DNS Leak Protection with VPN

What is a DNS leak?

Every time you enter a URL, your device – whether it’s a computer, smartphone or tablet – contacts a DNS server and requests the IP address. This is where DNS leaks can occur. Whenever a leak is happening, it means that your traffic is not being successfully routed through the anonymity network. This means that your traffic is wide open for monitoring by your ISP and any third parties, and almost anyone is able to log your activity. Having DNS exposed won’t cause any damage if only the ISP sees it (unless you abuse the bandwidth), but it can also lead to serious implications. Wrongdoers have the means to easily replace the DNS server and send you a wrong IP address for a certain site. In short, you may get redirected to a proxy site or a phishing site that steals your private data. VPNs do prevent this as they provide secure end-to-end tunnels for your information to pass.

Fixing a DNS leak

Before you try fixing a DNS leak, you should check whether you are affected or not. Fortunately, a quick visit to DNSLeak.com (a service brought to you by Private Internet Access) or the commonly known DNSLeakTest.com will tell you in a couple of seconds if your connection is leaking. If on the results you see your own country and ISP listed, you’ll know that your ISP can monitor your connection.

Using a VPN with proper DNS leak prevention will assure that the DNS request is directed to an anonymous DNS server through your VPN, and not directly through your browser. This is what keeps your ISP in the dark since you are now using only the DNS server provided by the VPN and not the one provided by your ISP. If you are connected to a VPN but still experience DNS leaks, then there are also a few steps mentioned on the aforementioned websites that will help you manually fix them.