Hey, how are you doing? Today we are going to talk a bit about security in Windows 10. In a specific way, we will see measures that will improve security when surfing the Internet. It is well known that, to access content on the network, it is essential to use a web browser. Similarly, Windows 10 has its own default browser called Edge. But for multiple reasons, this has not liked much in users. In fact, Google Chrome is the most popular browsers. However, the Microsoft Edge beta channel is very interesting. Now, internet safety is a vital concern. Because in this way are made thousands of attacks that could violate our data and security. However, in order to combat these vulnerabilities, browsers implement additional security measures. In this post, we will study one of them. As a matter of fact, we are going to see How to activate DNS over HTTPS in Chrome and Edge Beta.
What is DNS over HTTPS (DoH)
This is a new security and privacy standard for encrypting DNS requests that run inside the browser. When entering a website, the browser makes a request over the Internet to get the site’s IP address. This is the standard procedure, the problem is that this request is made through a non-encrypted connection. Consequently, an attacker could intercept it and view the website you visit. And what is worse, get the data you are entering causing a security hole for the user. Under those circumstances, is developed, DNS over HTTPS. This is a new security and privacy standard for encrypting DNS requests that run inside the browser. The protocol ensures that the domain name sent to the DNS server makes use of an encrypted HTTPS connection, thus replacing the plain text connection. This prevents an intruder from seeing the sites we are visiting.
How to enable DNS over HTTPS in Google Chrome
Please note that this feature is not yet officially available in Chrome. So it may suffer errors. However, it is possible to enable it on an experimental basis. With this in mind, please copy the following text and paste it into the search bar:
chrome://flags
In the search field, please enter DNS and then select Secure DNS Lookup.
As you can see the Default value is set. In this case, it means that the protocol is disabled. What we are going to do is modify this value and change it to Enabled.
To make the changes effective, please press the Relaunch button. Once restarted Chrome you can see that DNS over HTTPS has been enabled:
How to enable DNS over HTTPS in Google Chrome by editing the shortcut
Another method that Google Chrome offers us to activate DoH is by editing the shortcut. With this in mind, select the shortcut on the desktop and right-click the mouse to enter the properties:
In the displayed window we go to the tab Direct access and in the field Target we go to the end of the text, leave a space and paste the following:
--enable-features="dns-over-https<DoHTrial" --force-fieldtrials="DoHTrial/Group1" --force-fieldtrial-params="DoHTrial.Group1:server/https%3A%2F%2F1.1.1.1%2Fdns-query/method/POST
Now, click on Apply and OK to set the changes.
How to enable DNS over HTTPS in Microsoft Edge Beta
The procedure in Edge Beta is very similar to the procedure in Chrome. The first thing you have to do is go to the browser search bar and add the next text:
edge://flags
From this point on you only have to repeat the same steps as above. For that reason I only attach the corresponding images:
In this way, we have enabled DNS over HTTPS in Edge Beta and Chrome. Now we will be able to use this protocol and surf more securely on the internet. In this globalized world, any additional security measure is very useful. This is all for the moments, before saying goodbye I invite you to see our post about MySQL in Windows 10.
