{"id":12085,"date":"2018-04-20T09:10:06","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T17:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/04\/20\/news-5854\/"},"modified":"2018-04-20T09:10:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T17:10:06","slug":"news-5854","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/04\/20\/news-5854\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloudflare\u2019s new DNS service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Credit to Author: Pieter Arntz| Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2018 16:00:00 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Are you looking for a free way to speed up your internet and gain some extra privacy in the process? Keep reading, because Cloudflare (the Web Performance &amp; Security Company) is offering a free new DNS service. And it helped me improve the speed of my DNS lookups.<\/p>\n<h3>What is DNS?<\/h3>\n<p>DNS is short for Domain Name System. It is an internet protocol that allows user systems to use domain names\/URLs to identify a web server rather than inputting the actual IP address of the server.\u00a0 For example, the IP address for Malwarebytes.com is 104.72.35.176, but rather than typing that into your browser, you just type \u2018malwarebytes.com\u2019 and your system reaches out to a \u2018DNS Server\u2019 which has a list of all domain names and their corresponding IP address, delivering that upon request to the user system.\u00a0 Unfortunately, if a popular DNS server is taken down or in some way disrupted, many users are unable to reach their favorite websites because without the IP address of the web server, your system cannot find the site. When trying to explain the concept of DNS name resolution I think that finding a phone number for a certain person is a good analogy. There are several ways to find a person\u2019s phone number and the same is true for resolving an IP address that belongs to a domain name.<\/p>\n<h3>Which DNS servers am I using now?<\/h3>\n<p>If you have to ask yourself that question, there\u2019s a big chance that you are using the DNS service provided by your internet provider. And while some of those are quite good, others are deplorable. Those that have looked into changing their DNS servers have probably ended up using <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/speed\/public-dns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google\u2019s public DNS<\/a> or if they were also interested in a web-filter they might have ended up using <a href=\"https:\/\/system.opendns.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cisco\u2019s OpenDNS<\/a>. IMHO those are the two most popular alternatives for the ones provided by ISPs around the globe, but many more are available.<\/p>\n<h3>Why would I change to Cloudflare\u2019s?<\/h3>\n<p>We are not saying you should but their claims sound very promising. Even if the differences in speed and privacy are not directly noticeable, you may be convinced by these arguments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cloudflare\u2019s service is 5 times faster than the average ISP\u2019s (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/us\/cloudflare-dns-1.1.1.1-set-up,news-26964.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">8 milliseconds compared to 70<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>ISPs do not always use strong encryption on their DNS or support <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/security-world\/2017\/02\/dnssec-why-do-we-need-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DNSSEC<\/a>, which makes their DNS queries vulnerable to data breaches and exposes users to threats like man-in-the-middle attacks.<\/li>\n<li>Many companies collect data from their DNS customers to use for commercial purposes. Cloudflare promises not to mine any user data. Logs are kept for 24 hours for debugging purposes, then they are purged.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.erratasec.com\/2017\/08\/query-name-minimization.html#.WtimxR6geUk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Query name minimization<\/a> diminishes privacy leakage by only sending minimal query names to authoritative DNS servers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That last one may need some explanation. The less information the DNS servers send to each other to resolve your DNS query, the smaller is the amount of information that would be revealed in case of a leak or breach. This is why servers that use this method only send each other the minimum of information that the receiving server needs.<\/p>\n<h3>How to change your DNS servers?<\/h3>\n<p>The method to change your DNS servers depends very much on the level at which you want to change them and on the operating system you are using. If you have tried the DNS service and decide that you like it, it might be advisable to change the DNS servers at the router level, so you don\u2019t have to do it for each device separately. To do this successfully your computers and devices need to be set up for DHCP, or they will not even look at the router for DNS information. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifewire.com\/how-to-change-dns-servers-on-most-popular-routers-2617995\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lifewire published a guide for the most common routers<\/a> that might prove to be handy. For mobile devices be aware that they will change DNS servers when they are no longer using your router.<\/p>\n<p>At the device level the OS is the deciding factor on how you can change the DNS servers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifewire.com\/how-to-change-dns-servers-in-windows-2626242\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Change DNS Servers in Windows<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifewire.com\/network-preference-pane-change-macs-dns-settings-2260394\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Change Your Mac&#8217;s DNS Settings<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/techinch.com\/blog\/change-your-dns-settings-on-iphone-ipod-touch-and-ipad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Change Your DNS Settings on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/smallbusiness.chron.com\/change-dns-android-28423.