This hub collects every tactical guide that protects your network traffic from ISP logging, DNS profiling, captive portals, travel networks, hotel routers, and device-level leaks. If you want your traffic to look encrypted and boring, start here.
Control the infrastructure that moves your data. Routers, DNS, VPNs, and traffic paths decide what leaks. This hub shows you how to own that layer.
LAST UPDATED: Jan 2026 (in progress)
The Network Privacy Stack
Network privacy is not about hiding traffic. It’s about deciding where it goes, who can see it, and what gets logged. If you don’t control the network layer, everything above it is cosmetic.
SECTION 1 – START HERE
Core Orientation Guides
- What Network Privacy Actually Means
- Why Apps Can’t Fix Network Leaks
- How Your Traffic Really Moves
- The Router Is the Border
- Why You Want Your Own Router and Not the One From Your ISP
Want all the how to guides in one place? Join the SECURE CHANNEL
Related Master Guides
The master guides give you the system level defenses behind the tactical steps. Each of these expands the footprint work into system level defenses.
- Operational Privacy: From Setup to System
SECTION 2 – EXPOSURE DISCOVERY
Identify Network Leaks
Before hardening anything, you need to see what’s leaking. Most people skip this and build blind.
- How to Check Router Behavior
- Captive Portals and Silent Metadata
SECTION 3 – DNS CONTROL
Resolution Is Identity
DNS reveals intent even when traffic is encrypted. This is not optional. Cut ISPs, hotels, captive portals, and mobile carriers out of your resolution path.
- How to Set Up NextDNS and Kill ISP Tracking for Good
- NextDNS vs Pi-hole vs AdGuard: What Actually Protects You?
- When to Use AdGuard vs NextDNS (and When You Should Use Both)
- NextDNS Hostname Guide: What Each Label Actually Means
- OISD vs Hagezi: Which DNS Blocklist Should You Use in 2026?
- How to Force Encrypted DNS on Every Device
- How to Stop DNS Leaks on Windows, Android, and Routers
- Why DNS Is the First Leak Point
- Unbound + NextDNS Hybrid Setup
SECTION 4 – VPN DISCIPLINE
Traffic Routing and Exit Control
VPN misuse creates false confidence. How to tunnel traffic cleanly and avoid leaks, speed traps, and token bleed.
- How to Use VPN + Encrypted DNS the Right Way
- Double Layer VPN: When It Helps and When It Hurts
- Kill Switch Hardening on All Major Platforms
- Router VPN vs Device VPN: What Actually Changes
SECTION 5 – Router & Home Network Hardening
The Border You Control
Your router decides everything. Treat it like infrastructure, not a gadget. Segment devices, isolate threats, and stop metadata leaks at home.
- Build a Clean Home Network: Segmentation, Firewalls, Isolation
- How to Replace Your ISP Router With Something Safe
- Router Privacy Checklist for 2026
- How to Block Tracking at the Router Level
SECTION 6 – TRAVEL NETWORK SAFETY
Moving Without Bleeding Metadata
Hotels and airports are hostile networks. Assume logging, injection, and profiling. Move through hostile networks without bleeding identity.
- Travel Router Lockdown: Move Without Bleeding Metadata
- How to Use a Travel Router in Hotels and Airports Safely
- Captive Portals: How to Authenticate Without Exposing Your Identity
- Public WiFi Survival: DNS, VPN, Containers, and No Tokens
- How to Set Up a Clean Network Environment Anywhere
SECTION 7 – MOBILE NETWORK PRIVACY
Carrier Metadata Control
Phones leak differently. Carrier networks are their own threat model. Kill carrier level metadata and mobile DNS leaks.
- How to Force Secure DNS on Mobile
- How to Stop Carrier Level Profiling
- Mobile Hotspot Privacy: What You’re Exposing
- How to Check DNS and VPN Leaks on Mobile
SECTION 9 – COMPARTMENTALIZATION
Separate Paths, Separate Identities
Privacy fails when identities share infrastructure. Keep work, personal, and operational identities from contaminating each other through networks.
- Browser Containers + Network Profiles
- Separate DNS Profiles for Separate Personas
- How Network Metadata De-Anonymizes You
SECTION 10 – Fast Checks
Verify
Quick diagnostics to confirm leaks are closed.
- How to Check for DNS Leaks
- How to Check for VPN Leaks
- How to Check Your Router for Open Ports
- Network Privacy Audit: 15-Minute Checklist
SECTION 11 – VERIFICATION STEPS
Final Phase
Never trust configuration. Always verify. Run these after any major network changes.
- Check DNS leak status on all devices
- Confirm VPN kill switch works
- Reaudit router & LAN segmentation
- Confirm captive portal isolation
- Recheck blocklists after updates
- Validate DoH/DoT is enforced systemwide
Understanding Your Network Tools
A self hosted VPN is not an anonymity tool. It’s an integrity tool. You use it when you want a clean, controlled tunnel with no fallback DNS, no ISP rewriting, and no third party in the path. It gives you reliability, not invisibility.
If you need anonymity, you use Tor. Tor breaks correlation by splitting traffic across multiple relays and removing a single point of observation. It’s slower. It’s heavier. But it’s the only thing that defeats linking you to a destination.
If you need to blend into the crowd, use a reputable commercial VPN. This adds a noise layer. Your traffic hides inside a high volume exit shared by thousands of people. You’re not invisible, but you aren’t standing alone in the log either.
Different tools. Different roles. Different threat models. Use them for what they’re designed to do, not what the marketing pages claim.
Additional Resources:
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Freedom of the Press Foundation
- PrivacyGuides.org
- Access Now – Digital Security Helpline
Related Support Hubs
- Digital Footprint Hub – Erase identifiers before hardening.
- Digital Lockdown Hub – Harden devices, browsers, and networks against surveillance.
- Phone Privacy Hub – Mobile telemetry, OS residue cleanup, and location hardening.
- Crisis Mode Hub – Active threats, fast responses, and RF quieting.
- ZeroSentinel Hub – Your DIY privacy node