I just use Mullvad VPN’s default DNS servers (with ad blocking, tracker blocking, and malware blocking)

deleted by creator

Mullvad’s DNS servers at the router level.

I use NextDNS. I use it network wide on my home internet and also have it installed on all my devices.

https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy ina router

On the global level I use domain registrars like ionos or namecheap.

Local public, I use nginx proxy manager

Local private I use pihole and nginx proxy manager.

I see a pattern emerging. :)

When using the network-wide VPN configuration of my firewall, I also use OPNSense to enforce that all devices connect to my self-hosted Pi-Hole, including redirecting DNS packets that are sent to DNS servers other than my Pi-Hole IP. There’s a pretty cool guide for this: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=9245.0

When running a VPN client on a device, I just use the VPN to manage DNS settings.
Both Mullvad and IVPN have very solid DNS settings within their desktop clients. Proton VPN unfortunately lacks behind in this regard. That’s why I never use any Proton VPN clients on desktop, and rely on OPNSense, if I want to use Proton.

I use portmaster

TrackerControl on android, pihole at home.

PiHole with unbound (it’s its own recursive DNS resolver so you don’t depend on Cloudflare, Quad9 and others) set on my local network DHCP, plus AdGuard’s DNS Proxy to use PiHole outside my home on my phone through DNS over TLS.

AdGuard Pro which runs a local DNS server.

Pi-Hole using upstream Quad9 and Cloudflare, managed router redirect/blocking everything to Pi-Hole or no mans land, NextDNS out of the house for mobile devices or on WiFi I don’t control.

Single provide:Adguard on Device and OS level

DHCP at the router that gives out these two filtered DNS servers from AdGuard:

• 94.140.14.14
• 94.140.15.15

https://adguard-dns.io/en/blog/adguard-dns-new-addresses.html

Two piholes at home (redundancy). Those both translate all regular DNS requests to DoH using Cloudflared which rotate through 4 non-isp upstream DoH providers.

The router is set to block all port 53 traffic from leaving the network and handout the 2 pihole IPs to dhcp clients for dns. If a LAN device wants regular dns, it MUST use the lan servers or it’ll get no response. (or it can use its own DoH setup and/or vpn out of the network). This enforces the ad/telemetry/malware blocking lists pihole uses without having to configure dns on everything.

Those piholes also keep lists/records in sync using Gravity-Sync. Should I change ad lists or add/remove lan dns records, I don’t have to do it on both.