3 Crypto Friendly DNS Resolvers: Block Ads, Malware, and Online Filth
DNS resolvers are best applied at the router level, thus providing instant protection to all devices on the network. In addition to blocking ads, malware, and phishing sites, Family-friendly DNS resolvers block adult content. Also, google safe-search is automatically enforced when using Family-friendly resolvers. However, safe-search turns off the ability to view YouTube comments.
Family-friendly DNS resolvers
NB: It is strongly recommended to turn on family protection controls within your router. Do not rely solely upon Family-based DNS resolvers. To some extent, all resolvers allowed some leakage of advertising pop-ups.
The below resolvers all allowed crypto mining but had various degrees of success in blocking pop-ads.
Alternate DNS: Family Friendly Configuration
Positives
- None that stand out
Negatives
- Leaks advertising pop-ups with adult content when visiting free movie streaming sites
- Some sites loaded noticeably slower on mobile
Our Rating: 1/3
- primary: 76.76.19.19
- Verify traceroute and latency
- secondary: 76.223.122.150
Control D: Family Friendly Configuration
Positives
- Zero outages, very reliable, and lightening fast!
- Warns of websites accessed without https and must manually click continue to “unsafe site” to proceed
- Serves as a additional early-warning for adult sites that may leak through
Negatives
- After about 3 months of usage, the resolver started blocking a few crypto DEXes
- Access to the Telegram Bot API endpoint (https://api.telegram.org) is blocked
- Only an issue if you’re using Telegram to control IoT devices such as the Mining Rig Auto Hard Reset tool
Our Rating: 1/3
- primary: 76.76.2.4
- Verify traceroute and latency
- secondary: 76.76.10.4
AdGuard Family protection servers
Positives
- Warns of websites accessed without https and must manually click continue to “unsafe site” to proceed.
- Serves as a additional early-warning for adult sites that may leak through
Negatives
- After using for over 3 years, we detected at least 4 outages each year that lasted beyond 4 hours
- Both primary and failover resolvers failed simultaneously, or our router was unable to detect DNS failure and never failedover
Our Rating: 2/3
- primary: 94.140.14.15
- Verify traceroute and latency
- secondary: 94.140.15.16
Configuring DNS Resolvers on the Router
To apply custom DNS resolvers at the router level is simple:
- Log into your router
- Click on WAN
- Look for WAN DNS Settings and change Connect to DNS Automatically to “No”
- Enter DNS resolver IP addresses
The below screenshot is from the Asus RT-AC68P and RT-AC68U:
