Protecting our DNS traffic is a good idea for several reasons, ranging from the provider's background logging to the ever-present malware variant waiting to wreak havoc. Fortunately, technologies that encrypt DNS requests are easy to implement, and one of the most recommended is Simple DNSCrypt. The program reduces the whole process to a couple of clicks and works very well with the latest versions of Windows.
DNS traffic is critical to our daily browsing, and in most cases it runs without additional protection. If an external element had the chance to analyze it, it could form a very good idea of the sites and services we visit. At the same time, malware acting as a “man in the middle” absorbing the traffic could cause a real disaster, and nobody wants that.
One of the main suggestions we find on the web for encrypting DNS traffic is to install a DNSCrypt proxy. The process can be a bit more intimidating than necessary if we follow the official steps, but there is a much friendlier alternative: Simple DNSCrypt.
How to Protect Your DNS Requests
The installer takes care of incorporating all the necessary modules and services into the operating system. Once opened, we click on the network card to indicate that we want to use the proxy and activate the configuration of the primary and secondary DNS servers.
If we visit the network card properties at this point, we will see that the DNS servers are now 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2. That orders DNS traffic to go through the proxy to the chosen servers. The list updates periodically, but in essence we look for servers compatible with DNSSEC, and without remote log generation.
In the advanced options of Simple DNSCrypt we find an interruption of IPv6 address requests (this could speed up browsing if there is no support), a cache for DNS responses, and the creation of a local log, which basically helps us verify that the proxy is working correctly. Simple DNSCrypt is at version 2.0.42 and works perfectly on Windows 7 and later.
