Anyone able to tell me a reliable and safe DNS Server to use

[Red Beard]

Thanks I am interested in using a DNS server not that of my ISP, I have not fiddled with these settings prior and was wondering if anyone can suggest some tips and or a reliable and safe DNS I could use?

thanks for reading

[Crawl]

quad9 - 9.9.9.9 or 149.112.112.112

Also you can turn on dns over https if you wish to encrypt your requests.
https://quad9.net/ - link to their site, they have setup guides and other info that will be easier than me typing it all here.

[Electric Cupcake]

Just Cloudflare.

With DNS Over HTTPS, of course. 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 are easy to remember.

[Lord Flashheart]

If you are just switching to an outside DNS server, using the standard port 53, there is nothing stopping your ISP from seeing this or maybe redirecting that DNS request to their server.


I am using a software router called opnsense.
Adguard is a plugin used for DNS blocking.
It then uses the relevant plugin I use is DNScrypt.
DNScrypt is setup to use encrypted DNS and DNS over https.
It uses upstream servers that 'claim' to not keep logs.
Quad 9 is a fallback server.

I have tried all DNS requests to be tunnelled over the TOR network (another plugin), but was way to slow.

If you are serious about DNS privacy, maybe you need to do a little homework.

[_I_]

set them on the router, so they cover all devices on your network
google = 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
cloudfare = 1.1.1.1

[[N]ebsun]

There are a ton, it's a good idea to setup your own DNS server with local caching and a custom blocklist ( popular one is the mvps host file https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm ) then set DNS on your devices to your local DNS server, or set your router DHCP server to use that local server so your devices get it assigned by default automatically.

https://public-dns.info/
https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062
https://www.allconnect.com/blog/best-free-dns-servers

Google 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
Quad9 9.9.9.9
OpenDNS Home 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220
Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1

Cloudflare tend to be the fastest, I use 1.1.1.1 as primary and then 8.8.8.8 1.0.0.1 8.8.4.4 as secondary / backups

[Red Beard]

Woah thanks everyone for the answers, that is some great info.

Question: I game online and also am security conscious and was wondering if I need a certain DNS number / address for gaming and one for browsing / desktop? I mean it may sound silly but I am curious if these DNS servers are one size fits all or are they specific?

ty

[Lord Flashheart]

Originally posted by Tomato:

Woah thanks everyone for the answers, that is some great info.

Question: I game online and also am security conscious and was wondering if I need a certain DNS number / address for gaming and one for browsing / desktop? I mean it may sound silly but I am curious if these DNS servers are one size fits all or are they specific?

ty

Not really.

For browsing, it is possible to setup a proxy server with blocking options, maybe on your PC or running in a router.
Edit: Adblocker add ons also.

A stated, use adguard, which has some powerful options.
Generally it uses downloaded blocklists to stop access dubious sites. There are other ways to do it, like pihole.

IOT devices are different, where I just block everything.
My 'Smart'TV is slighly different. Everything is blocked except some domain patterns that my chosen streaming apps need to function.

IOT devices are a good idea to place on a different LAN. Your typical consumer router will probably not have this option.

[_I_]

dns is only used to convert names to numbers
game servers use numbers, will make not difference
and once the pc has the number, it not longer needs to ask for it again and again

but they can track, your ip and what sites you are asking for

[Sigma957]

Use a VPN.