Slow internet access via mobile phone - and a fix!
Mike Harding said
10:07 AM Oct 12, 2021
As I'm a permanent traveller all my internet access is done through my mobile phone which is usually set up as a wi-fi "Hot Spot" to provide internet access to my laptop computer and Android tablet.
My mobile account is with Belong which is a wholly owned Telstra company and uses Telstra's "wholesale" network, as does Aldi and others. Network speed and bandwidth is generally pretty good even though I often camp in places with only one bar of signal on my phone.
However what has been frustrating me for many months is that, say, 10% of the times I click on a link the browser spends ages trying to make a connection and will usually time out with a site not found message. If I click on the link again it may work or I may have to repeat the click/wait process a number of times - frustrating.
For some time I have assumed this was due to my poor mobile signal but although currently I am camped only about 400m from a Telstra cell the issue still persisted and I began to think about it a bit more logically.
If it isn't signal strength then there is a decent likelihood it's DNS issues with the phone's default DNS server with Telstra so I changed my phone's DNS server to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 and all is solved! Websites are coming through without delay. This indicates Telstra's DNS server needs its main spring rewinding or something....
A DNS server is somewhat like a phone book for computers to look up the real address of a website and if your computer cannot access the phone book it can't "resolve" website names.
Now: changing the DNS on a phone is not for the feint hearted, you will not damage or "brick" your phone but if it all ends in tears you will have to do a full factory reset which will result in the loss of all the data and applications on your phone.
There are a couple of ways to change the DNS server depending on your version of Android (Apple people can sort it out for themselves) and the easiest is:
Another advantage of changing to an external DNS such as Cloudflare, Google or OpenDNS is that your mobile service provider can no longer track your web surfing and keep the metadata for two years as they are now required to do under Australian law. Double check this statement but with Cloudflare's VPN I'm certain it's correct.
Happy DNSing
Gundog said
04:31 PM Oct 12, 2021
I'm a sucker I'll give it ago and see how it rolls, I started off using "changing android DNS" method, all worked ok, went back into the settings and changed it back to previous arrangement, then I got the Cloudflare App from Google Play, the up side of using the app it becomes a basic VPN.
So far so good no hang ups or issues not sure if it makes pages hit faster, but will see abit later when all the little darlings are home from school.
Found an issue opening my bank apps wont connect with Cloud flare running, pausing the app allows you to connect.
-- Edited by Gundog on Tuesday 12th of October 2021 05:10:58 PM
Mike Harding said
05:11 PM Oct 12, 2021
My phone is Android 6 so I chose to go with Cloudflare - so far so good, it's faster than before and I quite like the VPN although, so far, I haven't worked out how to switch it off! :) Oh well... Android uninstall usually works well :)
Incidentally Boost (Telstra retail network), for the next week or so, has an offer of 100GB with 12 month expiry for $170 so I've grabbed a SIM and we'll see how it compares to Belong, it's about the same price per month.
oldbloke said
08:46 PM Oct 12, 2021
I think this it s a common problem. Wife's Aldi is like lightening, mine on telstra very average. Yet I have a newer, better mobile.
Cupie said
12:57 AM Oct 13, 2021
Mike Harding wrote:
My phone is Android 6 so I chose to go with Cloudflare - so far so good, it's faster than before and I quite like the VPN although, so far, I haven't worked out how to switch it off! :) Oh well... Android uninstall usually works well :)
Incidentally Boost (Telstra retail network), for the next week or so, has an offer of 100GB with 12 month expiry for $170 so I've grabbed a SIM and we'll see how it compares to Belong, it's about the same price per month.
Boost (with whole retail network) should be better than Belong (with the wholesale part).... but you probably won't be able to see the difference sitting in one spot.
I have the old (no longer on offer to new customers) Boost plan of 80gig for 12months at $150.
Brodie Allen said
07:41 AM Oct 13, 2021
Have a click around - i was working on a speed matter couple of days ago and Im almost certain I saw
Vodaphone special 100GB monthly for about $50.
Worth a click to confirm?
Cupie said
10:04 AM Oct 13, 2021
Brodie Allen wrote:
Have a click around - i was working on a speed matter couple of days ago and Im almost certain I saw Vodaphone special 100GB monthly for about $50.
Worth a click to confirm?
Vodafone prices always good but their network is perhaps the worst.
