Faster Site Loading, Automatic Malware Protection and a Windows App Removal Guide
by HardwareSavvy
Hello Savvy fam. Welcome to the exclusive newsletter by me, Arsen aka HardwareSavvy. Did you know that you don’t need an antivirus to protect yourself from malware? Yes, there is a way to have it done automatically. About that and the missing Windows App Removal guide below!
By the way, this is how my once weekly premium posts will look like - a long guide on an important tech issue that would significantly improve your quality of life. Enjoy.
Windows App Removal Guide
It looks like some of you have not received the the guide you have been promised when you joined the newsletter. My apology for that, it looks like my email provider failed me with that one. Bit no worries, I am going to correct it! Please download and enjoy the guide at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMa6evGAEQ03B9Gk4Dog-6kdROceGiOv/view?usp=sharing
Now let’s move on to today’s topic,
Automatic Malware Protection
Malware is a type of a nasty program that can harm your PC. Though having a built in antivirus should never be disregarded, this method will help you pre-screen your web traffic for malware even before it hits your computer through DNS! It is easy to set up and comes with almost no downsides! In some cases, it might even help improve your site loading speed (if you live in a country with a notoriously high ping.
First let me explain why we’re doing what what we’re doing.
How Does DNS Work?
Because computers don’t understand human language, and say, you type “tiktok.com”, the server will not know what to do with that. In order to access the web site, there has to be a listing of all web sites and their respective IP addresses somewhere on the web. Sort of like a “Phonebook directory”.
In the nutshell, this is how DNS works:
Your computer send a request to a DNS server and asks for the proper IP address
Then the DNS server sends your computer the IP address of the web site.
Once your browser has that information, it just accesses the proper web server
This is a very big oversimplification, but it explains how does DNS work. Now you can see how you can benefit from a quicker DNS server.
How Does Changing my DNS Setting Improve Internet Speed or Protect Me?
As you say above, if you either eliminate that first step, where you connect to a DNS server first to look up the web site’s IP, you will connect much quicker. Realistically, we can’t eliminate that step, because then you will have to remember a whole bunch of random IP addresses for every web site.
These web site addresses actually change, too. So, the more realistic thing to do is to see if we can make the DNS lookup step quicker. How do you do that? You simply use an alternative free public DNS.
Similarly to the above, your traffic passes through a Cloudflare server before it reaches you. The CloudFlare server scans your data traffic, using special tools and algorithms, to see if it contains any malicious malware.
How to Find Alternative Public DNS Servers?
You can just Google “free public DNS servers”. And one of the top serches will bring you to several web sites. The top ones might be the Google Public DNS, Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 DNS, or you might even stumble upon a web site called Public DNS, which will allow you to try out many different options.
Which Free Public DNS is the Best?
Google’s public DNS is great, but the one I use is the Cloudflare DNS. Here is why. The Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 public DNS is faster in my case. It is private, which means that they don’t collect or store your information. Also, the Cloudflare family DNS is an amazing choice if you want to protect against malware or even protect your children from adult web sites.
How to Protect Against Malware with the Cloudflare Family DNS
Malware Blocking Only
Primary DNS: 1.1.1.2
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.2
Malware and Adult Content
Primary DNS: 1.1.1.3
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.3
How to Set Up Cloudflare DNS in Windows
How to Change Your Windows DNS to Protect Against Malware with Cloudflare Family DNS Above
First, choose one of the above: Malware Blocking Only or Malware and Adult Content. Some of you might ask why would you do the second one… Well we all have dads. I’ll just leave it at that! 😁
To change your Windows 10 DNS settings do the following:
Go to Windows settings
Click on Network and Internet
Under Status, click on Change adapter options
Right-click on your network adapter, the one without a red X
Chose properties
Click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
Click Properties
Click on the radio button that says Use the following DNS server address: Primary DNS: 1.1.1.1 Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.1
And enter the following settings
Press OK
Set up Google Public DNS
Ok, this one is optional, and you have to choose one. Either you are doing the malware protection from the step above or you’re doing the Google Public DNS. You can only set up one.
How to choose the right one? It depends on what you need: speed or protection
What are the pros and cons?
Cloudflare might not improve your web site look up and loading speed as much as Google will.
There you have it. You can try each and see how they work. At the worst case, you can simply delete these settings and go back to no extra DNS configuration. Simple!
How to Set up Google Public DNS in Windows
Go to Windows settings
Click on Network and Internet
Under Status, click on Change adapter options
Right-click on your network adapter, the one without a red X
Chose properties
Click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
Click Properties
Click on the radio button that says Use the following DNS server address: Primary
DNS: 8.8.8.8 Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4
And enter the following settings
Press OK
How to Change Router DNS Settings
You can change your DNS settings at a router level as well. This way these changes will not only apply to one machine, but rather the entire home network.
Because your router can be different from mine, just log into your router using 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, find the DNS tab and use the same settings as above for Google or Cloudflare DNS.
Conclusion
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