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DNS & leak protection

Why DNS requests matter for privacy, and how Pivien keeps them inside the tunnel.

Before your device can load a website, it has to look up the site's address using the Domain Name System (DNS). Those lookups reveal every site you visit, even when the pages themselves are encrypted.

What a DNS leak is#

A DNS leak happens when your device sends lookups outside the VPN tunnel, usually to your internet provider's resolver. Your traffic is protected, but the list of sites you visit isn't.

How Pivien prevents it#

While you're connected, Pivien routes DNS requests through the tunnel to resolvers on the Pivien network, and is designed to block lookups that try to bypass it.

Checking for leaks

  1. Connect to Pivien.
  2. Open a DNS leak test site and run the extended test.
  3. The resolvers listed should belong to the VPN network, not to your internet provider.

Custom DNS in your browser

Some browsers can use their own “secure DNS” provider. That's still encrypted, but it sends lookups to a third party of the browser's choosing. If you want all lookups to stay inside the tunnel, use your system's default DNS setting while connected.
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