DNS Forge is a DNS provider based in Germany that promises censorship-free access to the Internet, and a secure and private DNS system with ad-blocking.
It looks to me as if news coverage of DNS and technologies associated with it have gone down considerably in recent time. DNS, Domain Name System, is an essential part of the Internet. It is used to translate domain names, which humans prefer, to IP addresses, which computers use.
DNS over HTTPS and other technologies designed to improve privacy and security are not really talked about that much anymore. Most browsers support DNS over HTTPS by know. You may check my guide on enabling DNS over HTTPS in your browser of choice if you need assistance.
DNS works automatically. If you don’t configure it, you use the DNS service of your Internet or network provider. Some of them collect the data and sell them to other companies.
DNS over HTTPS is one way of preventing that. Another is the switching to another DNS provider, preferably one that promises privacy and also supports DNS over HTTPS. DNS Forge is such a provider. There is one downside to using the provider, and that is that it operates servers in Germany only. The further away you live, the longer it will take to process your requests. There is also a 70 queries per 10 seconds limit on lookups.
There are alternatives. Mullvad, known for its private VPN service, operates public encrypted DNS servers as well.
Remember, there is more to security than strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
DNS Forge: the basics
The project website provides all information required to start using the service. DNS Forge supports a variety of DNS technologies:
- DNS
- DNS Clean (like DNS but with youth protection block lists and Safe Search)
- DNS over TLS
- DNS over HTTPS
- DNS over Quic
All services include ad-blocking, DNSSEC and no logging by default.
Instructions on switching to DNS Forge are provided for mobile devices running Android and iOS, Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. You may also set up DNS Forge on desktop systems.
You could set up the DNS over HTTPS technology in the browser’s that you use on your devices and, depending on the operating system, the same or another to cover all bases.
DNS Forge works automatically after setup. Ads are blocked automatically. If you change to the DNS provider on the system level, you will benefit from ad blocking in all applications. Note that some browsers may use their own DNS servers and not the servers set up on the system level. This is why you may need to configure them in the browser separately.
Verdict
If you live close to Germany geographically, then you will get the best performance out of the service. Once set up, it works automatically. The only decisions you have to make is whether you want to use the additional youth protections and where you will add the DNS information on your devices / apps.
The service passed the DNS Leak Test, which is good. Running the leak test prior and after setting up a private secure DNS provider is a good idea.
If you live far away from the German server, you may want to consider using equally respected DNS solutions, such as the one from Mullvad.