Are We Lost said
03:06 PM Oct 13, 2021
Depends upon where you are.
I am on 4G mobile broadand from Vodafone for home and it is very fast while Telstra is so slow in the evenings as to be unusable.
I have Telstra (Boost actually) for my mobile and realise that Telstra far surpasses Vodafone for coverage, and usually for speed. But, it depends .......
I am on 4G mobile broadand from Vodafone for home and it is very fast while Telstra is so slow in the evenings as to be unusable.
I have Telstra (Boost actually) for my mobile and realise that Telstra far surpasses Vodafone for coverage, and usually for speed. But, it depends .......
Of course you are correct.
There are so many variables like location, but also one that we often overlook is the type of handset that you are using (as I discovered in my research prior to getting my last mobile). It is quite common for network operators to use one band of frequencies & protocols to carry a 'heavy' load close to the towers & others that are more suitable further out from the tower. This is particularly problematic in smaller communities where presumably single towers are used rather than a network in larger communities. Problems arise with handsets not compatible with all of the frequencies & protocols used. Telstra blue tick phones addressed this somewhat. Perhaps this is not so much an issue with the latest model handsets but certainly is with older ones.
We don't have 5G compatible phones so Boost's lack of 5G at the moment is not an issue .. yet.
It is the lack of Vodafone coverage out of heavily populated areas that turns me off. I got stuck in Cobar on one trip with no Vodafone service. Fortunately we also had a Telstra prepaid (terribly expensive ... with timed calls). Vodafone had been great on the trip down the NSW coast though.
ps. I have just today done the deed & ordered a second Boost long life prepaid SIM - 100gig for 12mths @ $170 to replace my Telstra long life on the backup prepaid that was due for usage & cost changes at my next 6mth $50 top up. Pity about the $80 carry over credit that we will loose.
Now all we have to do is convince ourselves that we can survive on 180 gig for 12mths & ditch the NBN home service that costs $81mth. The landline will have to go as part of that, but I think that I can 'connect' a modern cordless home ''fixed' phone set up to a mobile... more research! That's the end of Netflix that we have just connected, I suppose.
PeterX said
06:57 PM Oct 13, 2021
RE "......Belong which is a wholly owned Telstra company and uses Telstra's "wholesale" network, as does Aldi and others."
Belong and Aldi and others DO NOT have access to ALL TELSTRA mobile bands or frequencies. That is one reason they are cheaper and/or slower
Access to ALL the mobile bands, Telstra has (most likely the fastest) is reserved for Telstra customers.
This page is interesting because it has a map that shows differnce between
Telso MNO and Telstra network.
Shows massive difference in central QLD for example.
-- Edited by PeterX on Wednesday 13th of October 2021 07:03:39 PM
Are We Lost said
08:20 PM Oct 13, 2021
Thanks PeterX. I have often posted maps showing the difference, but the one with the slider you did makes it easier and more graphic.
But I think we digressed a bit from Mike's original post which I thought was quite useful, and he explained it well. In addition to the 1.1.1.1 that Mike suggested, a very popular one is Google's, being 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as the alternate. I prefer Cloudfare as Google knows too much already.
I had a similar problem to Mike. Some months ago I was having a lot of problems with some well known sites (including ABC News) randomly not loading. This was on the home PC, but mobile worked fine. Finally traced it back to using the default DNS for Vodafone. So I switched off automatic DNS and used Cloudfare's. Solved. But then I could not access Vodafone's billing page .... but did eventually find a workaround for that. And Vodafone seem to have fixed their DNS problem as well.
As a side note, Mike mentioned tracking. A further benefit is that these other DNS servers bypass the block on file sharing sites. The larger ISPs have been mandated to block them, and making this simple change overcomes that block.
Mike warned about risks with making this change to your phone ("not for the feint hearted"). I don't know why that would be because it's a simple setting change that can easily be changed back. Maybe the app in Mike's second link?
Cupie said
09:22 PM Oct 13, 2021
PeterX wrote:
RE "......Belong which is a wholly owned Telstra company and uses Telstra's "wholesale" network, as does Aldi and others."
Belong and Aldi and others DO NOT have access to ALL TELSTRA mobile bands or frequencies. That is one reason they are cheaper and/or slower
Access to ALL the mobile bands, Telstra has (most likely the fastest) is reserved for Telstra customers.
