Most of us often obsess about internet speeds, plans, and router placement, but if there’s one thing that’s just as important, but nobody thinks about, it’s DNS. In simpler terms, it’s what translates the website names you type into your browser into actual IP addresses that computers understand.
By default, this is set to whatever your ISP provides, and most people never change it because it works well enough. But that default choice can affect how fast pages load, how much your browsing activity is visible to the provider, and how safe you are from malicious domains. So yes, it’s a big deal, and the good news is that you don’t need to tinker with your router to switch to a better DNS.
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What you give up by sticking with ISP DNS
The trade-offs you didn’t sign up for
Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOfCredit: Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOf
Sticking with your ISP’s default DNS doesn’t make much sense once you realize you’re trading away speed, privacy, and control. For starters, ISP DNS servers are not always built for speed. They can be overloaded, unevenly distributed, or simply not tuned for fast lookups. As long as everything works, your local ISP has little incentive to optimize it. But that extra delay in resolving DNS matters, especially since most modern websites tend to pull resources from dozens of domains.
There’s also a noticeable gap in security. Most ISP DNS services do little more than resolve domain names. They typically don’t block any phishing sites, malicious domains, or known scam networks. If you click on a bad link or mistype a URL, the onus is on you because the request almost always goes through without any warning.
Privacy is where the compromise becomes harder to ignore. Every time you visit a site, your DNS request passes through your ISP. That means they can see the domains you access and log everything. They can then analyze the data themselves or share it with third-parties, where it may be linked with other data collected about you from elsewhere.
Most importantly, your ISP sets the DNS at the router level, so it applies to every device that connects. And changing the DNS settings at the router level isn’t always straightforward. Of course, if you can do it, it’s the easiest way to escape your ISP’s DNS. But if not, you can still change the DNS settings directly on your devices. Yes, it takes a bit more time, but you only need to do it once.
Picking the right DNS can be confusing
DNS dilemma is real
Once you decide to move away from your ISP’s DNS, you have another problem. There are just way too many options, and they all claim to be the fastest, safest, and most private. But the thing is, there’s no single “best” DNS for everyone. The right choice depends on what you care about most and how those servers perform from your location.
Some DNS providers prioritize raw speed and aggressive caching. Others focus on blocking malicious domains in real time. Some promise minimal logging, while others collect data for analytics or improvements. A few also support newer protocols like DNS over HTTPS and DNS over TLS, which encrypt your requests and make them harder to monitor for your ISP.
Above all, though, you want a DNS that’s fast. And that largely depends on how close you are to the server and network routing. A DNS that’s fast for one person can be average for someone else. The best way to find what works for you is to run a DNS speed test. It’s quite easy to do, but for accurate results, you should run it at different times of the day since network conditions change.
You don’t need router access to switch DNS
Skip the router
ISPs often lock down router access or make the interface unnecessarily complicated, which makes switching DNS feel harder than it should be. But the good news is you can change DNS directly on your devices, and once you do that, every request from that device bypasses your ISP’s default DNS entirely.
On Windows, head to Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced network settings, then choose Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and select View additional properties. From there, click Edit next to the DNS server assignment to make the changes. On macOS, head to System Preferences > Network > Advanced > DNS to change the default provider.
To change the DNS on an Android phone or tablet, head to Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced > Private DNS and set the desired hostname. On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Wi-Fi, tap the info icon next to your network and tap Configure DNS. You can also change DNS on your smart TV or Linux computer in a similar way.
Of course, changing these settings on every one of your devices can take a few minutes, but once you do, you’ll get faster lookups, better privacy, and more control over your internet.
The good thing about DNS is that there are plenty of options. If you’re into self-hosting, you can even run your own DNS resolver and have complete control over it. So before you rush into setting the same one across all your devices, try it on one first and see how it goes.
