Decide who owns the account first
This is the most consequential choice on the page and it is not technical. Everything else can be redone in ten minutes; this one shapes what the setup is for.
The trusted person owns it
They create the account, they hold the password, and they add you as a read-only viewer if your provider supports that. You can see your own logs, which matters, but you cannot weaken the filter, shorten how long records are kept, or delete them. Attempts to add another editor are visible to them.
You own it
Friendlier, and strictly weaker. You can silently turn off logging, wipe the record, or delete the whole configuration at any point, and nothing tells anyone. This is a filter with a diary, not accountability.
Set up the account
Worked example uses NextDNS, because it is the one option confirmed to do all three things this needs: attribute activity to a device, keep a reviewable log, and give a second person read-only access. Most steps translate to other providers.
- Create the account, ideally as the trusted person, and pick a strong password stored in their password manager rather than yours.
- Check logging is actually on. Do not assume. In the log settings, confirm both that logging is enabled and that domains are being recorded. There is a privacy option that keeps the log while stripping the domains, which leaves you with a record that something happened and no idea what.
- Set retention longer than your check-in interval. Weekly conversations need at least a month, or a missed week erases the evidence. Options run from an hour to two years.
- Choose the storage region once, at the start. Changing it later deletes all existing logs.
- Turn on the anti-circumvention settings described in Friction: block bypass methods, and block newly registered domains. Without those, a category filter stops the front door only.
- If a second person needs visibility, add them under the access settings. Roles are editor and viewer; viewer is the one you want, and it is read-only by design rather than by agreement.
Free accounts cap monthly lookups. Past the cap the service keeps resolving names but stops filtering and stops logging, with no alert. One heavily used phone can reach that cap, and you would not notice: sites simply start working again. If you are relying on this for anything that matters, pay the couple of dollars a month. It removes a failure that recurs on a schedule.
iPhone and iPad
Apple devices take a configuration profile. It applies to every app, and because you install it yourself rather than through a management server, it also covers cellular.
Generate the profile, and the settings that matter
Open your provider's Apple profile generator. With NextDNS that is apple.nextdns.io. Two fields are shown; the rest are hidden behind More options, and that is where the important ones live.
| Setting | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Profile / configuration ID | Your ID | Which configuration the device uses. |
| Device Name | Set it | This is what makes the log readable later. It is baked into the profile, so changing it means reinstalling. |
| Device Model | Optional | Cosmetic. Helpful when several devices share one account. |
| Excluded Wi-Fi Networks | Leave empty | This turns filtering off on the networks you name. Putting your home network here is a self-service bypass, and it is the single most self-defeating option on the page. |
| Excluded Domains | Leave empty | Only for a genuinely broken work intranet or a local printer. |
| Trust root certificate | Leave off | It removes a certificate warning on blocked pages, at the cost of trusting a third party for all secure connections, and it needs a second manual step. A blunt error on a blocked site is a perfectly clear signal. |
| Bootstrap IPs | Optional | Helps on networks that interfere with the provider. A reliability setting, not a security one. |
| Prohibit Disablement | Only if supervised | This is the setting that stops the DNS being switched to Automatic. It requires a supervised device, and on an ordinary phone the profile will simply refuse to install. See Lock the DNS profile. |
| Sign the profile | Leave on | A signed profile cannot be edited, so it cannot be quietly altered to point at an unfiltered configuration. This is the most useful hardening available without supervision. |
Install it
- Download the profile in Safari. Other browsers on iPhone do not hand off to Settings reliably. Approve the download when asked.
- Open Settings. A Profile Downloaded row appears near the top, above your name.
- Tap it, then Install, and enter the device passcode. You will tap Install more than once.
- If the row has disappeared, the pending profile is under General -> VPN, DNS & Device Management. Downloaded profiles expire after several minutes, so download it again if needed.
The profile will also contain a short list of exclusions you did not add, covering captive-portal detection and carrier voicemail. Those are there so hotel Wi-Fi sign-in pages and visual voicemail keep working. They are expected, not tampering.
Mac
- Generate the same profile, with the same settings as above.
- Double-click the downloaded file.
- Open System Settings -> General -> Device Management, select the profile, and click Install. You will need an administrator password.
