Produced for ExpressVPN and originally uploaded to YouTube on October 19th, 2023.
DNS, or domain name system, is a database that translates domain names into IP addresses.
When you think of the name of a website, you probably think of a URL, like this:
But to computers, the true name of a website is an IP address, which is a unique number that looks like this:
Think of it this way. When you refer to your workplace, you’d most likely call it “the office” rather than “123 Main Street”.
In other words, it’s like a giant address book.
That means whenever you type in a new URL, your computer asks a DNS server to find a specific IP address.
That said, most requests are configured by default to use unencrypted DNS, which can leave you vulnerable to hacks that redirect you to malicious websites.
DNS servers also tend to log information, like which websites you visit, when, and from where.
While some VPN providers don’t handle their own DNS, ExpressVPN does.
Because it never leaves the VPN tunnel, ExpressVPN’s DNS is fast, leaving behind no identifiable information.
And because all your DNS queries are signed and encrypted, they’re protected from anyone seeing, stopping, or modifying them.
So get the VPN with its own, private DNS.