1.1.1.1 is a free

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...

(DNS) service by the American company

Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...

in partnership with APNIC. The service functions as a recursive name server, providing domain name resolution for any host on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. The service was announced on April 1, 2018. On November 11, 2018, Cloudflare announced a mobile application of their 1.1.1.1 service for Android and iOS. On September 25, 2019, Cloudflare released WARP, an upgraded version of their original 1.1.1.1 mobile application.

Service

The 1.1.1.1 DNS service operates recursive name servers for public use at the twelve

IP addresses An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface id ...

listed below. These addresses are mapped to the nearest operational server by anycast routing. The DNS service is also available for

Tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Toronto, Canada ** Toronto Raptors * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor ...

clients. Users can set up the service by manually changing their DNS resolvers to the IP addresses below. Mobile users on both Android and iPhone have the alternative of downloading the 1.1.1.1 mobile application, which automatically configures the DNS resolvers on the device.

Technology

1.1.1.1 is a recursive DNS resolver. Cloudflare runs an authoritative DNS resolver with a network of over 20 million Internet properties. With the recursor and the resolver on the same network, some DNS queries can be answered directly. With the release of the 1.1.1.1 mobile application in November 2018, Cloudflare added the ability for users to encrypt their DNS queries over

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protoc ...

( DoH) or TLS ( DoT). Later on, a VPN tunnel was implemented based on

's own BoringTun, a

user space A modern computer operating system usually uses virtual memory to provide separate address spaces or regions of a single address space, called user space and kernel space. This separation primarily provides memory protection and hardware prote ...

implementation of WireGuard written in

Rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

Prior usage of the IP address

Technology websites noted that by using as the

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

for its service, Cloudflare exposed misconfigurations in existing setups that violated Internet standards (such as RFC 1918). was not a reserved IP address, yet was abused by many existing routers (mostly those sold by

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

) and companies for hosting login pages to private networks, exit pages or other purposes, rendering the proper routing of impossible on those systems. Additionally, is blocked on many networks and by multiple ISPs because the simplicity of the address means that it was previously often used inappropriately for testing purposes and not legitimate use. These previous uses have led to a huge influx of garbage data to Cloudflare's servers.

Cleanup of and

The IP block was assigned in 2010 to APNIC; before this time it was unassigned space. An unassigned IP space, however is not the same as a reserved IP space for private use (called a reserved IP address). For example,

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

has said it is working on fixing this issue within its CPE hardware.

WARP

In September 2019, Cloudflare released a VPN service called WARP which is built into the 1.1.1.1 app. WARP is based on Cloudflare's own WireGuard implementation written in

called BoringTun. It tunnels the connection between device and nearest Cloudflare data center, claiming to increase connection speed, encrypting data and DNS requests. Connection speed gain is claimed to be achieved by converting TCP to UDP traffic (both

IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the first version of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a standalone specification. It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. ...

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

are supported), DNS resolution inside Cloudflare's network, and direct access to sites which are using Cloudflare's infrastructure. Although WARP connects to the closest datacentre, it hides the user's

, instead "replacing" it with a Cloudflare address which represents the user's approximate location.

WARP+ and WARP+ Unlimited

WARP+ routes users' internet traffic into less congested pathways using Cloudflare's own private backbone called Argo, which makes it much faster than basic WARP. WARP+ is a limited data plan, to get more data to use WARP+, users must refer more people to use the service. WARP+ Unlimited is a paid monthly subscription service to secure more data to use for WARP+ without any data limits.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://one.one.one.one
The Cloudflare Blog

Cloudflare Docs: Setting up 1.1.1.1

Cloudflare Docs: 1.1.1.1 Public DNS Resolver
Alternative Internet DNS services Internet properties established in 2018 IP addresses Cloudflare