We all love fast internet. You might be surprised to learn that making a few changes to your network can make it even faster and more secure. An easy way to upgrade your broadband experience is to change the DNS server settings. DNS stands for domain name system. Domain name servers, DNS servers for short, translate common domain names into the IP addresses that point to specific websites. DNS servers can have some variation in the speed in which they complete IP address lookups. So, changing DNS servers can increase the speed that web pages display on your computer. In addition, some DNS servers provide filtering that can help to protect your network from malicious domains and objectionable content. Typically, internet service providers rely on their own DNS servers by default. These servers might not provide the fastest or most secure experience.
Google public DNS is a good DNS server for many users. However, it doesn't provide protection from malware or objectional content. Another unfiltered DNS server is Cloudflare which is often considered to be one of the fastest DNS servers available due to Cloudflare's vast network infrastructure.
For a more secure options, you might consider Cloudflare for families which offers DNS servers that filter either malware alone or malware and objectionable content. Quad 9 also provides DNS servers that protect from malware.
DNS servers can be reached through IPv4, IPv6, DNS over tls, and DNS over https. How you connect to DNS servers will depend on your network configuration. Changing DNS servers typically involves specifying the desired DNS server in the router, as well as changing the DNS server in web browsers and other devices. For most users, a basic implementation would be to change the DNS settings within the web browser.
We recommend trying these free and relatively easy steps that you can take to improve your broadband experience and protect your system from malware.