I've been trying to change my primary and secondary DNS servers to use either those from OpenDNS or Google's Public DNS. I've noticed that when I go in and check the Primary DNS is listed as the IP address of the Securifi Router (10.10.10.254), and the secondary is then Google's Primary address of (8.8.8.. I'd like to change these over to use both of Google's Public DNS numbers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 respectively). However I've noticed a significant speed decrease whenever I change the primary DNS entry to Google's (8.8.8.. Should I keep the primary as the default, or can I change these? How do I address the speed issues?
Doing so is a really bad idea.
Securifi is one of the few manufacturers to get this right. Your primary DNS server should be your Router. Unlike the Google Public DNS, and OpenDNS services, your Almond knows about your "local" equipment. This default configuration will allow your Almond to resolve your local equipment within your network, as well as answer inquiries for upstream equipment on the Internet.
Changing this so that you use "external" DNS servers only for your DNS servers will make it difficult to find your own mchines on your own network. Why would you want to deliberately break your networks probably only DNS server?
If your local DNS server is broken, then you'll need to use depreciated protocols like NetBIOS, WINS or Bonjour announcements in order to find your own equipment, which kind of defeats the purpose of owning a router in the first place. (Some people will find the default DNS configuration to be strange, simply because they've only ever used "broken" DNS configurations, which are unfortunately all too common in non-Securifi Routers).
Give the default configuration a chance. If you prefer to use your ISP (Internet Service Providers) DNS service, I would recommend putting it in as the secondary DNS server, (instead of Googles 8.8.8.8 server), but keep the primary one as the router itself, so that you don't break DNS on your local network. Besides the fewer "hops" it takes to reach your DNS server, the faster it will resolve addresses for you.