DNS Filter in ASUS Merlin (or in ASUS Stock firmware at some time) vs DNSFilter.Com

[esfu]

I am confused between DNS Filter available in ASUS Merlin (or was available in ASUS Stock firmware at some point of time) vs DNSFilter.Com which is a company providing commercial DNS Filtering. When I search for DNS Filter in Google, it mostly takes to the company website.

If someone can explain the difference between the two above, it will be appreciated.

 

[AndreiV]

Nothing to get confused about.

DNSfilter.com is a business offering a maintained DNS filtering service for businesses.

DNS filter (and Director) on the router allow you to select a free public DNS service , some with filters, so that your traffic is run through them .

Both do much the same thing .

 

[bennor]

RMerlin, in the 388.1 firmware for AX series routers and the alpha 386.9 firmware for the AC series routers, makes note in the Change Log file that DNS Filter feature in the Asus-Merlin firmware has been renamed to DNS Director because there is a company named DNSFilter.

CHANGED: Rebranded DNSFilter as DNS Director. This will prevent confusion with the company sharing the same name, and also better describes what the feature does.

Further, RMerlin mentions the change elsewhere (in the 388.1 firmware threads). For example (from this link and this link):

One thing worth mentionning is that I have decided to rebrand DNSFilter as DNS Director. There was no change in functionality. The name change was to avoid confusion with the company that bears the same name, and also to better describe what this feature does.

 

[bbunge]

There are several on line services that provide DNS that blocks malware and porn sites. Ads can also be blocked. Quad9, Cleanbrowsing and Cloudflare are a couple as well as your DNSFilter.com.
DNS Director in Merlin firmware, formerly called DNS Filter, is a router service that redirects DNS queries to a DNS service of your choice as some IoT clients have hard coded DNS servers. Also, kids have discovered that they can bypass your efforts to keep them out of certain sites by setting a DNS server in their client. DNS Director redirects those attempts. Asus has included parts of DNS Director in newer firmware but it can only be enabled via the router app as a Safe Browsing function.

 

[RMerlin]

One thing I want to note: I created DNSFilter almost a year before the company of the same name got created...