This page is interesting because it has a map that shows differnce between
Telso MNO and Telstra network.
Shows massive difference in central QLD for example.
-- Edited by PeterX on Wednesday 13th of October 2021 07:03:39 PM
I think that what is not stated here (but noted in the WhistleOut article) is that in fact BOOST has access to THE WHOLE Telstra retail mobile network, excepting 5G. ie the network with coverage on the LHS of the cursor on that great coverage map in WhistleOut's article.
That's why many of us choose Boost as our MVNO. (Mobile Virtual Network Operator ... I still use the old 'Reseller' term of 20 years ago even though that term was used by some to describe those entities who mainly resold Telstra's fixed networks).
landy said
10:01 PM Oct 13, 2021
The landline will have to go as part of that, but I think that I can 'connect' a modern cordless home ''fixed' phone set up to a mobile... more research! That's the end of Netflix that we have just connected, I suppose. I have often thought about trying to do this Cupie. It would be great if you could share the details if you manage to sort it out. Landy
-- Edited by landy on Wednesday 13th of October 2021 10:02:55 PM
oldbloke said
10:46 PM Oct 13, 2021
So,,,Mike, to be clear, did you just install the cloud fare app for Android.?
Cupie said
12:11 AM Oct 14, 2021
landy wrote:
The landline will have to go as part of that, but I think that I can 'connect' a modern cordless home ''fixed' phone set up to a mobile... more research! That's the end of Netflix that we have just connected, I suppose.
I have often thought about trying to do this Cupie. It would be great if you could share the details if you manage to sort it out. Landy
-- Edited by landy on Wednesday 13th of October 2021 10:02:55 PM
Landy ..
As I understand it the technology has been round for a few years but it is actually based on a cordless phone that has bluetooth capability.
So all you do is pair up your mobile phones (yes, some allow more than 1) to the cordless phone base station. When either mobile rings so will your cordless phone set up. You may even get a notification when you receive messages/SMS
You can make O/G calls on your cordless phone via your mobile service too.
I expect that your landline or internet phone line can also be connected to the cordless phone arrangement. Haven't confirmed that yet though. I don't think that any old wired phones connected to your phone system would work but I wouldn't think so.
I haven't looked into models and prices yet but as with most things the subject is well covered on the net. Just google up 'Cordless phones to Mobile' or something similar. I just looked at a Utube video that explained the process.
It looks like a very simple process.
Edit 2 .... Oops Sorry about hijacking the thread. I'll start a new one once I get more info.
-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 14th of October 2021 12:12:24 AM
-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 14th of October 2021 12:14:02 AM
Mike Harding said
04:14 AM Oct 14, 2021
oldbloke wrote:
So,,,Mike, to be clear, did you just install the cloud fare app for Android.?
Yes, I used the Cloudfare app. It works well and is simple to use and effective. I finally figured out how to turn it off (press the "Off" button!) so it's easy to return to the default DNS if required. Also, I'll qualify my previous statement regarding risk to say the Cloudfare app. is virtually risk free.
oldbloke said
05:43 AM Oct 14, 2021
Thanks Mike. Will give it a crack.
dorian said
06:04 AM Oct 14, 2021
Mike Harding wrote:
Another advantage of changing to an external DNS such as Cloudflare, Google or OpenDNS is that your mobile service provider can no longer track your web surfing and keep the metadata for two years as they are now required to do under Australian law. Double check this statement but with Cloudflare's VPN I'm certain it's correct.
I was of the understanding that a DNS server merely resolves alphanumeric domain names to numeric IP addresses.
For example, "thegreynomads.activeboard.com" resolves to "64.34.33.201".
C:\>ping thegreynomads.activeboard.com
Pinging thegreynomads.activeboard.com [64.34.33.201] with 32 bytes of data:
Your browser would then use the IP address to complete your request, or am I wrong? This means that your ISP would till be tracking you, would it not?
It seems to me that only a proxy server can ensure that your ISP never sees the IP addresses that you are accessing. That's because all such communications are encrypted.
I am by no means an expert, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Mike Harding said
08:37 AM Oct 14, 2021
Good question Dorian: I'm no network expert either which is why I put a caveat on the statement.
