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Cloudflare Brings Its 1.1.1.1 DNS Service to Android & iOS Mobile Devices
- giobox 8y agoThis strikes me as the most pointless excuse for an app - if you are technically inclined enough to understand why using Cloudflare’s DNS in place of your cellphone service provider’s could be beneficial, you are probably also very much capable of typing “1.1.1.1” in the network preferences on your phone... EDIT: I stand very much corrected, at least with regard to iOS and mobile carriers - I wrongly assumed DNS settings were exposed for the mobile connection the same way it is for WiFi, where it can be very easily manually overridden. As someone who doesn’t use an Android phone I’m even more surprised from comments below that Android doesn’t even allow this for WiFi via the stock settings app. That this would also allow you to set cloudflare’s DNS globally for all WiFi connections on iOS rather than the current Settings app’s per-network basis is also an interesting advantage.
- dawnerd 8y agoShow me where I can do that on iOS while on a cellular connection. Only way I know you can do it is while on WiFi.
- irtefa 8y agoCorrect. Even on WiFi, you will have to update your settings everytime you switch WiFi networks.
- irtefa 8y agoDisclaimer: I work at Cloudflare. How exactly would you do it in iOS? Would love to know!
- giobox 8y agoApologies, updated my comment to reflect my earlier ignorance!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- craftyguy 8y ago> “1.1.1.1” in the network preferences on your phone That's really not even straight forward on Android either (especially for mobile data connections), so I would love to know what phone you are referring to..
- beckler 8y agoIf you're on a network you control, sure you could setup your DHCP to broadcast the DNS addresses. However, I don't see how you could set this for mobile networks or networks you have no control over, since both Android and iOS don't let you override the DNS address assigned. Edit: I guess you can override your DNS on iOS when on wifi? I know I can't change it on my Android.
- crtasm 8y agoWiFi on android: if you set a static IP then you can also change DNS. Has to be done for every network you connect to though. Mobile data (and wifi) on android: use VPN and choose your DNS (openvpn+pi-hole on a cheap VPS works great)
- StavrosK 8y agoI use DNS66 for ad blocking, and set the custom DNS server in it as well.
- captn3m0 8y agoDoes it support dnscrypt or DoH in the free version yet?
- dewey 8y agoWill this be available only in the US? Doesn't show up in the AT store (Apple App Store) yet or is it still rolling out in the other stores? Edit: Looks like it works if I use the direct link, it's just not findable via the search yet
- ejcx 8y agoI work at Cloudflare, but regardless think this is awesome for security. Being more resilient to coffee shop type attacks and other DNS issues is great. It's a really user friendly and simple step in the right direction.
- wyoh 8y agoDoes it use DoH?
- kamaln7 8y agoYes, it uses either DNS over HTTPS or DNS over TLS
- dogma1138 8y agoSo I’ve set this up on my iPhone and many websites now give this error: “Origin DNS error What happened? You've requested a page on a website (archive.is) that is on the Cloudflare network. Cloudflare is currently unable to resolve your requested domain (archive.is).” Are there some restrictions that prevent CF DNS from resolving CF hosted sites?
- george_perez 8y agoThe issue lies with archive.is and 1.1.1.1. 1.1.1.1 doesn't resolve it. https://community.cloudflare.com/t/archive-is-error-1001/18227 https://community.cloudflare.com/t/archive-is-error-1001/182...
- zzzcpan 8y agoThere are probably more issues. Plenty of websites might not work with Cloudflare's DNS, since there is some noticeable amount of abuse towards DNS coming from their network. I've seen crap like a flood of "msn.com" queries coming from different Cloudflare IPs. That would be a reason enough to firewall anything coming from them to port 53.
- dogma1138 8y agoIs there an app like 1^4 where you can simply set the DNS server of your choice in IOS? It would be awesome to have I could point it to my PiHole.
- exabrial 8y agoIs the service encrypted though? (DNScurve or something)
- kubelsmieci 8y agoWhy android app requires access to microphone, photos and multimedia files?
- AntonyGarand 8y agoThey mentionned it in the article, this is required and only used by the third-party bug-reporting service (instabug)
- dknecht 8y agoThe permission request is being removed as we speak.
- zenlot 8y agoI would be careful of using the service further after this. I doubt it was only required for generating bug reports.
- scrollaway 8y agoI wonder what use you think Cloudflare has for your voice data.
- tinus_hn 8y agoYou can sell microphone data for correlating ads you see on TV to sites you browse to.
