DNS Leak Test

Our Tools Are Featured On

DNS Leak Test - Are You Completely Anonymous?

A VPN is a great way to hide your IP address and surf the Internet anonymously. However, if your VPN's software hasn't been configured properly, your original IP address or other sensitive information can be leaked. The EXPERTE.com DNS Leak Test checks whether your DNS requests are being sent to a secure DNS server.

Note: For the test to produce meaningful results, you must be connected to a VPN.

What Is a DNS Leak?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is responsible for resolving an Internet address (like www.experte.com) into the corresponding IP of the webserver. Therefore, whenever you visit a website, your computer sends a query to a DNS server (name server), which responds with the appropriate IP address.

When your computer sends DNS queries to a DNS server that does not belong to the VPN provider, this DNS server will be able to determine all websites that you have visited. Since the DNS protocol is largely unencrypted, it's possible to monitor this data during transmission.

What Information Is Leaked?

A DNS leak tells the DNS provider which Internet addresses are contacting you. As a result, the DNS provider can ascertain:

  • which websites you visit

  • which files you download

  • which online services you use

How Does the DNS Leak Test Work?

To determine whether you are impacted by a DNS leak, we carry out the following steps:

  • 1.

    We make a total of 5 requests from your browser to random subdomains which we control (e.g. r5ymkun1.experte.com).

  • 2.

    Your computer tries to determine the IP associated with these random domains and makes a request to its DNS server.

  • 3.

    We receive the DNS request and accordingly, the IP address of your DNS server.

  • 4.

    We compare the owner of your IP address with the owner of your DNS server. If these do not match, you may be compromised by a DNS leak.

Top VPN Provider 2024
Sponsored
from $3.79
per month
NordVPN
from $6.67
per month
ExpressVPN
from $0.00
per month
Proton VPN
from $1.99
per month
Surfshark
show all
Janis von Bleichert studied business informatics at the TU Munich and computer science at the TU Berlin, Germany. He has been self-employed since 2006 and is the founder of EXPERTE.com. He writes about hosting, software and IT security.
Continue Reading