The DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) protocol has been a hot topic for debate for a few months. The protocol encrypts DNS queries and adds more privacy to the user.
What is DNS-Over-HTTPS?
For those who don’t know, a DNS (Domain Name Server) translates website address from a URL to an IP address, which your computer connects to. Up until now, DNS queries were made in plain-text form.
DNS-over-HTTPS encrypts the queries and disguises it as regular HTTPS traffic.
Browsers vs. ISPs
However, not everyone is pleased with the new Internet protocol. ISP’s globally have outright rejected the idea of implementing DoH.
The protocol prevents ISP’s from viewing the DNS requests, deterring them from knowing which websites a user visits.
In the UK, ISPs can store a user’s web history of more than twelve months, so it makes sense why a UK ISP called Mozilla “Internet Villian” for its plans to implement the protocol.
How to enable DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) in your browser?
While ISPs are still questioning and building the case against the new protocol, many popular browsers have already started experimenting with DoH.
In order to enable DoH in your browser, you just have to turn on the experimental flag –
- Google Chrome – Vist chrome://flags/#dns-over-https
- Edge (Chromium version) – edge://flags/#dns-over-https
- Opera – Visit opera://flags/opera-doh
- Vivaldi – Visit vivaldi://flags/#dns-over-https
- Brave – Visit brave://flags/#dns-over-https
- Mozilla Firefox – You can find the “Enable DNS over HTTPS” in the browser settings.
What are the benefits of DNS-over-HTTPS?
Popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and others have stressed the importance of utilizing DoH.
According to Google, the protocol will bring privacy and security benefits to users such as avoid spoofing attacks, Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks and more.
However, many cybersecurity experts claimed the protocol to be useless since ISPs have many other ways to look up the DNS requests.
