Internet Providers, Wi-Fi Router Vendors Can Now Ship Cloudflare's DNS for Free – PCMag AU

You may not have to enter the same number four times in a settings screen to upgrade the privacy, security, and speed of your connection, courtesy of a new program from Cloudflare.
The San Francisco-based internet infrastructure security firm’s new home network security partner program, announced Tuesday, will allow internet providers and network-gear vendors to embed its domain name system service into their apps and hardware for free.
That option has always been available if you’re willing to tinker with DNS settings on your computer or router to add the 1.1.1.1 address of Cloudflare’s core service. But the interface contortions can get complex, especially on a smartphone’s smaller screen, one reason why Cloudflare ships smartphone apps. 
And many people never touch default settings until something breaks, which in the case of an ISP’s default DNS will present itself as your entire connection malfunctioning. 
Cloudflare’s new program invites partners to ship products preconfigured with one of its three core resolvers for free: 
A draft copy of Cloudflare’s post includes a “Premium Safety & Customizations” section that outlines a “Gateway” offering that would presumably cost partner companies extra and provide additional filtering options that include time-based limits on categories of sites. 
Cloudflare publicists did not clarify how much Gateway might cost or identify any partner companies that have signed up so far. 
This provider isn’t the first alternative DNS service to try to sign up ISPs directly: In June 2020, Comcast announced a deal with Mozilla to provide encrypted DNS to Firefox users on the cable operator’s network.
Cloudflare’s core line of business is providing content delivery and security services at an infrastructure level. That mission has left the company on the receiving end of some of the largest distributed denial-of-service attacks recorded when attackers have attempted to take out particular Cloudflare customers. 
But Cloudflare has also drawn criticism for continuing to provide these defensive services to some of the internet’s most offensive characters; Cloudflare has characterized that work as the company providing basic services that should no more liable for use as a content-moderation lever than an electric utility’s power lines. Two years ago, for instance, Cloudflare only dropped the viciously anti-trans forum Kiwi Farms after an extended outcry, citing “specific, targeted threats” from that forum’s users that represented an “immediate threat to human life.”
Rob Pegoraro writes about interesting problems and possibilities in computers, gadgets, apps, services, telecom, and other things that beep or blink. He’s covered such developments as the evolution of the cell phone from 1G to 5G, the fall and rise of Apple, Google’s growth from obscure Yahoo rival to verb status, and the transformation of social media from CompuServe forums to Facebook’s billions of users. Pegoraro has met most of the founders of the internet and once received a single-word email reply from Steve Jobs.
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