How to Change DNS on Your Router (And What It Fixes)
Short answer
Log into the router at 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1, find the Internet, WAN or DHCP section, and replace the DNS server fields with 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. Devices pick up the change when their DHCP lease renews, so restart the router afterwards. It speeds up domain lookups, not your connection.
On this page
Setting DNS on the router is the efficient version of the same change. One edit covers every device on the network, including the ones that have no DNS setting of their own — smart TVs, games consoles, printers, light bulbs.
It is also where the honest conversation belongs, because changing DNS is routinely sold as a speed upgrade and it is not one. It shortens the lookup that happens before each new connection. The connection itself runs at exactly the speed it always did.
What it actually changes
Every time your device needs a site it has not visited recently, it asks a resolver for the address. That round trip happens before a single byte of the page arrives.
| What DNS affects | What it does not affect |
|---|---|
| Time before a new site starts loading | Download and upload speed |
| Whether a domain resolves at all | Video buffering and streaming quality |
| Which resolver sees your query history | Ping and latency in games |
| Domain-level filtering and blocking | Wi-Fi coverage and signal strength |
A slow provider resolver can add a few hundred milliseconds to the start of each new domain. Moving to a fast public resolver removes most of that. Across a page pulling resources from a dozen domains it is noticeable; on a speed test it is invisible, because the test resolves one hostname and then measures bulk transfer.
If what you actually want is more throughput, what bandwidth is and where it goes covers why the number on your bill and the experience in the house diverge.
Which servers to set
| Provider | Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | 1.1.1.1 |
1.0.0.1 |
8.8.8.8 |
8.8.4.4 |
|
| Quad9 (blocks malicious domains) | 9.9.9.9 |
149.112.112.112 |
| Cloudflare family filtering | 1.1.1.3 |
1.0.0.3 |
Use two different providers’ servers only if you understand the consequence: your devices will alternate between them unpredictably, so any filtering you chose applies inconsistently. Pick one provider and use both of its addresses.
Where the setting lives
Log in first. If 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1 and 10.0.0.1 all fail,
reading the gateway address off your device
gives you the real one.
The DNS fields are almost never in the wireless section, which is where people look first. Try these, in order:
- Internet or WAN settings — most common. Look for “DNS server” or “Use these DNS servers” with a radio button beside “Obtain automatically”.
- DHCP settings, under LAN or Network — some vendors put the DNS that gets handed to clients here rather than under WAN.
- Advanced → Network or Setup.
Vendors name these sections differently and reorganise them between firmware versions, so expect to click around. The field you want accepts two IP addresses and sits beside a toggle for automatic.
A common trap: some routers grey out the DNS fields while the connection type is set to automatic or DHCP. There is usually a separate checkbox along the lines of “Use these DNS servers instead” that unlocks them without changing the connection type. Do not switch the WAN connection type to manual in order to reach the DNS fields, because that requires entering your provider’s IP configuration by hand and will take the connection down.
Save. Most routers restart their networking, which drops connections for 30–60 seconds.
Make devices pick it up
Devices learn their DNS server from the router when they take a DHCP lease, and leases commonly last a day or more. Until a lease renews, a device keeps using the old resolver.
The quickest way to force it everywhere is to restart the router. Otherwise, per device:
- Windows:
ipconfig /releasethenipconfig /renew, followed byipconfig /flushdns. - macOS, iPhone, Android: toggle Wi-Fi off and on, or forget and rejoin the network.
Check it worked. On Windows, ipconfig /all lists DNS Servers for the
active adapter. If it still shows your provider’s addresses after a renew, the
router is not handing yours out — go back and check you saved the right section.
The devices that will ignore you
This is the part router guides leave out, and it explains a lot of “I changed it and nothing happened”.
- Android phones with Private DNS set. Android’s Private DNS is device-wide and overrides the network’s setting entirely. Switch it to Automatic if you want the router’s choice to apply.
- Any device with manual DNS configured. A laptop set up once with
8.8.8.8keeps using it regardless of what the router says. - VPN clients. A connected VPN routes DNS through its own tunnel by design.
- Browsers using DNS over HTTPS. Chrome and Firefox can resolve names through their own encrypted resolver, bypassing both the device and the router setting. Firefox enables it in some regions by default. The setting is under the browser’s privacy or security preferences.
- Smart home devices with hardcoded resolvers. Some manufacturers compile
8.8.8.8into the firmware and ignore DHCP entirely. Nothing short of intercepting DNS traffic at the router changes that, and most consumer routers cannot.
So “every device inherits it” is true of most devices, not all of them. Per-device DNS settings covers where to change the stubborn ones directly.
WAN DNS versus DHCP DNS
Routers that expose both settings confuse people, and the distinction is worth thirty seconds.
The WAN DNS setting is what the router itself uses when it needs to resolve a name — checking for firmware updates, contacting the vendor’s cloud service, running its own connectivity tests.
The DHCP DNS setting is what the router hands out to your devices in their lease. This is the one that determines which resolver your laptop and phone actually use.
Most consumer routers only expose one field and apply it to both, which is fine. Where both exist and you only change the WAN one, your devices carry on using the provider’s servers and nothing appears to have happened. If your router has a DHCP section with its own DNS fields, set them there as well.
A related setting on some routers is a DNS relay or DNS proxy toggle.
With it on, the router hands out its own address as the DNS server and forwards
queries upstream itself. That works, and it means ipconfig /all will show
your router’s address rather than Cloudflare’s, which is not a sign the change
failed.
If it goes wrong
The failure mode is distinctive: everything connects, nothing loads by name, and typing an IP address directly into a browser still works.
Log back into the router using its IP address, which does not require DNS to reach. Set the DNS fields back to automatic, save, restart. Nothing is permanently changed by this setting and nothing is at risk.
If the router page itself will not load, connect by ethernet cable and try again. Only consider a reset as a last resort, and read reset versus power cycle first, because a factory reset costs you the Wi-Fi name, the password and every other customisation.
Realistic expectations
Pages start loading a little sooner, particularly on sites you have not visited before. Intermittent “site cannot be reached” errors caused by a flaky provider resolver go away. On a connection where the provider’s DNS was already fine, the difference is small enough that you will not notice it.
What will not change: the speed test, how quickly a large file downloads, whether video buffers, or how well Wi-Fi reaches the back bedroom.