On 1 April, the web performance and security provider, Cloudflare, announced their own free public DNS service for consumers (1.1.1.1). NO, this is not an April Fool’s joke. Compare to what other companies’ offerings, Cloudflare focuses on providing a fast and private public DNS service.
In short, DNS (Domain Name System) is used to resolve a domain name, such as Unboxingtreatment.com and Google.com, into an IP address that your browsers, routers and switches understand. The resolved IP address will be used to direct users to the exact website’s server. Normally, you will be connected to your Internet Service Providers’ DNS servers, which are often slow and raise concerns about privacy and Internet Censorship. Therefore, a bunch of free public DNS servers are available. Google Public DNS and OpenDNS are some of the most reputable and famous servers in the industry.
Update: To learn how to change DNS in your network, check out our How-to guide.
Cloudflare new DNS service will be offered through 1.1.1.1 or 1.0.0.1 (alternative). It is a partnership between Cloudflare and APNIC. Cloudflare is making the 1.1.1.1 DNS compatible with modern protocols, supporting both DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS. These protocols add encryption during transmission for better security, as well as improving response speed.
For privacy, Cloudflare promises to remove all logs of DNS queries within 24 hours. Some logging is still required to prevent abuse and debug issues, but will soon be deleted. They will not use personal data to tracking users or selling advertising.
Moreover, Cloudflare claimed to be the fastest DNS service in the market. Currently, it seems to be true with Google Public DNS responses at around 25 ms, OpenDNS at 20ms, while Cloudflare DNS at only 13 ms (48% quicker than Google’s). However, there are not much traffic to Cloudflare DNS yet, because it just launched a few days before, but this is still an impressive start.
For more information about the DNS service, you can visit Cloudflare’s blog or at https://1.1.1.1/.
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