How to Change DNS Server on Debian 10 Xfce Using NetworkManager

Change Your DNS Server for Better Security, Privacy and Performance

Photo by Alina Grubnyak on Unsplash

Debian 10 Xfce comes with NetworkManager pre-installed. NetworkManager makes networking configuration and setup pretty easy. It uses your ISP’s DNS server by default. You can change it to use some other public DNS server for faster and “more private” Internet access.

I use Quad9’s DNS servers. It’s not-for-profit by nature and offers adequate security, performance and privacy for my uses-cases. But of course, you can use any public DNS servers, e.g. Cloudfare, Google Public DNS, etc.

I changed to Quad9’s DNS server with the following steps:

1. Right-click on the NetworkManager applet icon from the Xfce panel.
2. From the drop-down menu, select Edit Connections…
3. Network Connections window will open.
4. Double-click on the network connection for which you want to change the DNS server. Network connections are grouped by categories, e.g. Ethernet, Mobile Broadband, Wi-Fi, etc. I wanted to change DNS server for one of my WiFi connections. I found it under the Wi-Fi category. I double-clicked on that connection.
5. From the popped-up window, click on the IPv4…