If you use Cloudflare's app. and its incorporated VPN then I am sure all traffic is encrypted and your ISP merely sees gibberish - a bit like some of my posts :)
However if you simply switch from your ISP's DNS to, say, Google's DNS then your ISP can still see what you are doing, however whether they are obliged by law (or just do anyway) I don't know as it's quite possible the law only requires them to log requests to their own DNS, dunno?
If all we are doing is changing the IP address of the DNS server to CloudFlare, and then using CloudFlare's proxy server as our VPN, why do we need to install additional software to do this? I used to be able to do this via Control Panel and browser settings.
Mike's Android link also explains how to do this, but I don't have a smartphone.
-- Edited by dorian on Thursday 14th of October 2021 10:29:48 AM
oldbloke said
10:46 AM Oct 14, 2021
Loaded up cloud fare. So far looks good.
But.
I had to turn cloudfare off initially for duckduckgo to work, but seems OK now.
Willy weather no longer works. Need to turn cloud fare off.
So far my impression is that it certainly helps. Will report back in a few days.
Mike Harding said
11:24 AM Oct 14, 2021
Oldbloke: Willy Weather works OK for me when using Cloudfare - I'd be surprised if it didn't, apps. should not, generally, need to even know of the existence of DNS/servers that's an OS task.
Dorian: You can simply change the local DNS address to point at Cloudfare/Google/OpenDNS et al, however, apparently, it's a bit involved to do on older versions of Android so Cloudfare provides an Android (Apple?) app which does that for you *BUT* what is really good is that that app also provides a VPN for your phone.
You could easily use one of the above DNS servers for Windows/Linux too - but, for me, my mobile phone hot-spot is the equivalent of a WAN router so pointing that to Cloudflare ensures all my gadgets will use their DNS.
peatop said
12:36 PM Oct 14, 2021
Great work Mike, I was having issues since I changed from Kogan 40gig pm yearly plan to their 45gig pm $25 yearly plan but paid monthly (yeah dribbling)
I setup the VPN and so far so good and yes willy weather and my banking app still works.
The MVNOs certainly have different coverage and this does not depend entirely on location as such, for example I lived in Portarlington Vic this is a reasonably small beach side town but during long weekends and holiday periods the mobile phone system by Telstra would basically be useless, the reason for this was that the influx of people into the town, most of which were on Telstras mobile would overload the tower. how did I overcome this? I changed to an Optus MVNO this solve the issues I was having and I got a better deal as well, so keep this in mind when your on the road, if you are going to be in a town with limited tower performance although Telstra has the better coverage it can also be the first to fail
Kogan uses Vodafone and I find that it becomes very patchy out of town where Telstra users seem to be ahead of everyone else. traveling north earlier this year once I crossed into NSW (Albury) it seemed that reception was none existent almost all the way to Sydney and then again once heading north. While on my return via the coast it was far better but others on Telstra again seemed to have far better coverage than all the others.
When picking your preferred carrier, something to note is some offer a monthly plan while others it's only 28 days this adds an extra billing cycle per year. sorry for high jacking but I just thought I would put it here as others had also discussed it here
Mike Harding said
01:10 PM Oct 14, 2021
Given how important the mobile phone system is to nomads this forum *really* should have a sticky thread or section dedicated to it.
Peatop: your point on Optus/Telstra is well made and indeed in some bush areas Optus have the better coverage as they took up much of the work on the government's "Black Spots" programme as Telstra didn't see enough return.
An Optus plan which is well worth looking at for most of us is their Flex plan; this costs $1 per day for 1GB data and unlimited calls/SMS but, and this is the nice bit, it may be switched on or off on a daily basis so you only pay for the days upon which you activate it. So if you are in a spot where Telstra is poor put your Optus SIM into the phone and check how good the Optus signal is, if it's OK then activate the SIM and it'll cost $1 per day until you deactivate it and data rolls over. Frankly, for travellers, it's crazy *not* to have one. NB. there is no cost for the time the SIM is not activated.
As I'm a permanent traveller all my internet access is done through my mobile phone which is usually set up as a wi-fi "Hot Spot" to provide internet access to my laptop computer and Android tablet.
My mobile account is with Belong which is a wholly owned Telstra company and uses Telstra's "wholesale" network, as does Aldi and others. Network speed and bandwidth is generally pretty good even though I often camp in places with only one bar of signal on my phone.
