Changing DNS

[gigatoaster]

Hello there

Anyone changed their DNS? I’m trying the Cloudflare one, is it safe? What are the benefits and would you recommend to change the DNS on all your devices?

 

[Allyance]

I use 75.75.75.75, Comcast provider has fastest ping times between 15-16ms. I checked other addresses listed for Comcast, and they were in the 50-60ms range. No complaints with my dns settings. Even my own hosting company for my domains pings at 50-60ms.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I myself use either OpenDNS (208.67.222.222/208.67.220.220) or Quad 9 (9.9.9.9/149.112.112.112). No problems with either on Xfinity cable Internet.

 

[KaliYoni]

I use Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 . Why? Privacy and a hatred of surveillance capitalism. Until my ISP compensates me for collecting and selling my DNS data, I will use other DNS services.

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-1.1.1.1/

https://developers.cloudflare.com/1.1.1.1/setup-1.1.1.1/macos

 

[eyoungren]

I use Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 . Why? Privacy and a hatred of surveillance capitalism. Until my ISP compensates me for collecting and selling my DNS data, I will use other DNS services.

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-1.1.1.1/

^^^Second that (Cloudflare).

Also, Google's DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

 

[velocityg4]

I just use the Google DNS. It's much more responsive than my ISP. 4ms Ping

 

[Nermal]

Recommendations are going to vary by country. For example, CloudFlare has nodes here in New Zealand and therefore the latency is about a quarter of Google's, which is in Australia.

You can using the ping command in Terminal to test the latency to the various services.

 

[Ruggy]

I've used Cloudflare and Open DNS when I've had saturation problems with my provider.
I've also used the Open DNS dashboard (I think it was called something like that) to block certain content at source so my kids couldn't use it.
But if your own provider is fast, I don't see any other advantage.
Depends on your router too. Sometimes the router provided by your provider will stop the service and you'll have to put it back to what they've given you.

 

[gigatoaster]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

After a day, maybe it is a placebo effect but I can see a great improvements. Sometimes, I had to turn off/on my wifi or even the router. Sites are loading faster too.

I use 2 routers, one for downstairs and one for upstairs with 2 different SSID. Do I need to add also these DNS in the routers config?

I have other questions.

1. In the Cloudflare Doc, it is stated the following:

By contrast, 1.1.1.1 does not mine user data. Logs are kept for 24 hours for debugging purposes, then they are purged.

How can I be sure about that, do I just trust them with what they say?

2. The service is free but I read that when it's free, I am the product. I believe Cloudflare free services are financed by such services to big corporations, they still have access to the data, right?

3. Some of you are using the Google one. Are you trusting Google?

4. What about Net neutrality, does it has an impact?

5. Is there any tools on my side to check what info is shared when I visit a website?

It is just for my personal culture, I'd like to understand what is happening behind the curtains.

 

[HDFan]

Ignoring security issues you might want to run a DNS benchmark app to evaluate performance from various sites. Here's are sample results from the Fing app:

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

After a day, maybe it is a placebo effect but I can see a great improvements. Sometimes, I had to turn off/on my wifi or even the router. Sites are loading faster too.

I use 2 routers, one for downstairs and one for upstairs with 2 different SSID. Do I need to add also these DNS in the routers config?

I have other questions.

1. In the Cloudflare Doc, it is stated the following:



How can I be sure about that, do I just trust them with what they say?

2. The service is free but I read that when it's free, I am the product. I believe Cloudflare free services are financed by such services to big corporations, they still have access to the data, right?

3. Some of you are using the Google one. Are you trusting Google?

4. What about Net neutrality, does it has an impact?

5. Is there any tools on my side to check what info is shared when I visit a website?

It is just for my personal culture, I'd like to understand what is happening behind the curtains.

You can use DNS on any device. But if you set it on your router it will force all your devices using your router to use that DNS, assuming those devices are themselves pointing to your router's IP address for DNS.

3. Google - No, I do not trust them. But I do use them. I have three Google accounts and I shut stuff off wherever I can or wish. Some of what Google offers is useful to me. If they sell my data to someone I have no intention of buying from - well, whatever.

5. Tools. I browse with uMatrix, which is a tool usable in Chrome-based browsers. I use it in Vivaldi and it's useful to block javascript, analytics and trackers. It'll show you the requests of every third party site as well as the site you're on. You can choose to block those or allow.