag again. It's very simple. 

Upload Screen Captures directly to Flickr with SnagIt

TechSmith SnagIt 8 screen capture and image editing software is a very integral part of my blogging workflow. Almost all the screen captures and illustrations that you see on this site are created using SnagIt. 

I first capture the screenshots in SnagIt using the shortcut PrntScrn key, enhance the screen captures with borders/effects/titles in SnagIt studio, save the images to local hard drive and finally, I upload them to Flickr or Blogger using Hello.

Sometime in March, I came across Flickr and Webimager, a tiny screen capture utility that directly uploads screenshots to Flickr bypassing the need to save images. Though the features of this free tool are nowhere near Snagit, still I was impressed with the direct-upload-to-flickr idea and suggested it to Techsmith.

I am not sure if Techsmith were already working on this feature or they decided to implement it after receiving my email. But the good news is that now you can upload pictures from SnagIt 8 to Flickr directly. SnagIt has released separate Flickr Profiles which upload the captures to Flickr, and also pastes the Flickr photo link (URL) for the image to your Clipboard.

I now have more time to write articles for my blog.

Download SnagIt Flickr Profile | Video Tutorial: How to use Snagit Flickr