Simple DNSCrypt : Encrypt DNS Queries in Windows

When you open a website in your web browser, many different things happen in the background. The website address that you enter in the address bar of the web browser needs to be translated to the IP address and it is done through by querying the configured DNS servers. For example, when you enter www.yahoo.com in the web browser, the browser asks the configured DNS server for the IP address and then connects to the IP address received. But the DNS server queries often take place on a insecure connection, meaning the connection is not encrypted. These queries can be seen by anyone monitoring your internet activities, for example, your ISP or could be subject to a man-in-the-middle attack.

In order to prevent such eavesdropping, you can use an encrypted DNS service using an open-source program like Simple DNSCrypt. This tool is based on the DNSCrypt project originally created by OpenDNS. However the OpenDNS project has not been updated in 5 years. But the Simple DNSCrypt is being updated regularly and supports the latest versions of Windows including Windows 7, 8.x and 10.

Simple DNSCrypt

After the installation, you can launch the Simple DNSCrypt confguration window from the Start menu shortcut. You can configure the primary and secondary DNS servers from under the standard settings. You can pick one of the secure servers from a list of dozens of available servers for both the primary and the secondary DNS servers. After this, you have to enable the primary DNSCrypt service and optionally the secondary DNSCrypt service for the tool to start working.

Simple DNSCrypt

From under the advanced tab, you can download a fresh copy of the list containing all the public DNS servers. These DNS servers do contain the OpenDNS servers too. You can choose to make your PC as the global resolver for your devices connected to the same network such as your smartphones and tablets.

Conclusion: Simple DNSCrypt can improve your online security by encrypting the DNS queries sent from your PC to the DNS servers. You can also use it to make your PC a global resolver for all the devices connected to your network.

You can download Simple DNSCrypt from https://github.com/bitbeans/SimpleDnsCrypt.