Use the command "nslookup" but be aware that many large web sites have
lots of IP addresses and they change often. Some big web sites use
Akamai and other distributed content providers that vastly increase the
IP addresses used.
Bypassing DNS lookups saves you about a third of a second. You'd save
more time keeping the IE window open or adding some more RAM.
Actually times to resolve a remote url/site can easily be 5 seconds,
and occassionally 10-12 seconds depending on client or remote server
TTL and settings...plus Internet "weather" (connecivity plays a part).
Typically they are within a range of 0.000 (cached) to around 3 seconds.
We have one test program "nstest" that you can modify the uri's
to suit what/where you'd like to see results on... http://ntcanuck.com/Beta/