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?
On modern versions of Windows (and probably other OSes), you can configure it to use DNS over HTTPS with a service like Quad9 or Cloudflare, which will fix this.
To do this across all your devices, even those that don’t support DoH, install AdGuard Home on a home server or Raspberry Pi or your PC if it’s always on. ISPs can’t intercept DoH requests. Then configure your router to set the DNS server to your AdGuard Home server.
