Best secure DNS service for NZ users?

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Baboon

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#285772 17-May-2021 02:57

After testing three secure DNS services - Cloudflare, Quad9, and NextDNS - it seems Cloudflare has better speed resolving queries, than the other two, at least here in Tauranga. I expect if I was closer to Auckland, that would change.

I am keen on NextDNS due to the wide range of settings and blocklists available. It seems to work well. I wonder if there are any other secure DNS offerings with a variety of blocklists as NextDNS has, that might be worth trying here in NZ? I'm not super fussed about speed, so long as there _is_ actually a NZ-based server.

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amanzi

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#2708292 17-May-2021 08:23

With a simple ping test from here in Wellington, NextDNS had better latency than Cloudflare. What type of blocklists are you looking to use? Ad-blocking or parental control? If it's just for ad-blocking, then I'd recommend considering a local Pi-hole server using your ISP DNS servers as the upstream. That will likely give you the best performance, and will also give you full control about what you choose to block. It is possible to use it for parental controls too, but I haven't tried that yet so YMMV.

timmmay

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#2708295 17-May-2021 08:30

Oh, you're talking about a filtered DNS service for your network rather than providing a DNS service for a website. That wasn't obvious.

Baboon

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#2708410 17-May-2021 13:42

timmmay:
Oh, you're talking about a filtered DNS service for your network rather than providing a DNS service for a website. That wasn't obvious.

Yes, sorry :-) Ideally DNS servers for my network that have filtering for ads/tracking, malware (realising it's never perfect), and annoyances like popups and cookie warnings. That kinda thing. NextDNS looks to be pretty good. I just wondered if it was worth trying anything else that has reasonable speed here in NZ.

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sparkz25

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#2708412 17-May-2021 13:47

Have you thought about Pi Hole?

Baboon

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#2708453 17-May-2021 14:24

sparkz25:
Have you thought about Pi Hole?

As someone with three RPis so far - yep :-) But I also like the idea of having secure DNS with blocklists that I use on mobile devices.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

timmmay

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#2708463 17-May-2021 14:50

I just use PiHole and if I need to I can VPN to my home network from the phone, but I rarely bother.

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Baboon

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#2708481 17-May-2021 15:19

Yeah, that's not something I wana do :-) I just want a simple always on solution.

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Mehrts

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#2709120 18-May-2021 17:42

Baboon: I just want a simple always on solution.

You can achieve this at home with a couple of RPi's set up as a High Availability cluster type arrangement. Or simply a primary/secondary DNS server for your LAN.

For blocking ads while out & about, look at PiVPN, specifically Wireguard.

It's a super lightweight VPN service which you can run on a Pi or some other device. If you've already got Pihole installed on a Pi, it'll detect that and allow you to block ads while using a mobile device while physically away from your home network.

It takes less than five minutes to install & is super easy. Performance is great too.