For those who's Internet is not optimized, changing settings might work. Also Google or OpenDNS might speed up looking up dns.

Thread is kinda old, I guess no one will bring something new to the table.
sniffdog Reviewed by sniffdog on . Speed up internet! WORKS WITH EVERYTHING THAT USES DNS! INCLUDING XBOX 360 + PS3 http://code.google.com/p/namebench/ Try out namebench. It hunts down the fastest DNS servers available for your computer to use. namebench runs a fair and thorough benchmark using your web browser history, tcpdump output, or standardized datasets in order to provide an individualized recommendation. namebench is completely free and does not modify your system in any way. This project began as a 20% project at Google. Rating: 5