1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,680 Thanks for watching Techquickie. Click the subscribe button, then enable notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos. 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:12,000 So I would argue that it's healthy to be a little concerned about the people who follow you around online, 3 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:19,080 be it the government, unscrupulous advertisers, or maybe your crazy ex who swears she'll never love another man. 4 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:25,760 But even if you've taken all of the obvious precautions including hiding behind seven proxies, 5 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:32,160 browsing only in incognito mode, whole drive encryption, and stationing an attack dog outside of your computer room, 6 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:38,480 unfortunately, there might still be an insidious hole in your defenses that could expose a fair amount about you. 7 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:40,980 I'm talking about DNS leaks. 8 00:00:40,980 --> 00:00:45,760 And if you don't know what the DNS is, you can check out our other video right up here on how it works. 9 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:51,980 But simply put, it's the system that matches web addresses you enter, like youtube.com, to numerical IP 10 00:00:52,340 --> 00:00:55,440 addresses so that your web browser will know which site to bring up. 11 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:55,720 And 12 00:00:55,720 --> 00:01:03,840 now typically, whenever you try to visit a new website, your computer will ask a DNS server maintained by your ISP for its IP address. 13 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:10,140 Now this means that your ISP knows which sites you're visiting, which normally wouldn't be an issue, 14 00:01:10,220 --> 00:01:14,420 but if you're doing something sensitive, you may not want your ISP to have this information, 15 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:20,360 especially if they're logging it indefinitely or, much worse, selling it to third parties. 16 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:23,520 Oh, but come on John, that's amateur hour stuff. 17 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:25,400 I use a VPN that I pay 18 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,120 actual money for, so I'm totally safe, right? 19 00:01:28,340 --> 00:01:30,140 Well, maybe not. 20 00:01:30,140 --> 00:01:35,900 Depending on how your VPN is configured, it might be using a secure encrypted tunnel to connect you with the websites themselves, 21 00:01:36,580 --> 00:01:43,160 but the DNS request to help you navigate to those sites might still be going to your ISP's DNS server. 22 00:01:43,730 --> 00:01:51,850 Now this is because some operating systems, and Windows is notorious for this, will rely on whatever DNS server it is saved as the 23 00:01:51,950 --> 00:01:55,110 default. So if this is your ISP's, it might completely 24 00:01:55,110 --> 00:02:00,650 ignore the fact you have a VPN running and send all of your browsing requests to your ISP anyway. 25 00:02:00,990 --> 00:02:06,050 Now, they won't see exactly what pages you're visiting or the contents of a message you type, 26 00:02:06,270 --> 00:02:12,290 but they can build a shockingly robust profile of your online life based on just this information alone. 27 00:02:12,550 --> 00:02:14,870 So how can you plug these pesky leaks? 28 00:02:15,230 --> 00:02:21,770 Well, if you are using a VPN you trust, the most straightforward way is to enable its anti-DNS leak feature, 29 00:02:21,810 --> 00:02:23,930 which will encrypt and route all DNS requests to the ISP. 30 00:02:23,930 --> 00:02:25,090 So how can you plug these pesky leaks? Well, if you are using a VPN you trust, the most straightforward way is to enable its anti-DNS leak feature, which will encrypt and route all DNS requests to the ISP. 31 00:02:25,110 --> 00:02:27,270 So how can you plug these pesky leaks? Well, if you are using a VPN you trust, the most straightforward way is to enable its anti-DNS leak feature, which will encrypt and route all DNS requests to the ISP. 32 00:02:27,490 --> 00:02:33,650 After turning this setting on, you can test it as a site that checks for any remaining leaks to see if it's functioning properly, 33 00:02:33,650 --> 00:02:35,850 and we'll put a link to one of those sites down in the video description. 34 00:02:35,850 --> 00:02:42,850 And even if you're not using a VPN, you can still route DNS requests through different servers if you don't trust your ISP. 35 00:02:42,850 --> 00:02:47,210 There are a number of publicly DNS servers out there that you can find with a little research. 36 00:02:47,610 --> 00:02:50,730 Two of the more notable ones are run by Google and CloudFlare. 37 00:02:51,410 --> 00:02:55,090 To set this up just bring up your IPv4 settings under 38 00:02:55,110 --> 00:02:59,310 Ethernet properties in Windows and enter the IP addresses of the DNS servers 39 00:02:59,310 --> 00:03:04,230 you'd like to use. Though Windows 8 and 10 users should note that a new feature 40 00:03:04,230 --> 00:03:11,310 called SMHNR, that's a mouthful, anyway, well it could still route your request 41 00:03:11,310 --> 00:03:14,850 through your ISP, so we've linked a plugin that can disable it in the video 42 00:03:14,850 --> 00:03:19,110 description if you're using a VPN. And well-regarded public DNS servers can 43 00:03:19,110 --> 00:03:23,190 have other benefits. For example, Google claims that their service only keeps 44 00:03:23,190 --> 00:03:27,810 logs of users' IP addresses for 48 hours before deleting them, provides speed 45 00:03:27,810 --> 00:03:32,410 improvements in many cases, and encrypts your DNS requests as well. Of course, no 46 00:03:32,410 --> 00:03:37,410 matter who you use, you're still trusting essentially some rando, just not your ISP. 47 00:03:37,410 --> 00:03:42,130 To be respectful of your privacy, so read their privacy policies thoroughly. You 48 00:03:42,130 --> 00:03:45,570 don't want to spring a leak somewhere else, or else your request for privacy 49 00:03:45,570 --> 00:03:50,550 will end up feeling kind of like a boat ride in a pasta strainer. And speaking of 50 00:03:50,550 --> 00:03:52,630 racing across the lake in a pasta strainer, 51 00:03:52,630 --> 00:03:53,170 are you ready to go? 52 00:03:53,170 --> 00:03:56,250 Are you racing against the clock as a freelancer? It's challenging, but with the 53 00:03:56,250 --> 00:03:58,670 growth of the internet, there's never been more opportunities for the 54 00:03:58,670 --> 00:04:01,930 self-employed. To meet this need, check out FreshBooks Cloud Accounting 55 00:04:01,930 --> 00:04:06,290 Software, designed for the way that you work. 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