When you connect to a website, your computer first resolves its IP address using the DNS query. Once the IP address is resolved, your browser connects to it and that website is opened in the browser. In order to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks or your ISP eavesdropping on you, we usually use the HTTPS protocol to encrypt any data being downloaded or uploaded to a website. But what about the DNS queries? Your ISP would still know which website you tried to open. This is where DNSCrypt software comes in. It can encrypt your DNS traffic just like HTTPS encrypts your website traffic, so that nobody would be able to see the names of websites that you are trying to connect to.
DNSCrypt is designed by OpenDNS, the leading providers of the secure public DNS servers. It works only with the OpenDNS servers. You can download DNSCrypt from their website. The download is less than 1 megabytes. After the installation it would place an icon in the notification area of Windows. The red icon means that you are not using OpenDNS servers, the yellow icon means that you are not using DNSCrypt to encrypt DNS traffic and the green icon shows you are using both OpenDNS and DNSCrypt.
You can right-click on this notification area icon and select Open Control Center to open the DNSCrypt settings and status window. It shows the DNSCrypt status and gives you options to quickly enable or disable OpenDNS and DNSCrypt. If your firewall software handles the DNS traffic then you can choose to use DNSCrypt over TCP port 443. There is an option to fall back to insecure DNS in case DNSCrypt does not resolve a website address.
DNSCrypt is a very small program that can encrypt your DNS traffic and keep it from being intercepted by your ISP, government agencies or hackers. It can boost your online security and enhance your privacy. It is available for both Mac and Windows PC. So if you value your online privacy and do not want anyone to eavesdrop on your DNS queries, then you can install and use DNSCrypt on your computer.
You can download DNSCrypt from https://www.opendns.com/about/innovations/dnscrypt/.