Most of us in our daily life use various software’s, tools, extensions or add-ons to improve our browsing experience. Nowadays, we have so many devices in our home’s that we can not install or it is not possible to install those tools on every device. From tools or software’s I mean Ad-Blocking add-ons or Parental control software’s, etc. All these tools do their task properly but some point you may have noticed that these tools may be consuming unnecessary memory or processing power making our computing devices slow.
Here I’m going to share with you how you can protect your family or businesses from unwanted intruders, phishing websites, intrusive advertisement using one of the DNS service listed below.
For those who are not familiar with DNS(Domain Name System), we use DNS every time when we access any website over the internet. Every time you type address in the browser it queries for the IP assigned to it and so that you can browse the content from the web server. The process of converting name to its IP address is called Domain Name Resolution.
Without going into much technical detail with the help of DNS you can block advertisement’s, malware and phishing blocking, content filtering like blocking illegal or pornography websites. For this you’ve to change the DNS settings of your device or the router. By updating the DNS at router level, all devices connected to that router will get benefit. On the other side you can update it on single device as well such as on Children’s PC. The default DNS address provided by the service provider doesn’t provide any extra benefit except resolving the domain names.
Following are the few DNS services which are free and provide extra features without slowing your internet. Moreover, you don’t need to configure anything as these all are pre-configured.
Norton ConnectSafe
Norton ConnectSafe DNS owned by Symantec provides three pre-configured DNS which are free and can be used without creating any account. It can block inappropriate content from 23 different languages. It even corrects the most of URL typo errors.
- Security: This DNS provides basic protection against malware, phishing or scam sites and uses DNS address 199.85.126.10 & 199.85.127.10
- Security + Pornography: This DNS blocks all sexually explicit material in addition to the security. It uses DNS 199.85.126.20 & 199.85.127.20
- Security + Pornography + Other: In addition to all above features it blocks websites with mature content, abortion, alcohol, crime, drugs, file sharing, gambling, hate, suicide, tobacco or violence. For it please use 199.85.126.30 & 199.85.127.30
Remember changing DNS setting will not replace the security features or protection provided by your Anti-virus software.
Alternate-DNS
Alternate-DNS blocks approximately all type ads making your browsing experience fast and smooth. They also have premium dns service for $2.99 in which along with intrusive ads it also blocks pornography. To use Alternate-DNS, please update DNS address to 198.101.242.72 & 23.253.163.53
Comodo Secure DNS
Comodo Secure DNS comes with Malware and Phishing detection. It will only block only phishing, scam and unsafe websites. If you’re looking for more control like kid safe content than I would recommend you Comodo Secure DNS 2.0. It’s still in beta but you can have more control and block content according to the category. The categories are divided into three groups Low, Medium and High. With selecting categories in group High it blocked almost every website so select group accordingly.
Please switch your DNS address to 8.26.56.26 and 8.20.247.20 to use Comodo Secure DNS.
Open DNS
Open DNS is much more popular among the users for it speed and reliability. It is now part of Cisco. By using OpenDNS name servers it will block pornography only, Other phishing or scam websites are accessible. You can change the DNS name servers to 208.67.222.123 & 208.67.220.123 to use OpenDNS
All above mentioned DNS name servers are free to use but speed may differ according to your location. You can check this guide to change the DNS in your PC or router.
Please let us know below in the comments which DNS you used or you need any help in configuring your device.