How to configure Google DNS on Mac and iPhone for faster internet

DNS is the part of your connection that turns a name like myownconference.com into an address a device can reach. Your provider hands your Mac or iPhone a resolver automatically, and Google runs a public one that anyone can use instead.

On a Mac there is also a reason that comes from our own webinar room, which is the DTS broadcasting app. The room keeps offering to install DTS when it is already running, because it reaches the app at add-on.mywebinar.io, which is supposed to resolve to your own computer, and some providers answer that lookup with an address of their own. Changing resolver is the gentle fix for that, ahead of editing system files. Alternative broadcasting technology covers the rest of that problem. An iPhone or an iPad has no app for the room to find, since the room runs in Safari there, so on those the change is about your connection in general.

These are the four addresses, and they are the same on both systems:

• IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
• IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844

Setting them on a Mac

1. Open the Apple menu, choose "System Settings" and click "Wi-Fi" in the sidebar.
2. Click "Details…" beside the network you are connected to.

3. Click "DNS" in the column on the left of the window that opens.
4. Under "DNS Servers", click +, type 8.8.8.8 and press Return. Do the same for 8.8.4.4, 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844.
5. Click "OK".

Whatever your router had supplied stops being used as soon as your own addresses are in the list. They belong to the Wi-Fi adapter rather than to one network, so they follow you to every Wi-Fi network you join. A cable keeps a list of its own, which you reach by clicking "Network" in the sidebar, then the wired connection and "Details…". macOS names that connection "Ethernet" or after the adapter, for example "USB 10/100/1000 LAN".

Then go back to the webinar room, reload the page and press "Speak". If the room puts you on air instead of asking for the app again, this was your problem.

To undo the change, open the same list, select each address in turn and click − below the list, then click "OK". Your router's addresses take over again.

Checking the answer on a Mac

You can see what your Mac now gets for the app's address. Open "Terminal", which you can find by typing "Terminal" into Spotlight, and run this.

dscacheutil -q host -a name add-on.mywebinar.io

The reply should include ip_address: 127.0.0.1, often with ipv6_address: ::1 beside it. Both mean your own computer, which is exactly where the room looks for the app. Any other address means the answer still comes from somewhere else. A VPN or iCloud Private Relay is the likely reason, both covered further down, and the hosts file is the fallback.

Setting them on an iPhone or iPad

1. Open "Settings" and tap "Wi-Fi".
2. Tap the More Info button ⓘ beside the network you are connected to.
3. Scroll down and tap "Configure DNS".

4. Tap "Manual". If the "DNS Servers" list already holds an address, your network put it there, so remove it with the red minus button.
5. Tap "Add Server" and type 8.8.8.8. Repeat for 8.8.4.4, 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844.
6. Tap "Save".

On an iPhone or an iPad the addresses belong to that one network. Your home Wi-Fi, your office and a hotel each need them set separately, and mobile data has no DNS setting at all.

To undo the change, open "Configure DNS" again, tap "Automatic" and then "Save". The network's own resolver takes over again.

When the list will not take your addresses

iCloud Private Relay is the usual reason. When it is on, it handles your lookups itself, and both systems say so under the DNS settings, adding that Private Relay has to be off before you can set DNS by hand. It is an iCloud+ feature, so this only applies if you subscribe.

You can switch it off for one network and keep it everywhere else. The network's own page, the one that holds its DNS settings, carries a switch called "Limit IP Address Tracking" on an iPhone and "Limit IP address tracking" on a Mac, and turning it off takes Private Relay off that network. To switch Private Relay off altogether, click or tap your name at the top of "System Settings" on a Mac or "Settings" on an iPhone, then "iCloud" and "Private Relay".

A VPN overrides the list in a quieter way. While one is connected it usually brings its own name servers, and those are the ones your device asks, whatever you typed here.

What this does and does not do

It changes who answers your name lookups. Those answers often come back a little quicker from Google than from a provider's resolver, and more to the point they come back honestly, which is what fixes the app case above.

It also means every name your device looks up now goes to Google rather than to your provider. That is worth weighing before you leave the change in place, and if it is not a trade you want once the change has done its job, the undo steps above put it back.

If it does not help

On a Mac the app case has a second fix, which is pointing the name at your own machine by hand in the hosts file. That is heavier than this one and it is written out step by step in alternative broadcasting technology, together with the browser permission the room needs to reach the app. A Mac can also hold on to an old answer for a while, and restarting it clears that.

If you came here because a webinar kept breaking up, DNS is rarely the cause. What to do when video freezes or attendees drop out works through the causes that are, and internet speed for the webinar room lists the upload and download a broadcast actually needs. On a phone the usual suspects are closer to hand. A phone that plays no sound is most often on silent, which a phone in silent mode has no webinar sound covers, and a picture that falls apart mid-webinar can be Low Power Mode, which webinars and power saving modes on macOS and iOS explains.

If none of that gets you there, open the online chat and tell us what you changed and what the room does now.

Frequently asked questions

Will this make my webinar run faster?

Almost certainly not. DNS decides how a name is turned into an address, and that lookup happens before the connection rather than during your broadcast. If a webinar breaks up while it is running, the cause is bandwidth or line stability, and what to do when video freezes or attendees drop out works through it.

Do I have to set this on every network?

On an iPhone or an iPad, yes, because the addresses belong to the Wi-Fi network you edited and mobile data has no DNS setting at all. On a Mac, no, because the list belongs to the Wi-Fi adapter and follows you from one Wi-Fi network to the next, though a cable keeps a list of its own. Attendees change nothing, because none of this touches the people watching.

Why can I not change the DNS servers?

Most often because iCloud Private Relay is on. Both systems say under the DNS settings that Private Relay is routing your lookups, and you have to turn it off in your iCloud settings before your own addresses take effect. A configuration profile from an employer or a school can lock the setting too, and then their IT department is the one to ask.

Is it safe to send my lookups to Google?

It is a trade rather than a risk. Every name your device looks up goes to Google instead of your provider. If that is not a trade you want permanently, put the setting back once the change has done its job.

How do I undo it?

On a Mac, open the same list, select each address, click − and then "OK". On an iPhone or an iPad, open "Configure DNS", tap "Automatic" and then "Save". The addresses your network hands out take over again.

I am on Windows. Does any of this apply?

The four addresses are the same, but the dialogs are not. How to configure Google DNS on Windows 11 walks through the Settings app and the older Control Panel route.