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Filter your traffic
You don’t want everybody to be able to access everything…
There’s a couple of open source solutions available T that can be used to block ads and other categories of sites or services that we may not want to visit from our homes. An example of this is Pi-hole, which is easy to install and configure. However, this section of the article will focus on NextDNS. NextDNS is a DNS over HTTPS (DoH) service, which can be used to filter out DNS for a huge range of things. We can block ads, trackers and newly registered domains, which are often used to host dodgy content, and we can also block online gaming, social media and lots of other categories.
While NextDNS is a commercial offering, it does have a free tier available, which would cover most single-device users, and its paid-for offerings are reasonably priced. Most operating systems are supported, and a number of routers can be configured to use NextDNS as their upstream DNS provider, meaning that entire networks can be protected. If you can’t configure your router, we will cover the provided client, which can respond to DNS requests from your devices and essentially proxy them via NextDNS’s DoH service.
So, let’s talk in a little more detail about NextDNS. This service is managed from a web portal and allows multiple profiles to be created. Each profile can have its own settings and can be utilised by different devices. For example, your author has a profile configured for his kids’ tablets, which is very restrictive regarding what is allowed, with ads, tracking, online gaming and various other things disabled. By contrast, another profile does not ban online gaming and is used by the adults in the house.