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Change the DNS for an Android<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/support.rackspace.com\/how-to\/changing-dns-settings-on-linux\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Change DNS settings on Linux<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Testing the difference<\/h3>\n<p>To check whether it would be a possible speed improvement for you to switch DNS service you can use a free toll called NameBench.<\/p>\n<p><em>Background information: the NameBench \u00a0tool is offered by Google and was launched around the same time that Google started offering their free DNS service.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>NameBench can be downloaded from <a href=\"https:\/\/code.google.com\/archive\/p\/namebench\/downloads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Code<\/a> \u2013 there are suitable versions for several operating systems &#8211; \u00a0and after installation you can specify the DNS servers that you would like it to test.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NameBench.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-0\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"23357\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/101\/how-tos\/2018\/04\/cloudflares-new-dns-service\/attachment\/namebench\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NameBench.png\" data-orig-size=\"562,417\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"NameBench\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NameBench-300x223.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NameBench.png\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-23357\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NameBench.png\" alt=\"NameBench GUI\" width=\"562\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NameBench.png 562w, https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NameBench-300x223.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google Public DNS: 8.8.8.8<\/li>\n<li>Cloudflare DNS : 1.1.1.1<\/li>\n<li>OpenDNS : 208.67.222.123<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It does help to set \u201cYour location\u201d, but my laptop travels a lot, so I skipped that. Then \u201cStart Benchmark\u201d and be patient for a while, because it may take a few before the application is done testing (it took almost half an hour on my laptop). The results will have a layout similar to this one:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-1\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"23358\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/101\/how-tos\/2018\/04\/cloudflares-new-dns-service\/attachment\/nbreport\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport.png\" data-orig-size=\"1167,797\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"NBReport\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport-300x205.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport-600x410.png\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23358 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport-600x410.png\" alt=\"NameBench report\" width=\"600\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport-600x410.png 600w, https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport-300x205.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/NBReport.png 1167w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>While your results may be very different from mine, you can tell that it can definitely pay off to do this test if you are looking for a speed improvement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So, a speed improvement of 13.5 % and a promise of added privacy. What am I going to do? Well, at least I\u2019ll try it for a while to see if it makes a real difference. And note that I already was using an alternative for the DNS service of my provider, which was terrible to begin with.<\/p>\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<p>For most internet users it is worth looking into which DNS service works best for them. Be it for speed improvement or some of the added benefits that some of these DNS services have to offer, like additional privacy or parental controls. But most will keep on using the ones provided by their ISP provider, because they just can\u2019t be bothered or find it too complicated to change the settings. We do our best to encourage our readers to make informed choices and decide for themselves who they want to trust with the data that can be derived from DNS lookups.<\/p>\n<p>Be safe,<\/p>\n<p>Pieter Arntz<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/101\/how-tos\/2018\/04\/cloudflares-new-dns-service\/\">Cloudflare\u2019s new DNS service<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\">Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/101\/how-tos\/2018\/04\/cloudflares-new-dns-service\/\" target=\"bwo\" >https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Credit to Author: Pieter Arntz| Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2018 16:00:00 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<table cellpadding='10'>\n<tr>\n<td valign='top' align='center'><a href='https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/101\/how-tos\/2018\/04\/cloudflares-new-dns-service\/' title='Cloudflare\u2019s new DNS service'><img src='https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/photodune-4549927-internet-abstract-m.jpg' border='0'  width='300px'  \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign='top' align='left'>Is it worth your time to change your default DNS servers? That depends on your wishes and whether you can gains some speed.<\/p>\n<p>Categories: <\/p>\n<ul class=\"post-categories\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/category\/101\/how-tos\/\" rel=\"category tag\">How-tos<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/category\/security-world\/technology\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Technology<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table width='100%'>\n<tr>\n<td align=right>\n<p><b>(<a href='https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/101\/how-tos\/2018\/04\/cloudflares-new-dns-service\/' title='Cloudflare\u2019s new DNS service'>Read more&#8230;<\/a>)<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/101\/how-tos\/2018\/04\/cloudflares-new-dns-service\/\">Cloudflare\u2019s new DNS service<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\">Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10488,10378],"tags":[11171,1331],"class_list":["post-12085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malwarebytes","category-security","tag-how-tos","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}