CloudFlare's DNS service

CloudFlare protects many of the largest networking companies. It is one of the most respected names in Internet security. CloudFlare now offers a free service to help protect you. You should take advantage of it. The service is available for any computer, but I recommend the free Android and iOS apps.

DNS stands for Domain Name System. When you ask your browser to send you to steveshank.com, it sends a request out through your cell provider or Internet provider and requests the address of the steveshank.com domain. An ISP or cell provider then checks around and asks other servers until it comes up with the actual address of my domain (currently 74.124.213.172).

There are certain problems with this system for mobile devices.

• If you are connecting with an unknown source, like a restaurant or hotel, their router could be hacked. If so, it would connect you to an unethical DNS server which would send you to fake Amazon, bank or other sites. It could also monitor your connection.
• Your DNS provider can collect the information on you and the sites you visit to sell to anyone (or everyone).
• If your DNS is insecure, then hackers can intercept it and collect the site information for whatever purpose they may want.

CloudFlare solves all three problems by providing a very fast secure connection to their servers. They do not leak information for hackers to intercept and they keep the places you visit private. They have so many fast servers in so many locations that their service is normally faster than whatever else you might be using.

Just click the app and turn on their service. From then on, all your DNS queries will go through their faster safer and private DNS resolver. Just leave it on. No need to do anything except turn it on once. I recommend doing this on all your phones and tablets.

Changing the DNS server on phones and tablets is very difficult. Here we have a simple free and trustworthy app that solves this problem for us. Click it once, you'll have a little key symbol in your taskbar, and that's it.

However, changing the DNS server on tower and notebook computers is much easier. You can use the CloudFlare's 1.1.1.1 service with them, but I prefer the services of Quad9 (I wrote about it here). The reason is that in addition to private and secure DNS, Quad9 also protects you from malicious sites. But Quad9 doesn't have a simple Android or iOS application.

• iOS app at Apple store
• Android app at the Google Store
• CloudFlare's own explanation