Does our smartphone surf slowly even if we are on a Wi-Fi network or with a full 4G signal? Are we no longer able to access a site that worked until a few hours ago?In this case, the problem may be with the DNS servers used by the active connection. The DNS server is a very important service to be able to access the Internet, since it converts URL addresses into IP addresses, so that you can reach the right site with each search or after each key-in. Thanks to DNS servers, people can browse the Google site by writing google.com and not the real address, the numerical one (more difficult to remember) and, if the need is fast enough, the page loading speed will also increase.
The DNS servers are also checked in order to offer a filtering system, especially to block obscured sites or pirated sites, as we have already described in the article of the techniques most used by the governments of the countries that want to censor certain websites.
Whatever your need, in this guide we will show you how to change DNS on Android and iPhone, so as to benefit from a faster and above all free connection.
Most of the changes must be made in the network settings of the wireless connection (which offers a specific entry for DNS within the options to set the network IPs), and not all smartphones offer access to the menu in a simple and immediate way. (some screens may change from model to model, especially for Android smartphones).
For this we have created, for each operating system, two ways to proceed: the first involves manually changing the DNS (where possible) without installing anything on the phone, the second involves installing specific apps on the device to choose and change DNS on the fly. , sometimes with a single click.
1) How will I change DNS on Android
To change DNS manually on Android we will have to act on the settings of the Wi-Fi connections: currently it is not possible to manually set the DNS on 4G or 3G connections; for those we can use the automated procedures that we will describe later.
So let's connect to any Wi-Fi network, then let's go to the app Settings and click Wi-Fi.
Press and hold on the name of the wireless network to which we are connected (or click on an arrow symbol, usually present next to the name) and select the item Edit network.
From the new menu that will appear, click on the item under the IP Settings field (it should be there DHCP o Automatic) and select the item Static o Manual.
In the new window that we will see appear we set a free IP address (we can also leave the one present by default), the gateway (i.e. the address of the router to which we are connected, usually 192.168.1.1) and leave the default network prefix length, then enter the IP addresses of the chosen DNS server in the appropriate fields (DNS 1 e DNS 2).
For convenience, we can enter the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers, i.e. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, but we can choose any other secure DNS service, the important thing is to no longer use those offered by the telephone operator for the line in use.
The changes will be specific to that Wi-Fi connection: changing connection or turning off Wi-Fi will no longer take advantage of manually set DNS.
If we want to automate the DNS change between all Wi-Fi networks or we also want to change them for Internet connections via LTE or 3G, we will have to use specific apps.
The best apps to edit DNS on Android are:
- DNS changer by Blokada
- Burakgon DNS Changer
- Frostnerd.com DNS Charger
- Cloudflare DNS Charger
Using one of the previous apps on our smartphone we will be able to choose which DNS servers to use for each type of connection, adding new services if necessary, so as to obtain safer, freer and uncensored browsing.
In order to make the most of all the apps we recommend trying them only on devices with Android 5.0 or higher, so as to have full support for DNS change.
The ones I recommend to try now is the DNS Charger offered by Blokada which I currently consider the best in the category.
NOTE: To facilitate the modification of DNS on mobile you can also install an app for set up DNS on Android and iPhone with Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, which is automatic and supports not only wifi networks, but also data connection.
Cloudflare, in addition to being one of the fastest DNS, is also protected so that no one can know which sites we visit and able to unblock censorships and blocks, so that you can open any site in the world.
2) Change DNS on iPhone and iPad
Apple's iOS operating system also allows you to change the DNS servers of any Wi-Fi network.
It is not possible to set a system-wide preferred DNS server that applies to all connections so you must do it for each one.
So let's connect to the nearest Wi-Fi network via the menu Settings -> Wi-Fi and, once connected, click on the information icon next to the network entry (the lowercase "I" in a blue circle).
In the new window we touch the field Configure DNS, we select the item Manual and add the new server by clicking Add server and indicating the address in the selected field (8.8.8.8 for instance).
To confirm, touch the item at the top right Save.
If we wanted to make the DNS change automatic on all Wi-Fi and LTE connections, we can use dedicated apps.
The best apps to change DNS on iPhone is CloudFlare 1.1.1.1.
Using this app we can both automatically set the DNS servers for all network connections (choosing the service that convinces us the most) and take advantage of the server DNS offerti da Cloudflare, which offer speed, security and privacy even when we are away from home.
In other articles we have seen how to open the obscured sites by changing DNS, how to use the more secure DNS of OpenDNS and, above all, how to use the Google DNS which are the most recommended ones given the goodness and the high number of Google servers scattered around. the world.
In another article we have seen how to further increase the safety of navigation using the VPN app to surf safely and on sites blocked by Android, iPhone and iPad.
