Since I began using NextDNS, I noticed the top domain my Macbook was querying was ss-prod-ew1-notif-20.aws.adobess.com, by far.
I use Lightroom and Photoshop so I had to install the Adobe Creative Cloud thing. Even though I disabled the only two settings that could enable Adobe stuff running in the background, I noticed a bunch of processes running anyway.
Finally! I’m happy to report that I found a DNS service that perfectly suits my needs.
My requirements are as follows:
We all know Pi-hole, which is an awesome software. Sadly, it does not fit my requirements.
First of all, it’s only available at home, which is a total deal-breaker for me since I only work on mobile devices (laptop, smartphone) that come and go out of my house every day. Which means I can’t set my system resolver to PiHole because it wouldn’t work when I leave home and if I let DHCP managing my DNS settings, I’ll be using random DNS servers outside home.
While I usually use a VPN in public places like cafes, I don’t always do on networks I trust more, like my home or University. Nearly all of my network traffic is encrypted thanks to HTTPS, so my DNS requests are the only plaintext data I sent out in the wild.
I’ve been using DNS-over-TLS (DoT) on my Android phone for nearly 2 years thanks to Android’s native DoT support since version 9. After doing a little bit of research a while ago, I thought it would be a hassle to use an encrypted DNS protocol on my MacBook, but it turns out to be very simple.