Why Change Your DNS?

  • Speed: Your ISP’s DNS is often slow. Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and Google (8.8.8.8) are consistently among the fastest in the world, reducing the time it takes to look up website addresses.
  • Privacy: Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 does not log your queries or sell data. Your ISP’s DNS logs every website you visit.
  • Reliability: Major DNS providers have better uptime than most ISP DNS servers.

Best DNS Servers

  • Cloudflare: Primary 1.1.1.1 / Secondary 1.0.0.1 — fastest globally, strong privacy
  • Google: Primary 8.8.8.8 / Secondary 8.8.4.4 — very fast, widely trusted
  • Quad9: Primary 9.9.9.9 — blocks known malicious domains, good privacy

How to Change DNS on Your Router

  1. 1

    Log into your router admin page

    Type 192.168.0.1 (or 192.168.1.1) into a browser. Log in with the admin credentials on the sticker on your router.

  2. 2

    Find the DNS settings

    Look in WAN Settings, Internet Settings or Advanced Settings. The DNS fields are usually labelled Primary DNS Server and Secondary DNS Server. On some routers they are under DHCP settings.

  3. 3

    Enter your chosen DNS addresses

    Clear the existing addresses and enter your chosen primary and secondary DNS. Example: Primary 1.1.1.1, Secondary 1.0.0.1 for Cloudflare.

  4. 4

    Save and restart the router

    Click Save or Apply. Restart the router. All devices on your network now use the new DNS automatically — no changes needed on individual devices.

Test your new DNSVisit 1.1.1.1/help (if you chose Cloudflare) to confirm the DNS change is working. Or use dnsleaktest.com to see which DNS server your requests are going through.

Frequently Asked Questions

DNS lookup speed affects how quickly your browser starts loading a new website — not the actual download speed. Switching from a slow ISP DNS to Cloudflare or Google can reduce page load initiation time noticeably, especially for the first visit to a site. Subsequent visits are typically cached. The improvement is real but modest for most users.
Your internet connection type, speed and ISP are unchanged — only name resolution is affected. Some ISP-provided services (like certain parental control features built into the ISP’s DNS) may stop working. Quad9’s DNS adds malware blocking as a side effect of the change.