In this week’s webchat, Brendan and James speak about Quad9, a free security feature that adds another layer of protection against malicious content online.

Malicious websites and cryptoviruses are just two of the many constant threats online. They are very difficult to recognise and can devastate a business. Quad9 is a free and easy to configure security feature that gives you enhanced protection against various internet threats.

How does it work?

Every website lives at an Internet Protocol (IP) address. An IP address is a series of numerical numbers. This is what your computer uses to access a website. Your domain name server (DNS) is the internet's equivalent of a phone book. The DNS translates the website you are requesting into an IP address. 

Typically, your internet service provider supplies the translation to change your domain into an IP address. Quad9 takes the place of the internet service provider's DNS servers. Quad9 routes your DNS queries through a secure network. It checks against a list of known malicious IP addresses to detect threats such as being infected by malicious sites and phishing scams. If a threat is recognised you'll be automatically blocked from entering the site, thus giving you more protection against your computer being infected by viruses. 

How to set this up?

Switching to Quad9 is a very easy process. There are two ways, both of which involve changing DNS settings.

Option 1: The simple way to protect one individual computer at a time is to go into that computer's network settings and change the DNS server from your internet provider's default to the Quad9 one, which is 9.9.9.9

Option 2: If you have a network with multiple computers, tablets and smartphones the second, more advanced option is to change that setting once in your network router. We would suggest getting an IT specialist to do this for you. Or; if you are technical, log into your router and on your DHCP server settings, instead of offering up your service providers DNS server, change that to 9.9.9.9

Click here to go to Quad9's website to watch their easy to follow videos on how to configure these settings. 

There is no reason not to use Quad9, even if you are running antivirus or a WatchGuard gateway. It is an effective and easy way to add an additional layer of defence. It is something we think you should take advantage of. And best of all, it is free!

If you want to find out more information visit Quad9 and check it out for yourself!