- scrollaway 8y agoI know what you can do with the data. My question was more specific than that: What use does Cloudflare have for the data? Cloudflare, the company that already has a hugely profitable business, excellent privacy-friendly track record, etc. I'm always amused when there's suggestions that a company like Cloudflare could in any way benefit from that. To recap, the company that has access to your DNS queries would embed a Microphone spy in their Android app, for a short period of time, risking their massively profitable enterprise business, just so they could shadily resell the few days worth of data they may have gotten for that. There's so many good conspiracy theories to think about. Why would you choose this one?
- blazingfrog2 8y agoOn iOS it requires installing a VPN profile. My understanding from their FAQ is that it is to allow DNS proxying in iOS but it’s not clear to me if that’s all it does. Up to this day, seeing the VPN logo in my status bar has always meant my traffic was forwarded to a VPN server which meant it couldn’t be snooped on by my ISP. Is it also the case here?
- elithrar 8y agoVPN profiles in iOS can be used for network-level configuration: despite the label, that doesn’t have to mean just a VPN tunnel. In this case, the profile is ONLY configuring DNS: there is no VPN tunnel being created. The “VPN icon” in the status bar just indicates the profile is active.
- Amazonerh 8y agoI wish there was a similar Dns service to block ads. Not via an app but via android pie Dns settings.
- solarkraft 8y ago"[This app] will generate a VPN profile, which will automatically reroute the DNS traffic through the app so that it utilizes the 1.1.1.1 DNS servers." Does this mean I won't be able to use a real VPN? If so this is rather bad for security. Why the hell would I use this over just setting the DNS server?
- fwn 8y agoI don't think that setting the DNS server is an option on Android prior to Pie.
- newscracker 8y agoI don't know which platform you're using. On iOS, the end user cannot setup a DNS server for mobile data connections. Doing it via such an app and a VPN profile is the only way out (AFAIK). Any DNS settings in Settings.app can be done (and will work) only for WiFi.
- tedmiston 8y agoSetting the DNS servers on iOS is stored with each individual wireless network. There's no way, that I'm aware of at least, to set them in a global way outside of a VPN profile. From what I can tell it is working correctly stacked on top of a VPN profile for a VPN.
- newscracker 8y agoI've been using the free and open source DNSCloak app [1] on iOS for encrypted DNS (DNS over HTTPS or DNS over TLS) to 1.1.1.1. As with this app, it also sets up a VPN profile (and the icon always shows up on the status bar). It's also setup with the "Connect On Demand" option so that anytime the device connects to a network, no connections will go through until this gets activated (this is also called "Always On VPN" or "VPN Kill Switch", to prevent traffic leakage). I couldn't find such an option in the Cloudflare app. [1]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dnscloak-dnscrypt-doh-client/id1330471557 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dnscloak-dnscrypt-doh-client...
- fwn 8y agoOn my Android 8.1 device, the "always on" and "no connection without vpn" options are in the VPN section of the Android settings app.
- newscracker 8y agoIt's the same case with iOS too, where this setting is in Settings->VPN->{VPN Profile}. But it looks like these two apps I've tried provide it within the app as well.
- tedmiston 8y agoFWIW it does default to always on when the VPN profile is installed.
- oedmarap 8y agoI'm not really certain of how to react to this since [a] I can configure Wireguard on my phone to use any DNS server (usually my remote Pi-Hole+DoH but can be 1.1.1.1) and [b] wonder if non-tech folks will install this app and grasp the difference between encrypted DNS queries vs. encrypted traffic + DNS queries -- the latter being a better option requiring an actual VPN tunnel. I understand that using a loopback VPN is the only way to do this kind of DNS enforcement on non-rooted phones, which happen to be the majority. But I think Cloudflare would be better off promoting privacy by either offering a complete VPN service or partnering with the likes of Mullvad/Azire/ProtonVPN etc. to ensure DoH by default (which most end users of those services tweak anyway if they can).
- tedmiston 8y agoI haven't used Wireguard, but on iOS does it properly persist DNS settings across wifi network changes? IIRC this was Cloudflare's technical rationale for wrapping their DNS nameservers inside a VPN profile, at least on iOS. I'm currently running the 1.1.1.1 profile on top of my normal VPN service profile and it appears that both profiles are working correctly in iOS Settings FWIW.
- dddw 8y agoI've been using 1.1.1.1 as dns last week through blokada (adblocker available of f-droid, highly recommended), and do feel al my requests are faster, which speed things up significantly (albeit subjectively)