 | Fast & Privacy-Focused DNS by Cloud Flare |  |
| Fast & Privacy-Focused DNS by Cloud Flare | |
On 1st April 2018, Cloud Flare had announced their release of the new public DNS service 1.1.1.1. The company had promised that the new 1.1.1.1 would provide users with faster speeds and much better privacy as compared to other public DNS systems out there, such as the ones offered by companies like Cisco, Yandex or Google. Let’s see if the promises had been honored by taking a closer look at the services offered. Keep in mind that Cloud Flare had decided to release their new service on April 1st which is a red flag since tech companies make all types of April Fools jokes during that day. However, it appears that 1.1.1.1 is not a joke and is actually real.
Everyone knows that DNS plays an integral role on the internet. Computers make use of IP addresses in order to communicate and it would have been terrible if humans had to remember the numbers. DNS is used to translate a domain name to an IP address in order for the computers to know what they need to do. Most of the computer users make use of DNS service which comes with their internet provider. Although this DNS service is used as the default, normally it is not the most private nor the fastest. Various ISPs have started to monetize DNS through the displaying of the custom error page whenever a website cannot be accessed.
They are two additional areas where an internet user would have to consider when using a DNS service. The configured DNS provider knows just what you have visited on the Web when you make requests on your device. This is even true when it comes to connecting to HTTPS websites. Likewise, for some VPN services, they cannot protect you against DNS leaks. Customer data can be sold by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the US.
DNS censorship is very common since it is quite easy to implement. It can be easily bypassed which is why it is not a secure technology. ISPs can change the IP address of the given domain and this leads to the users being redirected to a different web page. For example, a warning page, error page or even a government domain.
The IP addresses 1.0.0.1 and 1.1.1.1 are used by the public DNS of Cloud Flare. Adding these to your browser largely depends on your OS. Simply open 1.1.1.1 in your browser and follow the instructions to set it up.
One of the promises made by Cloud Flare is that it never saves the IP address and that all logs are wiped within 24 hours. KPMG had been hired to audit the source code and practices and for making the report public. This new service supports DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS which are open and attempt at eliminating DNS lookups over unencrypted connections.
It can be said that DNS-over-HTTPS is encrypted, easier to parse and fast. Since Cloud Flare operates at such a huge scale, users will benefit from this fast & secure DNS service.