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How to Change DNS on a Netgear Router

Set a faster DNS server in your Netgear router's admin panel so every device on your network uses it — the exact BASIC → Internet path, with the honest caveats about encryption.

Updated 6 min

Netgear Intermediate ~6 min

  1. Open the Netgear admin page

    On a device connected to the router (Wi-Fi or Ethernet), open a browser and go to http://routerlogin.net. If that doesn't resolve, use the router's IP directly — 192.168.1.1 on most Netgear models, or 192.168.0.1 on some. Check the label on the underside of the router if neither loads.

  2. Sign in to the router

    Enter the admin username and password. The default username is admin; the default password is password (or whatever you set during first-time setup). This is the router's admin login, not your Wi-Fi password.

  3. Open the Internet settings

    On current Netgear firmware, click the BASIC tab, then Internet. The same page is also reachable via the ADVANCED tab → Setup → Internet Setup. This is the WAN page where the router configures its own upstream connection.

  4. Find the DNS section and switch to manual

    Scroll down to the "Domain Name Server (DNS) Address" section. Change it from "Get Automatically from ISP" to "Use These DNS Servers". This stops the router from using your ISP's resolver.

  5. Enter your DNS addresses

    Set Primary DNS to 1.1.1.1 and Secondary DNS to 1.0.0.1 (Cloudflare's example addresses). Use whichever resolver actually won your speed test instead — enter its two addresses in the four-box IP fields.

  6. Apply the change

    Click Apply at the top of the page. The router saves the setting and briefly re-establishes its internet connection, so you may drop offline for a few seconds.

  7. Renew DNS on your devices

    Devices pick up the new DNS from the router's DHCP lease. Reconnect each device to Wi-Fi (or reboot it) so it requests a fresh lease with the new resolver.

Why change DNS on a Netgear router

Setting DNS on the Netgear router itself applies your chosen resolver to every device on the network at once — phones, laptops, smart TVs, consoles, and IoT gadgets — without touching each device’s settings. It’s the practical way to cover things that have no convenient DNS option of their own, and it means you only maintain one setting instead of dozens.

By default a Netgear router forwards DNS to your ISP’s resolver. Pointing it at a faster public resolver shortens the lookup delay before each new site starts loading. To be clear about what that does and doesn’t do: faster DNS trims the time spent resolving a hostname; it does not increase your bandwidth or download speed. Pages feel snappier because the first step of loading them happens sooner, not because data moves faster.

Before you start, run the DNS speed test from a device on this network to see which resolver responds fastest from your connection, then use its two addresses in the steps above. If you also care about privacy or content filtering, compare options on the public DNS servers page before you pick one.

Firmware and model differences

Netgear ships several admin experiences depending on model and firmware age, but the DNS setting lives in the same place across all of them — the Internet/WAN page:

  • Current firmware (BASIC / ADVANCED tabs). Most Nighthawk and modern Netgear routers use the tabbed dashboard. DNS is under BASIC → Internet, in the Domain Name Server (DNS) Address section.
  • ADVANCED-tab path (same firmware). The identical setting is also reachable via ADVANCED → Setup → Internet Setup, again in a “Domain Name Server (DNS) Address” block with the “Get Automatically from ISP” / “Use These DNS Servers” choice. (This is an alternate route to the same page, not a separate older firmware.)
  • Nighthawk app. If you set the router up with the Nighthawk phone app, you can reach the same admin panel from the app — but the DNS field itself is a router-web-page setting. Open the app’s Router Settings and use the built-in web view, or just browse to routerlogin.net from a device on the network. The app does not expose a separate DNS control.
  • Orbi mesh systems. Orbi is managed through the Orbi app or the router’s web page. DNS on the web page follows the same BASIC → Internet path; the Orbi app itself does not have a dedicated public-DNS field, so use the web admin.

If your connection type is PPPoE or another authenticated WAN mode, the DNS section still appears on the same Internet page below the connection settings.

Encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT)

Be honest with yourself about what this step gives you: entering 1.1.1.1 on the router sets plain, unencrypted DNS. Most Netgear stock firmware — both the Genie and the current BASIC/ADVANCED dashboards — does not support DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) or DNS-over-TLS (DoT). There is no “encrypted DNS”, “DoH”, or “DNS privacy” toggle in the standard Netgear admin panel, and features like Netgear Armor are security/threat filtering, not lookup encryption. So don’t expect the router to encrypt DNS just because you changed the servers.

If you want your lookups encrypted, you have two honest options:

  • Encrypt per device. Turn on DoH/DoT on each device or browser that supports it. Our encrypted DNS setup guide generates the exact DoH/DoT endpoints for your chosen resolver and walks through the per-platform steps.
  • Use third-party firmware. Some Netgear models can run community firmware (OpenWrt, DD-WRT, or Voxel builds for certain Nighthawk units) that adds DoH/DoT at the router. This voids the stock experience and carries risk, so only do it if you’re comfortable flashing firmware.

Plain DNS at the router is still worthwhile on its own — the speed benefit is real, and you can layer encryption on top per device afterward.

Verify it worked

First confirm the router accepted the change: reopen BASIC → Internet and check that the DNS section still shows Use These DNS Servers with your addresses.

Then confirm devices are actually using it. On any connected device, check its DNS server. On Windows:

ipconfig /all

On macOS or Linux:

scutil --dns
resolvectl status

The DNS server listed should be the router’s own LAN address (for example 192.168.1.1) — the router hands out itself as the DNS server and forwards queries to the resolver you configured, which is normal and expected. To confirm the upstream resolver, reload this site and run the DNS speed test again; your chosen resolver should be the one in use, and ideally the fastest.

Troubleshooting

  • Devices still show the old DNS after Apply. Router DNS changes only reach a device on its next DHCP lease. Reboot the device, or disconnect and reconnect Wi-Fi, to force a fresh lease.
  • The DNS fields are greyed out or reset on their own. Some ISP-locked or fibre/ONT setups override the router’s DNS. If Netgear won’t hold the change, fall back to setting DNS on individual devices using the per-device guides.
  • You can’t reach routerlogin.net. Browse to the router’s IP directly (192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1), and make sure you’re connected to this router — not a guest network or a different Wi-Fi.
  • Forgot the admin password. The admin login is separate from Wi-Fi. If it was changed and lost, you’ll need to factory-reset the router (hold the recessed Reset button), which erases all settings.
  • A single device ignores the router’s DNS. That device likely has its own manual DNS set — a device-level setting always overrides what the router hands out. Clear it there.
  • Some sites won’t load after the change. Switch the router back to “Get Automatically from ISP” to test, then try a different resolver from the public DNS servers page. Site breakage is rarely a DNS-specific issue.

Revert

Go back to BASIC → Internet (or ADVANCED → Setup → Internet Setup), set the Domain Name Server (DNS) Address section back to Get Automatically from ISP, and click Apply. That restores your ISP’s default DNS for the whole network. Any device you gave its own manual DNS will keep that until you revert it separately.