Free and fast privacy focused DNS by Cloudflare - 1.1.1.1

[uk666]

Free and fast privacy focused DNS by Cloudflare - 1.1.1.1

Cloudflare runs one of the world’s largest, fastest networks. APNIC is a non-profit organization managing IP address allocation for the Asia Pacific and Oceania regions.

Cloudflare had the network. APNIC had the IP address (1.1.1.1). Both of us were motivated by a mission to help build a better Internet.

For a brief explainer: DNS stands for 'Domain Name System' and it is a service that translates typed in web addresses, such as hexus.net to numeric ip addresses that computer networks can understand.

As Cloudflare writes, "Nearly everything on the Internet starts with a DNS request. Click on a link, open an app, send an email and the first thing your device does is ask the directory: Where can I find this?"

The problem is that the default DNS service provided by your ISP may well be slower and less reliable than other services like OpenDNS or Google DNS. Furthermore, depending on where you live and what DNS service you use, there might be monitoring, data collection, and/or censorship of some sort via the DNS lookup system.

The new 1.1.1.1 comes with some attractive claims. First of all, it is said to be a 'privacy first' service; with the backers promising to "never log your IP address", as guaranteed by KPMG auditors. Secondly 1.1.1.1 claims to be "28 per cent faster than anything else". The performance claim is backed up by stats gathered by independent DNS monitor DNSPerf.

For IPv4 primary: 1.1.1.1 and Secondary: 1.0.0.1

For IPv6 primary: 2606:4700:4700::1111 and secondary: 2606:4700:4700::1001

What’s the difference between this and a VPN?

They are both separate technologies and using a DNS does not replace the functionality of a VPN. There is a short 5 min video here about DNS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=Rck3BALhI5c

Domain Name Speed Benchmark

As a basic test you could try pining 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 via the command line and seeing which one has a lower response time in ms. This isn't a true test since you need to perform a DNS look up on 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 to see which one is truly quicker.

You can use this tool to test DNS look up time: 

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

You'll need to enter 1.1.1.1 manually before running the test.