You change DNS in one of two places: on the individual device, or on the router for the whole network. Doing it on the device (your laptop, your phone) affects only that device and overrides whatever the router hands out. Doing it on the router changes it for everything on the network at once. Neither is ‘more correct’ - they answer different questions - and the reason to bother at all is usually speed, reliability, or filtering, not some abstract preference for one provider over another.
The steps differ by platform, but the decision underneath is the same everywhere: one device, or the whole house? Get that right and the clicks are trivial.
Table of contents
- On the device
- On the router
- Device or router: which to choose
- Does a faster resolver actually help?
- How this fits the rest of the stack
- FAQ
On the device
Windows: Settings, Network and Internet, your adapter, Edit DNS settings, switch to Manual, enter your preferred and alternate servers. Or set it on the adapter’s IPv4 properties for the classic path.
macOS: System Settings, Network, your connection, Details, DNS tab, then add servers with the plus button and remove the ISP-assigned ones.
iPhone / Android: Wi-Fi settings, tap the network, find the DNS or Private DNS option, and enter the servers or a DNS-over-HTTPS hostname. Note that mobile DNS often only applies on Wi-Fi, not cellular.
Popular resolvers to enter: 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 (Cloudflare), 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (Google), 9.9.9.9 (Quad9, which filters known-malicious domains).
On the router
Log into the router’s admin page - usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in a browser - find the DNS settings (often under Internet, WAN, or DHCP), and set the primary and secondary servers there.
# Find your router's address from a terminal
# macOS / Linux:
ip route | grep default # or: netstat -nr | grep default
# Windows (PowerShell):
ipconfig | findstr "Default Gateway"Once set on the router, every device that uses DHCP inherits the new resolver automatically. This is the efficient choice for a household or an office - change it once instead of on every phone, laptop, and smart TV.
Device or router: which to choose
- Change the device when you want the new DNS to follow you (a laptop that moves between networks), when you cannot access the router, or when you want one machine on a different resolver than the rest.
- Change the router when you want the whole network covered with one change, including devices that have no DNS settings of their own like many smart-home gadgets.
A device setting overrides the router setting on that device. So if you set the router to Quad9 but your laptop is manually on Google, the laptop uses Google. That override is a feature - it lets one machine opt out - but it also explains why a router change ‘did not work’ on the one device you had configured earlier.
Does a faster resolver actually help?
Sometimes, genuinely. Every fresh page load starts with a DNS lookup, and if your ISP’s resolver is slow or overloaded, a faster public resolver shaves real milliseconds off the start of each connection. It will not increase your bandwidth - downloads are not faster - but the time-to-first-byte on new domains can improve noticeably.
The other reasons are reliability (public resolvers tend to have better uptime than a struggling ISP box) and filtering (Quad9 blocks known-malicious domains at the DNS layer). If browsing feels laggy specifically when opening new sites, changing DNS is a cheap thing to try before blaming the connection.
How this fits the rest of the stack
Changing DNS is a small lever with an outsized effect on how fast the web feels, because every connection begins with a lookup. The same principle applies when you run your own services: where the DNS points, and how quickly it resolves, is the first thing between a user and your app. The RunxBuild hosting calculator shows the cost of a service and its bandwidth as line items, and the RunxBuild dashboard is where you point a domain at a deployed app and confirm it resolves.
Useful related references:
- What does flushing DNS actually do
- How to fix slow DNS lookups
- How to fix DNS server not responding
- Static sites and domains on RunxBuild
FAQ
How do you change DNS settings?
Change them on the device or on the router. On a device, open the network settings for your connection and enter preferred and alternate DNS servers manually; on a router, log into its admin page and set the DNS there so every connected device inherits it. Device settings override router settings on that device, so pick based on whether you want one machine or the whole network changed.
What DNS servers should I use?
Common fast public resolvers are Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1), Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), and Quad9 (9.9.9.9), which also blocks known-malicious domains. Any of them is a reasonable upgrade over a slow ISP resolver. Enter a primary and a secondary so lookups still work if one is unreachable.
Should I change DNS on my router or my device?
Change it on the router to cover every device on the network with one change, including gadgets that have no DNS settings of their own. Change it on the device when you want the setting to follow a laptop between networks, when you cannot reach the router, or when you want one machine on a different resolver. The device setting wins where both are set.
Does changing DNS make the internet faster?
It can make new page loads start faster, because every fresh connection begins with a DNS lookup and a slow ISP resolver adds delay there. It does not increase bandwidth, so downloads are not faster. The bigger wins are often reliability and security filtering. If sites feel slow specifically when first opening, a faster resolver is worth trying.
How do I find my router’s IP address to change DNS?
It is your default gateway. On macOS or Linux run ip route | grep default or netstat -nr | grep default; on Windows run ipconfig and look for Default Gateway. It is commonly 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Enter that address in a browser to reach the router’s admin page where the DNS settings live.