Block Ads, Censorship & surveillance without 3rd party apps & Rooting/Jail-breaking your Smartphone
DNS
Almost all the website’s ip addresses are assigned a domain name for ease of remembering and searching
A website that handles large traffic might have multiple IP address of different Geo-loactions for a single domain name example : www.facebook.com
When you enter a domain name the corresponding IP address is returned by the DNS (Domain Name System)
By default our DNS is our ISP (internet service provider)
ISPs are most likely to Allow…
- Ads — ISPs allow the advertisements to appear/slip through as sometimes they receive their cuts in ad revenue, ISPs may also inject their own ads and sometimes by law they are not allowed to block ads by default, also many of the ISPs don’t bother to block ads.
- Censorship — ISPs generally don't censor/block website on their own will but its the government of that particular country which can request the ISPs to block certain websites claim illegal activity but sometimes this move can be politically motivated to keep their public less informed or restrict communication
- Surveillance — ISPs may log the user activity like sites visited by a user for data mining/analytics or they might log the activities as requested by government which may be used as evidence against you
How to change the DNS in android
From Android Pie/9 onwards option for setting private DNS is available which uses DNS Over TLS
- Go to Settings → Network & internet → Advanced → Private DNS.
- the Private DNS provider host-name option.
- DNS domain and hit Save.
In some of the custom Android skins these settings may be hidden
MIUI users can use hidden settings for Miui app to access the setting
DNS’s focused on Uncensored results and no logging policy
Google Public DNS promises three core benefits: a faster browsing experience, improved security, and accurate results without redirects.
DNS-Over-TLS address -> dns.google
IPv4 address -> 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
Cloudflare
Claims to be the "fastest DNS service in the world" and will never log your IP address, never sell your data, and never use your data to target ads.
DNS-Over-TLS address -> one.one.one.one
IPv4 address -> 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
DNS’s focused on ad blocking, malware and phishing
Adguard
Claims protection features against online ads, trackers, and phishing
DNS-Over-TLS address -> dns.adguard.com
IPv4 address -> 94.140.14.14 and 94.140.15.15
DeCloudUs DNS
Claims to be a secure, private, open source DNS resolver with no logs, malware protection, ad blocking. Degoogle and Ungoogle your phone, tablet, and computer.
DNS-Over-TLS address -> dns.decloudus.com
IPv4 address -> 176.9.199.158
DNS’s focused on adult content blocking
CleanBrowsing
Claims to Block access to all adult and explicit sites, including proxy & VPN domains and mixed content sites
DNS-Over-TLS address -> family-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org
IPv4 address -> 185.228.168.168 and 185.228.169.168
Adguard
provides the Default features + Blocking adult websites + Safe search
DNS-Over-TLS address-> dns-family.adguard.com
IPv4 address -> 94.140.14.15 and 94.140.15.16
The above listed DNS are some of the best, more can be explored via this Link
DNS setup for iPhones
iPhone users have a disadvantage here as they cannot setup DNS on their mobile network , they can setup for connected WiFi using IPv4 DNS address
Follow this link to get the steps
After setting up the DNS visit dnsleaktest.com and confirm if the new DNS is working correctly by performing a standard test
Visit freedomhouse.org to get more details on current internet freedom status worldwide.
Note that DNS is not a complete alternative for a VPN as DNS only hides or filters your queries where as VPN also hides you IP address, advantage of DNS is that no third party application is required and it doesn’t slow down the internet unlike many VPNs.
