Basically, there are two — keep in mind that this first part is intended for non rooted phones — main methods to change the DNS values on an Android device. The first way consists of manually setting the WiFi configurations and unfortunately, as the “WiFi” term suggests, it can’t be applied on mobile data. For this purpose, the second method covers both WiFi and mobile data scenarios since it’s based on the use of a third-part application. Also, this second way is simpler than the former. Let’s proceed with order by describing these procedures.

Android WiFi DNS setting up

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When you connect to a WiFi network on an Android device, you can edit some interesting settings such as adding a proxy, setting a static IP address, et cetera. This little freedom of customization suits our aim, as we have to simply set up a static IP address in order to change the DNS values. For instance, let “MyPrettyWiFi” be your WiFi network. Thus, once you connected your device to the latter—note that you have to do this process on each WiFi network which you want to change the DNS values of — , just go in the WiFI settings and long press on “MyPrettyWiFi”. Then, just choose the Modify Network entry. At this point, check the Show advanced options box and you should have such a similar situation:

WiFi advanced settings

Now by just changing the value DHCP to Static in the IP settings option, suddenly the following options should be displayed:

WiFi advanced settings

Finally that’s where magic will happen. So, you have to set a static IP address for your mobile device. But before doing that, you have to search for some network settings in your router — this kind of default info changes from model to model, but you could follow this guide whether you aren’t a networks expert — , such as your router’s IP (gateway) and your subnet mask (network prefix length). Once you got these values, just put them into their corresponding entries. In my case, Gateway = 192.168.1.1 and Network prefix length = 24 . At this point, you can finally choose a static IP for your mobile device. Anyway, in order to avoid any kind of addresses collision, I’d suggest to opt for the same IP address which your router assigned to your device — this info is displayed at the top of the Modify network page — or, as an alternative, you could choose (considering the subnet configuration) the fourth value of the IP address in a range [15, 30], for example. Thus, your new static IP address should look like 192.168.1.4, which is the address I opted to keep. Therefore, since the final step consists of changing the DNS values to the AdGuard’s addresses, you have to set DNS 1 = 176.103.130.130 and DNS 2 = 176.103.130.131 and just press the “Save” button. And we’re done! These should be the conclusive configurations:

WiFi advanced settings

Alternatively, to add the “Family protection” provided from AdGuard you could opt for DNS 1 = 176.103.130.132 and DNS 2 = 176.103.130.134 .

Mobile data DNS work around

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Unfortunately, as we forewarned in the introduction of this article, unrooted Android devices don’t allow us to change the DNS addresses for mobile data connections. Although, to turn this annoying problem around we can rely on some third-part applications which bypass the problem by creating a Virtual Private Network (VPN) — this way, unlike the former method we’ve just seen, you don’t have to repeat any procedure for each WiFi network or mobile data connection. Indeed, despite unrooted devices prevent the DNS changing, they allow the use of VPNs. DNS Changer is one of the best free apps I’ve tried till now. It provides lots of famous DNS addresses, such as Cloudfare DNS, Open DNS, Google DNS, and it also allows you to add your custom ones. Thus, you have to simply add manually the AdGuard’s DNS addresses and that’s it, problem solved!

DNS Changer screen

Once again, set DNS 1 = 176.103.130.130 and DNS 2 = 176.103.130.131 and press on the “Start” button. Also in this case, remember that alternatively you could opt for DNS 1 = 176.103.130.132 and DNS 2 = 176.103.130.134 to add the “Family protection” provided from AdGuard.

Please note that since DNS Changer is a free app, it contains adwares itself. But you have to deal with ads only when you press the “Start” button, because when the VPN will be created, the DNS changes will affect all the applications, including DNS Changer.