However what has been frustrating me for many months is that, say, 10% of the times I click on a link the browser spends ages trying to make a connection and will usually time out with a site not found message. If I click on the link again it may work or I may have to repeat the click/wait process a number of times - frustrating.
For some time I have assumed this was due to my poor mobile signal but although currently I am camped only about 400m from a Telstra cell the issue still persisted and I began to think about it a bit more logically.
If it isn't signal strength then there is a decent likelihood it's DNS issues with the phone's default DNS server with Telstra so I changed my phone's DNS server to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 and all is solved! Websites are coming through without delay. This indicates Telstra's DNS server needs its main spring rewinding or something....
A DNS server is somewhat like a phone book for computers to look up the real address of a website and if your computer cannot access the phone book it can't "resolve" website names.
Now: changing the DNS on a phone is not for the feint hearted, you will not damage or "brick" your phone but if it all ends in tears you will have to do a full factory reset which will result in the loss of all the data and applications on your phone.
There are a couple of ways to change the DNS server depending on your version of Android (Apple people can sort it out for themselves) and the easiest is:
Cloudflare
Otherwise take a look here:
Changing Android DNS
Another advantage of changing to an external DNS such as Cloudflare, Google or OpenDNS is that your mobile service provider can no longer track your web surfing and keep the metadata for two years as they are now required to do under Australian law. Double check this statement but with Cloudflare's VPN I'm certain it's correct.
Happy DNSing
I'm a sucker I'll give it ago and see how it rolls, I started off using "changing android DNS" method, all worked ok, went back into the settings and changed it back to previous arrangement, then I got the Cloudflare App from Google Play, the up side of using the app it becomes a basic VPN.
So far so good no hang ups or issues not sure if it makes pages hit faster, but will see abit later when all the little darlings are home from school.
Found an issue opening my bank apps wont connect with Cloud flare running, pausing the app allows you to connect.
-- Edited by Gundog on Tuesday 12th of October 2021 05:10:58 PM
My phone is Android 6 so I chose to go with Cloudflare - so far so good, it's faster than before and I quite like the VPN although, so far, I haven't worked out how to switch it off! :) Oh well... Android uninstall usually works well :)
Incidentally Boost (Telstra retail network), for the next week or so, has an offer of 100GB with 12 month expiry for $170 so I've grabbed a SIM and we'll see how it compares to Belong, it's about the same price per month.
Boost (with whole retail network) should be better than Belong (with the wholesale part).... but you probably won't be able to see the difference sitting in one spot.
I have the old (no longer on offer to new customers) Boost plan of 80gig for 12months at $150.
Vodaphone special 100GB monthly for about $50.
Worth a click to confirm?
Vodafone prices always good but their network is perhaps the worst.
Depends upon where you are.
I am on 4G mobile broadand from Vodafone for home and it is very fast while Telstra is so slow in the evenings as to be unusable.
I have Telstra (Boost actually) for my mobile and realise that Telstra far surpasses Vodafone for coverage, and usually for speed. But, it depends .......
Of course you are correct.
There are so many variables like location, but also one that we often overlook is the type of handset that you are using (as I discovered in my research prior to getting my last mobile). It is quite common for network operators to use one band of frequencies & protocols to carry a 'heavy' load close to the towers & others that are more suitable further out from the tower. This is particularly problematic in smaller communities where presumably single towers are used rather than a network in larger communities. Problems arise with handsets not compatible with all of the frequencies & protocols used. Telstra blue tick phones addressed this somewhat. Perhaps this is not so much an issue with the latest model handsets but certainly is with older ones.
We don't have 5G compatible phones so Boost's lack of 5G at the moment is not an issue .. yet.
It is the lack of Vodafone coverage out of heavily populated areas that turns me off. I got stuck in Cobar on one trip with no Vodafone service. Fortunately we also had a Telstra prepaid (terribly expensive ... with timed calls). Vodafone had been great on the trip down the NSW coast though.
ps. I have just today done the deed & ordered a second Boost long life prepaid SIM - 100gig for 12mths @ $170 to replace my Telstra long life on the backup prepaid that was due for usage & cost changes at my next 6mth $50 top up. Pity about the $80 carry over credit that we will loose.
