So here's the story. 3 Days ago my wife called me at work to inform me that she cant get out to the internet and netflix is not working on our TV. Instantly I knew it was a DNS issue since we have Vonage VoIP which is set up with a static IP address and port forwarding etc that communicates directly via IP vs DNS resolution. Told my wife to flip a switch that I have my network hardware connected to, to bring it all down and back online again. Problem remained.

A few years ago I set up my primary router with custom DNS SETTING to use MIT's free DNS service and set up the primary and secondary DNS IP's vs getting them dynamically through Comcast. Comcast's DNS a few years ago had issues, and going with MIT at the time made for trouble free surfing and communications. Prior to using the free DNS through MIT, I registered with OpenDNS and they gave me 2 IP addresses to use their service. I wrote these down in my tech notebook that has all sorts of important info.

With my wife now disconnected and having to call back since killing the network hardware via power switch for all on a power strip disconnected the Vonage VoIP. She still had the same issues with no internet access. Told her to flip open my book on my desk and find the page for OpenDNS, and walked her through setting this up custom static DNS for her computer. Whalla, she was now connected to the internet and able to surf without issues. She was then asking for me to fix the netflix on the TV over the phone. I told her that I will have to edit the Router when I get home from work as for it has an entry to MIT's DNS and their DNS must be down for the first time in 3 years using it. Told her to watch movies and TV shows on her desktop computer instead.

Phone call 15 minutes later because my daughter wanted to watch something on Netflix and cant. Walked my wife through adding these DNS IP's which are for OpenDNS service manually to the Wireless Network Adapter settings for her computer.

Family satisfied with band aid of OpenDNS static entries to be able to use the internet and I get home at 3:30am to fix the routers DNS settings to now point to OpenDNS instead of the old IP's that are based off of MIT's free DNS service that still is not working. With OpenDNS IP's set and config saved, router reboots and all is well. I am now able to remove the static DNS entries and set them back to dynamic which uses the router to resolve through OpenDNS.

So my questions are....

How many others here use a DNS that is different than the DNS that is provided by their ISP, and what DNS service are you using if other than the ISP's DNS service.?

Also if you have used a couple different DNS services, please list them and pros and cons to their use which lead for you to DECIDED to use the DNS of choice you are using now vs the others?
*I haven't tested Comcasts DNS in about 3 years, but back then it was a poor DNS setup. My biggest complaint with Comcasts DNS service was that during peak customer use times, their DNS was unable to keep up with all the requests. I'd get pages that take forever to resolve, and thats if they would actually resolve etc. Switching to OpenDNS for about a week and testing them out and then finding MIT's service just a hair faster in page load times etc, I switched and never turned back to Comcasts DNS when I found the issue to be their crappy DNS service.Let me assume that you only work with IPv4. When IPv6 becomes universal, the rules will change around. I donno.

You can always pay somebody for a DNS.
Or use Dynamic DNS And pay for it.
http://www.dyndnsservices.com/tech.htm << --(One of many)

Some others are:
Open DNS
Google DNS
Tine Warner DNS
Rackspace DNS
Zone Edit

My personal recommendation is the later, Zone Edit.
http://www.zoneedit.com/
Fair pricing, easy to use, does most of what you want. Nut not as fancy as a full dynamic DNS, but check it anyway.

This article needs some work, but t can help one to understand what it is and why you may want to use it. (Here in the USA IPv4 is still widely used.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_DNS
Quote

Dynamic DNS (DDNS) is a method of automatically updating a name server in the Domain Name System (DNS), often in real time, with the active DNS configuration of its configured hostnames, addresses or other information.

The term is used to describe two different concepts. At the administration levels of the Internet, "dynamic DNS updating" refers to systems that are used to update traditional DNS records without manual editing. These mechanisms are explained in RFC 2136, and use the TSIG mechanism to provide security.