I cannot get to this site from my M1 MacBook Air.

[IWT]

I read they were excellent servers but I don't know exactly why or what Cloud Flare is.

Well, here are a few links. You don't need to download their app.

Connect, Protect and Build Everywhere

Make employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost.

www.cloudflare.com

Cloudflare launches 1.1.1.1 DNS service that will speed up your internet

Not an April Fools’ prank

www.theverge.com

https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/dns/what-is-1.1.1.1

If you want to try them add 1.1.1.1 and/or 1.0.0.1 to your DNS servers.

To do that: click on your WiFi icon in the top menu bar and, from the dropdown, choose "Open Network Preferences". Click on the WiFi you are using; in my case Ethernet. In your case whatever you are using.

Then Click on Advanced, bottom Right. Then Click on DNS.

You will see this:



In place of whatever is there you can input the Cloudflare signature as in my screenshot. This is NOT permanent. You can replace these with the original or with Google Servers: 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4

The choice is yours.

Ian

 

[Whoopie]

Ian--

I love your detailed instructions. Actually I already had those DNS servers in place, but I didn't know what they were called. Hopefully your fantastic instructions will help someone else. I had googled best DNS servers and they were suggested as were the Google ones. I also had not realized that the Mac looks only at the first pair, and does not try each one in the list if the first ones don't work.

 

[MacInWin]

I also had not realized that the Mac looks only at the first pair, and does not try each one in the list if the first ones don't work.

I've never heard that limitation. I think it just uses them in the order of the list, but as long as it works, it won't move down the list to find one "faster" for you. So, it's better to have a few that work well than a dozen with the faster ones last on the list.

 

[Rod]

This is pure coincidence but today I received an email from Cloudflare to say the macOS version of Warp was available. I had registered my interest in this over a year ago and today was the first time I'd heard back.
I posted my download times for this site earlier this morning on the "New Mac - Forums Bug Report Thread" and now find my download times have been roughly halved. The app (downloaded from here; https://1.1.1.1/) has a menubar icon allowing you to turn Warp on and off and set a wide range of preferences as well as a reporting mechanism with 24/7 support.

There is also an iOS app now available from the App Store.

It's important to know you can use the 1.1.1.1 or 1.0.0.1 DNS without their app, the app merely adds the DNS Protocol which goes with the DNS address. The site above explains this fairly well and it does add a layer of privacy.

 

[chscag]

Okay Rod, I installed it but not sure I understand exactly what it's supposed to do?

Their instructions on connections are not clear to me except that they're saying they intercept DNS.

 

[chscag]

Okay, I think I understand things now.

Warp will not work with my connection. I have a FIOS connection which apparently Warp does not understand and shows itself as disconnected. It probably does not work with FIOS which is not surprising. Anyway I shut it off. I guess it uninstalls itself as I can not find anything about it anywhere.

 

[Rod]

Okay, I think I understand things now.

Warp will not work with my connection. I have a FIOS connection which apparently Warp does not understand and shows itself as disconnected. It probably does not work with FIOS which is not surprising. Anyway I shut it off. I guess it uninstalls itself as I can not find anything about it anywhere.

On this web page; https://developers.cloudflare.com/warp-client/setting-up/macOS the list of what's installed, about the Warp Daemon, Log Files and at the very bottom of the page, the Terminal command to remove it.

 

[chscag]

Thanks Rod. I believe I uninstalled everything previously but ran the script anyway.

 

[MarkAllread]

Well I certainly blew it with my suggestion to delete the cloudfare DNS. Duh!
Never heard of Cloudfare at all but now I'm sure going to give their DNS and Warp a try!

 

[ferrarr]

When changing DNS servers, is it done in the router settings or the computer OS settings? Which ones take priority? What is the difference?

 

[MacInWin]

It is done in the Network section of System Preferences. There are different settings for each interface (Wifi, Ethernet, etc). The DNS servers are used in the order they are listed. Some DNS servers are faster than others and get updates on changes to the topology of the Internet faster than others. It does take a while for a change to propagate across all of the DNS servers. Google's servers seem to be pretty quick at that, as are some others. I don't trust Google so I use others. You can also use the default servers for your ISP.

 

[chscag]

I've been into my router's firmware menu settings and there is an entire menu item with options regarding DNS. My router does allow for adding DNS servers other than their default servers.

Some routers allow for that, others don't. I'm not sure that the DNS settings you enter in System Preferences, Network, Advanced, DNS, will override what the router has listed.

 

[MacInWin]

Charlie, I'm pretty sure it will, especially if you don't list the router as a DNS server at all. So, for example, if your router is at 192.168.1.1, as a lot of them are, and you do not put that in the DNS table, the Mac won't go there and you won't use the router table.

 

[chscag]

That's a good point. I have long ago removed the default DNS settings and replaced them with ones that I prefer.

 

[ferrarr]

Will power cycling through internet issues reset the router to factory default DNS settings or will only the reset button do that?

 

[MacInWin]

"Power cycling" what, Bob? The router, the Mac, what? Normally, just powering off and on should not reset to factory settings, but I suppose some routers might do that, if the power were off long enough. If a router has a reset button, it most likely won't change on a power off/on.

 

[chscag]

Every router that I ever owned had a reset button that would take it back to factory defaults. However, turning off the router and then on again did not reset it to factory defaults. Maybe some older cheap routers did that?

 

[MacInWin]

That was what I was thinking, Charlie.