Now all we have to do is convince ourselves that we can survive on 180 gig for 12mths & ditch the NBN home service that costs $81mth. The landline will have to go as part of that, but I think that I can 'connect' a modern cordless home ''fixed' phone set up to a mobile... more research! That's the end of Netflix that we have just connected, I suppose.
RE
"......Belong which is a wholly owned Telstra company and uses Telstra's "wholesale" network, as does Aldi and others."
Belong and Aldi and others DO NOT have access to ALL TELSTRA mobile bands or frequencies. That is one reason they are cheaper and/or slower
Access to ALL the mobile bands, Telstra has (most likely the fastest) is reserved for Telstra customers.
This page is interesting because it has a map that shows differnce between
Telso MNO and Telstra network.
Shows massive difference in central QLD for example.
https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/Telstra-network-coverage-vs-ALDI-Woolworths-Belong-Boost
-- Edited by PeterX on Wednesday 13th of October 2021 07:03:39 PM
But I think we digressed a bit from Mike's original post which I thought was quite useful, and he explained it well. In addition to the 1.1.1.1 that Mike suggested, a very popular one is Google's, being 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as the alternate. I prefer Cloudfare as Google knows too much already.
I had a similar problem to Mike. Some months ago I was having a lot of problems with some well known sites (including ABC News) randomly not loading. This was on the home PC, but mobile worked fine. Finally traced it back to using the default DNS for Vodafone. So I switched off automatic DNS and used Cloudfare's. Solved. But then I could not access Vodafone's billing page .... but did eventually find a workaround for that. And Vodafone seem to have fixed their DNS problem as well.
As a side note, Mike mentioned tracking. A further benefit is that these other DNS servers bypass the block on file sharing sites. The larger ISPs have been mandated to block them, and making this simple change overcomes that block.
Mike warned about risks with making this change to your phone ("not for the feint hearted"). I don't know why that would be because it's a simple setting change that can easily be changed back. Maybe the app in Mike's second link?
I think that what is not stated here (but noted in the WhistleOut article) is that in fact BOOST has access to THE WHOLE Telstra retail mobile network, excepting 5G. ie the network with coverage on the LHS of the cursor on that great coverage map in WhistleOut's article.
That's why many of us choose Boost as our MVNO. (Mobile Virtual Network Operator ... I still use the old 'Reseller' term of 20 years ago even though that term was used by some to describe those entities who mainly resold Telstra's fixed networks).
I have often thought about trying to do this Cupie. It would be great if you could share the details if you manage to sort it out.
Landy
-- Edited by landy on Wednesday 13th of October 2021 10:02:55 PM
Landy ..
As I understand it the technology has been round for a few years but it is actually based on a cordless phone that has bluetooth capability.
So all you do is pair up your mobile phones (yes, some allow more than 1) to the cordless phone base station. When either mobile rings so will your cordless phone set up. You may even get a notification when you receive messages/SMS
You can make O/G calls on your cordless phone via your mobile service too.
I expect that your landline or internet phone line can also be connected to the cordless phone arrangement. Haven't confirmed that yet though. I don't think that any old wired phones connected to your phone system would work but I wouldn't think so.
I haven't looked into models and prices yet but as with most things the subject is well covered on the net. Just google up 'Cordless phones to Mobile' or something similar. I just looked at a Utube video that explained the process.
It looks like a very simple process.
Edit 2 .... Oops Sorry about hijacking the thread. I'll start a new one once I get more info.
-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 14th of October 2021 12:12:24 AM
-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 14th of October 2021 12:14:02 AM
Yes, I used the Cloudfare app. It works well and is simple to use and effective. I finally figured out how to turn it off (press the "Off" button!) so it's easy to return to the default DNS if required. Also, I'll qualify my previous statement regarding risk to say the Cloudfare app. is virtually risk free.
I was of the understanding that a DNS server merely resolves alphanumeric domain names to numeric IP addresses.
For example, "thegreynomads.activeboard.com" resolves to "64.34.33.201".
C:\>ping thegreynomads.activeboard.com
Pinging thegreynomads.activeboard.com [64.34.33.201] with 32 bytes of data:
Your browser would then use the IP address to complete your request, or am I wrong? This means that your ISP would till be tracking you, would it not?
It seems to me that only a proxy server can ensure that your ISP never sees the IP addresses that you are accessing. That's because all such communications are encrypted.
