When choosing the right internet connection and security protocol, many factors can influence your decision, from how easy and convenient it is to implement, how secure it keeps your data, and the overall connection speed.
DNS over HTTPS is a relatively new internet security protocol that promises increased online privacy and security. But how does it work, and will you be trading a fast internet for privacy?
What Is DNS over HTTPS?
DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is a security protocol that allows you to send and receive Domain Name System (DNS) requests through a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). DoH encrypts all DNS records, which could be targeted to reveal information about your online activity as well as your physical location.
The protocol isn’t niche or specialty-only by any means. In fact, most mainstream browsers, like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Safari, and Opera, come with built-in support to the DoH protocol. As for Firefox, they’ve enabled DoH by default for all desktop users based in the US in 2019.
How Does DNS over HTTPS Work?
DoH connections are an improvement on regular DNS. The role of DoH starts as early as the request for a website or domain’s IP address that your browser sends out. A DNS server’s part in the equation is converting the website name—the one you type in the address bar at the top of your browser—into a unique IP address that corresponds with the website’s servers.
Once the IP address is sent back, your browser shifts to working with HTTPS—or HTTP if the connection isn’t secure—and requests the IP address to access the desired websites. Since this is a long and tedious process, most browsers and websites rely on cached data to make it shorter.
You might’ve noticed that encrypted connection only comes along after the DNS has finished its role, leaving a portion of your data vulnerable to trackers and attackers. By using DoH, the DNS requests are enveloped within HTTPS sessions.
But similarly to other types of communication and security protocols, both the browser and the receiving servers must use the same protocol. Meaning you can’t use DoH when requesting websites that don’t have DoH support.
Is DNS over HTTPS Slower?
More often than not, privacy and security are paid for by a decrease in connection speeds. After all, there’s more data and web traffic to encrypt and decrypt, so it’s natural for secure communication to take slightly longer than unsecured communication.
Compared to other DNS encryption protocols, DoH has one of the longest page load and wait times. However, the differences are too small to count in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention, how fast your DoH performs depends on the DNS providers like Cloudflare and Google.
Can Encrypted DNS be Fast?
Wanting to protect your online activity and keep it safe from prying eyes is understandable. While DoH can negatively affect your connection speeds, that’s not the case for all encrypted DNS security protocols.
A variation of encrypted DNS is DoT, which stands for DNS over TLS, or Transport Layer Security, a modern variation of SSL. DoT does the same job that DoH does for your connection’s security and privacy.
The main difference is that DoT performs faster than DNS in median response time for some clients, even though there was a slight increase in latency. However, recent research determined that DoT, DoH, and unencrypted DNS performance vary depending on the client and that no protocol excelled in all trials and circumstances.
Is Extra Security Worth the Slight Speed Reduction?
When it comes to choosing the internet security protocol that you want to use, you need to ask yourself the right questions. Whether DoH is suitable for you depends on whether you want more privacy and security for your browsing experience, even if it’s a bit slower.
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