- Have the trusted person do that step, and install it for the whole machine rather than one user.
On a Mac the profile is not the lock; the administrator password is. Read the Mac section of Lock the DNS profile before you assume this holds, because an administrator can change DNS servers directly.
Android
There is no profile to install. Android has this built in, and the built-in version is good: it is encrypted, it covers every app, and it works on mobile data as well as Wi-Fi.
- Open Settings -> Network & internet -> Private DNS. On Samsung it is under Connections -> More connection settings.
- Choose Private DNS provider hostname.
- Enter the hostname from your provider's setup page. With NextDNS it is your configuration ID followed by
.dns.nextdns.io. - To make the logs readable, prefix a device name:
Sams-Phone-abc123.dns.nextdns.io. Letters, numbers and hyphens only, and a space becomes two hyphens. - Save, then confirm it took using the check below.
Private DNS is an ordinary setting with no lock. It can be switched off in seconds, there is no signature to check and no warning to notice. Unless the phone is under device-owner management, which is covered on Lock the DNS profile, this is an audit trail rather than a barrier: turning it off is easy, but doing so stops the log, and the gap is visible to whoever reviews it. Agree in advance that a gap is an event, or this layer does nothing at all.
Windows
Two workable options. The important difference is whether it covers the whole machine or one network adapter.
Provider's command-line client, as a service
The better option. It installs as a Windows service, starts automatically, covers every network interface, and is configured to restart itself if the process is killed. Installing or stopping a service needs administrator rights, so a standard user cannot remove it.
Check the desktop app is actually maintained before choosing it instead; at least one major provider's Windows app has not shipped an update in over two years while its command-line tool is updated constantly.
Built-in encrypted DNS
No third-party software. You set the DNS servers for the adapter and give Windows the matching encrypted-DNS address, then optionally require encryption so it fails closed. Changing this needs administrator rights.
The catch is that it is configured per adapter, so a new Wi-Fi dongle, a tethered phone or a VPN adapter is not covered.
Whichever you choose, the same rule applies as everywhere else on Windows: if your daily account is an administrator, you can undo it. Make yourself a standard user and let the trusted person hold the password, or this is a preference rather than a control. See Lock the DNS profile.
Linux and routers
Linux
Providers with a command-line client install it as a system service that starts at boot. Set it to report device information so the logs are attributable, and to re-apply the system resolver configuration at startup.
Router, and the trap in it
A router covers guests, televisions and anything you cannot configure individually. It does nothing for a phone on mobile data, so treat it as a supplement rather than the main control.
If your router cannot do encrypted DNS, you will be asked to link your home IP address instead, because with plain DNS there is nowhere to put your account identifier and the provider recognises you by address alone.
When it breaks, your whole house silently drops to unfiltered and unlogged resolution. Nothing announces it. If you use this, set up the automatic update option your provider offers so the link follows your address, and check it occasionally regardless. For accountability this is the worst failure shape there is: everything appears fine and the record simply stops.
Confirm it is actually working
Two checks, in this order. Do both, on the device itself, not on another one.
- Open your provider's test page. With NextDNS,
test.nextdns.io. It should report that the device is using the service with your configuration. - Watch yourself appear in the log. Load any ordinary site, then look at the logs and confirm the device shows up under the name you gave it, within seconds.
What this holds against, and what it does not
Worth reading once so you know what you have built.
- It covers every app, including pages opened inside other apps, and it works on mobile data. That is more than any browser setting achieves.
- It keeps a record someone else can hold. That is the part most setups lack, and it is what makes a conversation possible rather than a guess.
- It does not survive you turning it off, on any platform, unless the device is supervised or under device-owner management. On iPhone that is four taps. Read Lock the DNS profile for what it takes to close that, and what it costs.
- It is defeated by a browser doing its own encrypted DNS, which is why browser policy belongs alongside it.
- It blocks by domain, so content inside a service you have allowed is not affected. That is what allowlist mode and shrinking the window are for.
Where to go next
Stop it being switched off
What supervision buys you, per platform, and what to do if you will not go that far.
Use the record
What to review, how often, and why a gap in the log matters more than anything in it.
Test the whole setup
Find what still gets through, including in-app browsers and mobile data.