I am by no means an expert, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Good question Dorian: I'm no network expert either which is why I put a caveat on the statement.
If you use Cloudflare's app. and its incorporated VPN then I am sure all traffic is encrypted and your ISP merely sees gibberish - a bit like some of my posts :)
However if you simply switch from your ISP's DNS to, say, Google's DNS then your ISP can still see what you are doing, however whether they are obliged by law (or just do anyway) I don't know as it's quite possible the law only requires them to log requests to their own DNS, dunno?
This seems to be a good explanation:
Stackexchange
The Cloudflare App that i am using is 1.1.1.1 by Cloudflare Its very easy to switch it on and off
If all we are doing is changing the IP address of the DNS server to CloudFlare, and then using CloudFlare's proxy server as our VPN, why do we need to install additional software to do this? I used to be able to do this via Control Panel and browser settings.
Edit: I answered one of my own questions:
https://1.1.1.1/dns/
Mike's Android link also explains how to do this, but I don't have a smartphone.
-- Edited by dorian on Thursday 14th of October 2021 10:29:48 AM
But.
I had to turn cloudfare off initially for duckduckgo to work, but seems OK now.
Willy weather no longer works. Need to turn cloud fare off.
So far my impression is that it certainly helps. Will report back in a few days.
Oldbloke: Willy Weather works OK for me when using Cloudfare - I'd be surprised if it didn't, apps. should not, generally, need to even know of the existence of DNS/servers that's an OS task.
Dorian: You can simply change the local DNS address to point at Cloudfare/Google/OpenDNS et al, however, apparently, it's a bit involved to do on older versions of Android so Cloudfare provides an Android (Apple?) app which does that for you *BUT* what is really good is that that app also provides a VPN for your phone.
You could easily use one of the above DNS servers for Windows/Linux too - but, for me, my mobile phone hot-spot is the equivalent of a WAN router so pointing that to Cloudflare ensures all my gadgets will use their DNS.
Great work Mike, I was having issues since I changed from Kogan 40gig pm yearly plan to their 45gig pm $25 yearly plan but paid monthly (yeah dribbling)
I setup the VPN and so far so good and yes willy weather and my banking app still works.
The MVNOs certainly have different coverage and this does not depend entirely on location as such, for example I lived in Portarlington Vic this is a reasonably small beach side town but during long weekends and holiday periods the mobile phone system by Telstra would basically be useless, the reason for this was that the influx of people into the town, most of which were on Telstras mobile would overload the tower. how did I overcome this? I changed to an Optus MVNO this solve the issues I was having and I got a better deal as well, so keep this in mind when your on the road, if you are going to be in a town with limited tower performance although Telstra has the better coverage it can also be the first to fail
Kogan uses Vodafone and I find that it becomes very patchy out of town where Telstra users seem to be ahead of everyone else. traveling north earlier this year once I crossed into NSW (Albury) it seemed that reception was none existent almost all the way to Sydney and then again once heading north. While on my return via the coast it was far better but others on Telstra again seemed to have far better coverage than all the others.
When picking your preferred carrier, something to note is some offer a monthly plan while others it's only 28 days this adds an extra billing cycle per year.
sorry for high jacking but I just thought I would put it here as others had also discussed it here 
Given how important the mobile phone system is to nomads this forum *really* should have a sticky thread or section dedicated to it.
Peatop: your point on Optus/Telstra is well made and indeed in some bush areas Optus have the better coverage as they took up much of the work on the government's "Black Spots" programme as Telstra didn't see enough return.
An Optus plan which is well worth looking at for most of us is their Flex plan; this costs $1 per day for 1GB data and unlimited calls/SMS but, and this is the nice bit, it may be switched on or off on a daily basis so you only pay for the days upon which you activate it. So if you are in a spot where Telstra is poor put your Optus SIM into the phone and check how good the Optus signal is, if it's OK then activate the SIM and it'll cost $1 per day until you deactivate it and data rolls over. Frankly, for travellers, it's crazy *not* to have one. NB. there is no cost for the time the SIM is not activated.
Optus Flex
You'll need to select the "Optus Flex" tab.
Can anyone suggest an alternative to willy weather? I don't like BOM BTW. Internet ATM does seem a lot better.
I like Weatherzone
DNS speed test tool
and will find lots comparison tools to test DNS
Probably need windows for most of them , but would give interesting results...