Setting up NextDNS on your devices and home network

Tech Lockdown Team

Updated October 17, 2024

NextDNS is a relatively new option when it comes to DNS filtering. Compared to many other services, it can provide a reliable filtered connection for a device. It's privacy policy also emphasizes a least-log approach, which means that if information is not specifically requested to be logged, it will be removed.

The biggest advantage with NextDNS, when compared with other DNS Filtering solutions, is the ability to set up an iOS device with relative ease. With many filtering solutions, iOS devices like iPhones and iPads can be a weak point because of how Apple's has decided to make it very difficult to change certain settings for the average user.

This guide will show you how to get started with NextDNS on your iOS device, Android device, or Home Router.

Getting Started with NextDNS

NextDNS has a very generous free-tier, and for the average person, an account is not necessarily required (however, if you want to have access to more advanced settings, you will need to sign up). There is no limit to how many devices you can set up to use NextDNS, and between these devices, you are able to have up to 300K queries per month (in case you're wondering, that's a lot). You also get access to all of the features available on the platform, in addition to a powerful community support page.

It is strongly recommended to create an account. To do this from the home page, select the Try it now button, and follow the instructions for creating a new account.

Once you have an account, go to the my.nextdns.io address, or click on the button at the top of the home page.

You will see, listed under the Setup tab, a lot of important information. Some of this information you should keep a note of:

ID: This will be different for each account, and is a way for NextDNS to keep track of your DNS settings.
DNS Servers: These are useful when you are trying to set up your connections on a home network.
Setup Guide: This details several different options for how to proceed with different devices.

Setting up NextDNS on your Devices

Once you have an account set up, you can begin setting up your various devices.

Router

The most comprehensive layer of blocking comes on your Home Network. This will allow all devices connected to your Wi-Fi to have filtering enforced.

The router is the device that also handles Wifi. Sometimes the router and modem are combined into one device. In other cases, you might use a modem and router separately.

Find your internet router.

Check the back of your internet router for login instructions (if you didn't set this up yourself).

Try either IP Address in your browser's address bar:

192.168.0.1
192.168.1.1

Follow your Router's instructions to log into the device.

2) Access and Change your Router's DNS settings

Find your Router's DNS settings and switch from automatic DNS resolver to manual address.

Use the following addresses for your primary and secondary DNS servers:

Primary:

45.90.28.232

Secondary:

45.90.30.232

iOS

NextDNS makes it pretty easy to set up filtering on an iOS device. Because of the way that Apple has decided to handle DNS settings on their devices, you are normally not able to change the DNS settings on their devices. However, you can use config file to change these settings.

NextDNS on a Standard iOS device

You can use a special .mobileconfig file to store configuration options for your iOS device. Usually, the most difficult part of getting a supervised device setup is generating the config file, however, NextDNS has a pre-built config file that you can use.

Go to apple.nextdns.io

Make sure your config is selected, then select the information about your iOS device

Note: You cannot prohibit disablement when your device isn't supervised.

Download the config file and email it to yourself

On your iOS device, download the config file you just sent yourself.

You should get the popup message "profile downloaded". If you didn't get that message, go to the download folder on your device and open the file.

Open your device settings. You should see "profile downloaded".

If you don't see "profile downloaded", search for and navigate to "Device Management".

Open the NextDNS profile

Install the profile

Navigate to test.nextdns.io in the browser on your device. You should see:

{
    "status": "ok",
    ...and some other information
}

NextDNS on a Managed iOS device

You can use a Mobile Device Manager (MDM) to install the configuration profile using Apple Configurator.

Go to apple.nextdns.io

Make sure your config is selected, then select the information about your iOS device and select "more options".

Make sure you select "prohibit disablement"

Make sure you deselect the option "Sign configuration profile"

Download the profile

In Apple configurator, open the config file you just downloaded.

Prevent removal of the profile. Either require a password or restrict completely. Note that you can remove the profile using Apple Configurator with either selection, this just restricts removing the profile using the supervised iOS device.

Save changes to the nextdns.mobileconfig file by closing the profile editor (click the red X).

Android

Android devices are one of the easiest to change DNS settings on (especially when compared to iOS devices). The best way to make these changes is through the DNS settings on your device.

NextDNS on a Standard Android device

On your device, go to Settings.

Under Network & Internet, go to Advanced, and Private DNS.

For Private DNS, there will be an option for you to enter a Hostname. This hostname will be different for each user and account, and it can be found at your setup page under the Endpoints tab. It should look something like this: ID.dns.nextdns.io (replace the "ID" part of the address with your NextDNS ID, you can also find the full address on the setup page for NextDNS).

NextDNS on a Managed Android device

If you have a managed device, you will be able to change the device's DNS settings from the Mobile Device Manager (MDM).

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Test your Connection

To test your connection, visit the website on the device you've configured:

https://test.nextdns.io/

You should see something that looks like this:

{
	"status": "configured",
	...some more information here...
}

Customize your NextDNS Settings

Once you have a device connected to NextDNS, you are already using a level of protection above normal. By default, adult content, malicious links, and other harmful content is being filtered. However, you can modify certain settings to suit your needs.

Customize your parental control and block/allow list configurations

Here are the settings you are able to change:

Adding websites to the Allowlist or Denylist
Updating Content Categories
Changing SafeSearch settings for browsers
YouTube restricted mode
Block Bypass methods

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Closing Thoughts

NextDNS is a pretty good solution when it comes content blocking on your device. It's free tier is pretty good, and the paid version isn't that expensive either. It has a pretty powerful options for filtering when it comes to mobile devices and computers, and the content categories are relatively robust. However, there are some important limitations to consider.

First, while there is an option to prevent bypass methods, it is not a complete solution. If someone is motivated, they will be able to disable the filtering on the device relatively easily.

Second, all of the content categories that are maintained by NextDNS are entirely crowdsourced. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, there are other filters that provide better content filtering, like DNS Filters that specialize in blocking porn .

All in all, NextDNS a good starting point, but if you're wanting to get serious about blocking porn from your life entirely, there is more that can be done.

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