NextDNS stops working in Russia after its servers are blocked

NextDNS, a popular paid DNS service that filters ads and trackers and encrypts DNS lookups, has stopped working for many users in Russia. Since late October, users in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Omsk and Syktyvkar have reported on the NextDNS support forum that websites and apps fail to load while their devices are set to use the service. On October 31 a NextDNS staff member said in another thread that, judging by the reports, the company's IP addresses and TLS names had been blocked. "There isn't much we can do unfortunately," the employee wrote.

What users are seeing

A DNS service turns site names into server addresses, so when the resolver a device relies on is unreachable, almost nothing works. Phones still show a network connection, but pages, messengers and apps stop loading. A user in Omsk on the ISP Dom.ru posted a diagnostic report showing that connections to every NextDNS server timed out, over both IPv4 and IPv6. In Syktyvkar, one user said the service still worked on a wired connection but not on the Yota mobile network. Several users said everything loaded again when they turned on a VPN.

Neither Roskomnadzor, Russia's internet regulator, nor any ISP has commented on the outage. The users on the forum blame the state filtering equipment that Russian operators are required to install, known as TSPU, but the thread itself does not confirm the cause. The story spread in Russian media on November 1 after a reader's post in the community section of Naked Science.

Why a new server name will not help

Users asked NextDNS for an alternative address for Russia, or for separate servers on different networks. The staff member replied that because the IP addresses are blocked as well, a different hostname would not be effective. The company has not said whether it plans anything else.

Part of a wider squeeze on encrypted DNS

NextDNS is the latest service caught up in Russia's restrictions on encrypted DNS, which hides from the ISP which sites a user looks up. In late August, subscribers of Rostelecom, Dom.ru, Tattelecom and other operators reported that DNS over HTTPS and DNS over TLS from Google and Cloudflare had stopped working, Anti-Malware.ru reported. Separately, Cloudflare has said since June 2025 that Russian ISPs throttle connections to sites behind its network, cutting each download off after the first 16 KB.

If your phone or router uses NextDNS

Anyone in Russia with NextDNS set up, including travelers whose phones were configured abroad, can get the internet back by switching DNS to the default:

• Android: Settings, Network and internet, Private DNS. Choose "Automatic" or "Off" instead of the NextDNS hostname. On Samsung and Xiaomi phones the option sits under Connections or Connection and sharing.
• iPhone: remove the NextDNS configuration profile in Settings, General, VPN and Device Management, or turn off the NextDNS app.
• Mac: remove the profile in System Settings, General, Device Management, or quit the NextDNS app.
• Router: replace the NextDNS addresses in the DNS settings or set DNS back to automatic, so the router takes it from the ISP.
• Browser: if NextDNS is set as the secure DNS provider in Chrome or Firefox, switch it back to the default.

Default DNS comes from the ISP. The operator then sees which sites you look up, its filters apply, and the ad and tracker blocking that NextDNS provided is gone.