OpenDNS on router disrupts Xbox Live?

[agentfazexx]

Has anyone had issues with xbox live after replacing Verizon DNS servers with OpenDNS servers on their FiOS router? I had issues with this. When I added these DNS servers on the router, I kept getting kicked out of games. When I reverted the settings, the issue went away.

[mattwilson9090]

Assuming that OpenDNS is causing you to get kicked out of those game, it would mean that whatever domains or categories you have chosen to block in OpenDNS are working as intended and blocking whatever domain names the games are trying to access. You need to look at your OpenDNS settings and logs/stats on OpenDNS to start figuring out what it is.

[rotblitz]

"I kept getting kicked out of games."

As DNS is unrelated to connectivity, this cannot be DNS itself being the culprit.  Therefore "OpenDNS on router disrupts Xbox Live" cannot happen.

However, if you are far away from the next OpenDNS DC or your DNS queries are sub-optimally routed to a more far OpenDNS DC by your ISP and the participating network carriers, then OpenDNS may return IP addresses for the games hosts pointing to more distant places than when using your ISP's DNS service.  And the resulting connection may be less reliable due to the greater distance.

You can get some insight with these diagnostic commands:

   nslookup -type=txt which.opendns.com.  208.67.220.220

   tracert 208.67.220.220

And then compare with the output of the same commands with your ISP's DNS resolver address.

[agentfazexx]

I realize DNS has nothing to do with connectivity, as DNS just resolves an IP to a name. But I have nothing regarding gaming blocked. May have just been coincidence. This issue didn't happen last night that I noticed when I put the settings back. So the only thing that could cause an issue with XBL is URL filtering?

[rotblitz]

"DNS just resolves an IP to a name"

And the other way around, and more...

"So the only thing that could cause an issue with XBL is URL filtering?"

Did you enable URL filtering somehow, e.g. on your router?  Hard to believe that you blacklisted a part of any XBL URL...
And this would not lead to getting kicked off at unexpected times, but to not being able to use XBL at all.

[agentfazexx]

I know what DNS does, I'm a network engineer.

Yes, I replaced the Verizon DNS servers with OpenDNS. Almost immediately after I starting having connectivity issues. When I reverted my changes, the issues went away. But from what you're saying, it sounds like a coincidence. Especially since under my blocked domain history, I see no evidence of anything gaming related.