The term DNS corresponds to the acronym for Domain Name System. It is an indispensable element without which it would be impossible to navigate the Internet. When you load the URL of a web page, the DNS servers are responsible for translating all those addresses such as google.com or sourceht.com into IP addresses that the browser can connect to the server of that page and show its content on screen.
By default, the DNS servers that your device uses are established automatically by your teleoperator. They do not give many problems, but they are not always as fast as you would like. They don’t offer much privacy since your operator can make a record of all the pages you visit.
Therefore, a good way to gain some privacy, and even improve Internet loading and browsing times, is to modify those DNS servers configured by default. As an extra, it is worth mentioning that in some cases, this new DNS will also allow you to access content that until then was blocked by your Internet provider.
How to configure a new DNS server on Android devices
The first thing to say is that Android only allows changing the DNS settings when you are on a Wi-Fi network. If you want to change the DNS of your mobile data connection, it will be necessary to root the phone. We do not recommend this if you want to maintain the warranty of the device.
That said, if you want to take advantage of Wi-Fi connections to use an alternative DNS on your Android, you can do it in the following way:
- Enter the Android ” Settings ” menu.
- Go to ” Network and Internet -> Wi-Fi. “
- Select the network you are on and click on it to see the details.
- In the network details, click on the pencil icon that you will see in the upper area to edit the connection.
- Next, click on the “Advanced options” drop-down.
- In ” IP Settings, ” select “Static IP.”
- Go to the ” DNS 1Â ” field write the IP address of the DNS server you want to use.
- In the ” DNS 2 ” field, write the IP of the secondary DNS server.
- Click on “Save” to apply the changes.
Achieved! You can find a good DNS to test and see the results of this new configuration. For this, you can also use Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), Cloudflare’s DNS (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1), or IBM’s Quad 9 DNS (9.9.9.9 and 149.112.112.112). There are several free DNS servers that you can currently find on the market.
