EDIT: So because of my $0 budget and the fact that my uptime is around 50% (PC, no additional servers) I ended up using NextDNS. For the time being it works (according to dnsleaktest), an added benefit was improved ad-blocking (100% in this tool). I now have plans for a proper router in the future with a Pi-hole. Thanks so much for all the info & suggestions, definitely learnt a lot.
So it turns out I got myself into an ISP that was shittier than expected (I already knew it was kinda shitty), they DNS hijack for whatever reason and I can’t manually set my own DNS on my router or even my devices.
Cyber security has never been my forte but I’m always trying to keep learning as I go. I’ve read that common solutions involve using a different port (54) or getting a different modem/router or just adding a router.
Are they all true? Whats the cheapest, easiest way of dealing with all of this?
Correct.
Wow. What kind of bullshit ISP blocks outbound DNS requests? I would bitch loudly at them as they have no valid excuse for doing that. Anyway… In that case you have a few options. You can use DNS over https but that’s supported primarily by browsers. Not so much other desktop applications. I would get a router that’s capable of WireGuard and connect it to ProtonVPN (or another VPN service of your choice). You don’t have to route all traffic over VPN if you don’t want to but at least you’ll be able to use whatever DNS server you want.
US ISPs. It’s amazing what you can get away with when you own enough politicians
In Italy Vodafone blocks that request for “safety” and they were forcing users to use a custom proprietary shitty router where you could barely change the wifi password
PiHole can be configured to use DoH, as can OpnSense and presumably other local DNS and router servers.
The bypass is to run your own router, distribute locally hosted dns servers (either the router or pihole) and the dns servers get their lookups over dns over https (443) and your provider can’t intercept that since it looks like regular encrypted Web traffic just like they shouldn’t be able to inspect your netbank.
Australia is different but these isps who do that generally have a +$5 per month plan to go to a static public rout able public Up (instead of cgnat) and unfiltered Internet. They usually are more allowing mum and dad to filter the Web so their kids can’t get too far off track. Maybe just double check on your ISP portal settings but I’m going to assume you’re not in aus.
I’m in MX. It’s not like they actually care about giving the consumer proper permissions. The “business” solution keeps the DNS shenanigans.