code/1.1.1.1-macOS
Archived
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions
This repository has been archived on 2026-03-31. You can view files and clone it, but you cannot make any changes to it's state, such as pushing and creating new issues, pull requests or comments.
1.1.1.1-macOS/readme.md

2.6 KiB
Raw Blame History

1.1.1.1 on macOS

CloudFlare has a cool app for iOS devices that enables easy switching to faster, private, and encrypted DNS queries. While switching DNS isn't exactly difficult, I found the user experience to be interesting - very easy to configure, just tap a switch and you're in.

Another interesting thing about it is that, unless they're doing some super custom stuff (which is totally possible), I'm gonna hazard a guess that it has to be built on top of NetworkExtension APIs. With the exception of smaller things like NEDNSProxyProvider, most of that stuff should work fine on macOS now... but very few companies ever take the time to take an almost-compatible iOS codebase and shim it for Cocoa/AppKit. The UI used on 1.1.1.1 isn't too difficult to do in macOS, though.

Thus, over the holidays I dug in to see how annoying it'd be to do. This implements a very basic VPN tunnel that sets DNS to go over 1.1.1.1, in a basic UI as a status bar menu app. Some screenshots are below. I probably won't be pursuing this further in lieu of working on other projects, so anyone out there should feel free to take this and extend it as they wish.

Also, side note: you probably want a true VPN instead of this, but this isn't a bad approach either in the grand scheme of things. Probably one where doing your research is worthwhile. :)

Screenshots

Disconnected Connected

What else is here?

This repo could also be used as scaffolding/reference for a nibless Swift Cocoa app, if you're into that sorta thing. I personally think Interface Builder makes anyone who deals with UI in code (web devs, etc) groan out loud, so maybe this goes towards showing it's not that difficult or outlandish to do otherwise.

  • It implements a taskbar app with a custom NSPopover view in code.
  • It implements a working UISwitch replacement, using a slightly-modified JSSwitch.

License, etc

This is very much a "do-wtf-you-want-with-it" license. Code is as-is. I'd like to give props to this list of TLDs by popmedic, because compiling it myself would've been annoying.

Questions can be directed to ryan@rymc.io or @ryanmcgrath on Twitter.