Dns4eu for Public

Yes, our DNS4EU Public Service is completely free for all end-users. Although primarily intended for users within the European Union due to our infrastructure's geographic distribution, we impose no restrictions on users from other locations.

However, our service is not optimised for government agencies, enterprises, or communication service providers (CSP).  Due to built-in DoS protection and rate-limiting measures, the public resolver is not suitable for handling large-scale DNS traffic typical of ISPs or large enterprises. Our rate-limiting measures accommodate regular users, both with shared or dedicated IP addresses, but not high-volume enterprise or CSP usage.

For higher level DNS protection DNS, please refer to our dedicated services for connectivity providers, governmental organisations, and enterprises.

DNS4EU Public Service  is backed by the European Union and operated under EU jurisdiction, designed to fully comply with EU laws like the GDPR, and emphasises digital sovereignty by keeping DNS resolution within the EU under EU oversight. 

It is an official service supported by the European Commission, and  it combines leading features from available DNS solutions:

• Data Privacy: User data is fully anonymised directly on our servers before backend processing. It cannot be used for advertising or other purposes. Our anonymisation process is transparent, and details are publicly available.
• Advanced Protection: Our security systems integrate Whalebone’s threat detection capabilities and cooperation with national cybersecurity centres, providing proactive regional threat protection.
• Filtering Capabilities: Users can benefit from built-in child protection and ad-filtering functionality.

To set up this resolver on your device, browser, or network, please refer to the setup guidelines provided. These will give you clear, step-by-step instructions tailored to your specific device or usage scenario.

If you run into any issues, please let us know by filling out the support form. Be sure to include details about the problem you are experiencing so we can assist you more effectively.

Our DNS service is designed primarily for individual end-users. To maintain optimal performance, we enforce a rate limit of 1,000 DNS queries per second per IP address. If this limit is exceeded, additional DNS queries may be dropped at the gateway or resolver level. Should you experience issues related to query volume, specific IP addresses or subnets can be allow-listed upon request.

While the DNS4EU resolver is generally stable and reliable, you might encounter limitations in certain scenarios, particularly when connected to public or transport-based Wi-Fi:

• Limited access to entertainment portals: Some onboard entertainment systems or localized Wi-Fi portals depend on internal DNS resolution, making them incompatible with external resolvers like DNS4EU.

• Filtering and protection issues: DNS filtering and protection may not function correctly if DNS queries are intercepted and redirected by the local network provider. To ensure reliable filtering and protection, we recommend using DNS over HTTPS (DoH) or DNS over TLS (DoT) whenever possible.

Our threat intelligence system leverages extensive cybersecurity expertise from the DNS4EU consortium, collaboration with CERTs across the EU, and third-party security vendors. Our detection engine employs over 20 advanced detection methods, including:

• Monitoring new domain certificate streams
• Calculating domain entropy
• Evaluating abnormal traffic patterns

The DNS4EU Public Service utilises the Whalebone DNS Resolver built upon Knot Resolver 6, developed by CZ.NIC.

Resolvers run on dedicated, scalable infrastructure provided by the European provider Datapacket. Our backend systems operate in a Kubernetes environment hosted by European cloud provider Scaleway.

Resolvers are accessible through anycast IP addressing, ensuring optimal load distribution and minimal latency regardless of user location. DNSSEC security protocol is enabled across all resolvers.