Two years ago Cloudflare, the giant that carries huge amounts of internet traffic has announced 1.1.1.1. It is a secure, fast, and privacy-first DNS resolver that is free to use for everyone.
Since then, Cloudflare program attracted many users that generate more than 200 billion DNS requests per day! With this traffic, Cloudflare is now the second-largest public DNS resolver in the world, right behind Google.
And while 1.1.1. can safeguard user privacy and optimize efficiency, it is designed for direct, fast DNS resolution and not for blocking or filtering content. Today, Cloudflare announced 1.1.1.1 for Families, a service that adds a layer of protection to your home network and protects it from malware and adult content.
1.1.1.1 for Families leverages Cloudflare’s global in order to ensure that the service is fast and secure all over the world.
1.1.1.1 for Families has two options. One blocks malware, while the other blocks malware and adult content. You can choose which setting you want by configuring different Cloudflare DNS addresses.
for IPv4:
Malware Blocking Only
Primary DNS: 1.1.1.2
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.2
Malware and Adult Content
Primary DNS: 1.1.1.3
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.3
For IPv6:
Malware Blocking Only
Primary DNS: 2606:4700:4700::1112
Secondary DNS: 2606:4700:4700::1002
Malware and Adult Content
Primary DNS: 2606:4700:4700::1113
Secondary DNS: 2606:4700:4700::1003
To protect your home network change the IP addresses for the DNS servers on your router following this guide.
You can also change the DNS addresses per each device and for the purpose of this article, we’ll change it on Windows 10 machine.
In the Start Menu type Network Status and in the middle pane select Change connection properties. Under IP settings click on Edit and change the IP addresses for the Preferred and Alternate DNS servers as per the image below:
Enjoy safer browsing!