diff --git a/net/dns/resolver/forwarder.go b/net/dns/resolver/forwarder.go
index 531c2d130..04f22d8a2 100644
--- a/net/dns/resolver/forwarder.go
+++ b/net/dns/resolver/forwarder.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"net"
 	"net/http"
 	"runtime"
+	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
@@ -40,6 +41,11 @@ const (
 	// connections open to DNS-over-HTTPs servers. This is pretty
 	// arbitrary.
 	dohTransportTimeout = 30 * time.Second
+
+	// wellKnownHostBackupDelay is how long to artificially delay upstream
+	// DNS queries to the "fallback" DNS server IP for a known provider
+	// (e.g. how long to wait to query Google's 8.8.4.4 after 8.8.8.8).
+	wellKnownHostBackupDelay = 200 * time.Millisecond
 )
 
 var errNoUpstreams = errors.New("upstream nameservers not set")
@@ -152,7 +158,20 @@ func clampEDNSSize(packet []byte, maxSize uint16) {
 
 type route struct {
 	Suffix    dnsname.FQDN
-	Resolvers []netaddr.IPPort
+	Resolvers []resolverAndDelay
+}
+
+// resolverAndDelay is an upstream DNS resolver and a delay for how
+// long to wait before querying it.
+type resolverAndDelay struct {
+	// ipp is the upstream resolver.
+	ipp netaddr.IPPort
+
+	// startDelay is an amount to delay this resolver at
+	// start. It's used when, say, there are four Google or
+	// Cloudflare DNS IPs (two IPv4 + two IPv6) and we don't want
+	// to race all four at once.
+	startDelay time.Duration
 }
 
 // forwarder forwards DNS packets to a number of upstream nameservers.
@@ -204,7 +223,84 @@ func (f *forwarder) Close() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-func (f *forwarder) setRoutes(routes []route) {
+// resolversWithDelays maps from a set of DNS server ip:ports (currently
+// the port is always 53) to a slice of a type that included a
+// startDelay. So if ipps contains e.g. four Google DNS IPs (two IPv4
+// + twoIPv6), this function partition adds delays to some.
+func resolversWithDelays(ipps []netaddr.IPPort) []resolverAndDelay {
+	type hostAndFam struct {
+		host string // some arbitrary string representing DNS host (currently the DoH base)
+		bits uint8  // either 32 or 128 for IPv4 vs IPv6s address family
+	}
+
+	// Track how many of each known resolver host are in the list,
+	// per address family.
+	total := map[hostAndFam]int{}
+
+	rr := make([]resolverAndDelay, len(ipps))
+	for _, ipp := range ipps {
+		ip := ipp.IP()
+		if host, ok := knownDoH[ip]; ok {
+			total[hostAndFam{host, ip.BitLen()}]++
+		}
+	}
+
+	done := map[hostAndFam]int{}
+	for i, ipp := range ipps {
+		ip := ipp.IP()
+		var startDelay time.Duration
+		if host, ok := knownDoH[ip]; ok {
+			key4 := hostAndFam{host, 32}
+			key6 := hostAndFam{host, 128}
+			switch {
+			case ip.Is4():
+				if done[key4] > 0 {
+					startDelay += wellKnownHostBackupDelay
+				}
+			case ip.Is6():
+				total4 := total[key4]
+				if total4 >= 2 {
+					// If we have two IPv4 IPs of the same provider
+					// already in the set, delay the IPv6 queries
+					// until halfway through the timeout (so wait
+					// 2.5 seconds). Even the network is IPv6-only,
+					// the DoH dialer will fallback to IPv6
+					// immediately anyway.
+					startDelay = responseTimeout / 2
+				} else if total4 == 1 {
+					startDelay += wellKnownHostBackupDelay
+				}
+				if done[key6] > 0 {
+					startDelay += wellKnownHostBackupDelay
+				}
+			}
+			done[hostAndFam{host, ip.BitLen()}]++
+		}
+		rr[i] = resolverAndDelay{
+			ipp:        ipp,
+			startDelay: startDelay,
+		}
+	}
+	return rr
+}
+
+// setRoutes sets the routes to use for DNS forwarding. It's called by
+// Resolver.SetConfig on reconfig.
+//
+// The memory referenced by routesBySuffix should not be modified.
+func (f *forwarder) setRoutes(routesBySuffix map[dnsname.FQDN][]netaddr.IPPort) {
+	routes := make([]route, 0, len(routesBySuffix))
+	for suffix, ipps := range routesBySuffix {
+		routes = append(routes, route{
+			Suffix:    suffix,
+			Resolvers: resolversWithDelays(ipps),
+		})
+	}
+	// Sort from longest prefix to shortest.
+	sort.Slice(routes, func(i, j int) bool {
+		return routes[i].Suffix.NumLabels() > routes[j].Suffix.NumLabels()
+	})
+
 	f.mu.Lock()
 	defer f.mu.Unlock()
 	f.routes = routes
@@ -394,7 +490,7 @@ func (f *forwarder) send(ctx context.Context, fq *forwardQuery, dst netaddr.IPPo
 }
 
 // resolvers returns the resolvers to use for domain.
-func (f *forwarder) resolvers(domain dnsname.FQDN) []netaddr.IPPort {
+func (f *forwarder) resolvers(domain dnsname.FQDN) []resolverAndDelay {
 	f.mu.Lock()
 	routes := f.routes
 	f.mu.Unlock()
@@ -460,9 +556,18 @@ func (f *forwarder) forward(query packet) error {
 		firstErr error
 	)
 
-	for _, ipp := range resolvers {
-		go func(ipp netaddr.IPPort) {
-			resb, err := f.send(ctx, fq, ipp)
+	for _, rr := range resolvers {
+		go func(rr resolverAndDelay) {
+			if rr.startDelay > 0 {
+				timer := time.NewTimer(rr.startDelay)
+				select {
+				case <-timer.C:
+				case <-ctx.Done():
+					timer.Stop()
+					return
+				}
+			}
+			resb, err := f.send(ctx, fq, rr.ipp)
 			if err != nil {
 				mu.Lock()
 				defer mu.Unlock()
@@ -475,7 +580,7 @@ func (f *forwarder) forward(query packet) error {
 			case resc <- resb:
 			default:
 			}
-		}(ipp)
+		}(rr)
 	}
 
 	select {
diff --git a/net/dns/resolver/tsdns.go b/net/dns/resolver/tsdns.go
index fbd8abda0..bdd7b6318 100644
--- a/net/dns/resolver/tsdns.go
+++ b/net/dns/resolver/tsdns.go
@@ -208,7 +208,6 @@ func (r *Resolver) SetConfig(cfg Config) error {
 		r.saveConfigForTests(cfg)
 	}
 
-	routes := make([]route, 0, len(cfg.Routes))
 	reverse := make(map[netaddr.IP]dnsname.FQDN, len(cfg.Hosts))
 
 	for host, ips := range cfg.Hosts {
@@ -217,18 +216,7 @@ func (r *Resolver) SetConfig(cfg Config) error {
 		}
 	}
 
-	for suffix, ips := range cfg.Routes {
-		routes = append(routes, route{
-			Suffix:    suffix,
-			Resolvers: ips,
-		})
-	}
-	// Sort from longest prefix to shortest.
-	sort.Slice(routes, func(i, j int) bool {
-		return routes[i].Suffix.NumLabels() > routes[j].Suffix.NumLabels()
-	})
-
-	r.forwarder.setRoutes(routes)
+	r.forwarder.setRoutes(cfg.Routes)
 
 	r.mu.Lock()
 	defer r.mu.Unlock()