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Firefox DNS over HTTPS rollout begins in the U.S.

Artistic impression of a URL bar being encrypted

Mozilla has begun rolling out DNS over HTTPS (DoH) by default for Firefox users in the United States. The plan is to continue pushing the new setting to Firefox installs over the coming weeks to confirm that there are no major issues. DoH by default will only affect U.S. installs but the company is exploring the possibility of rolling the setting out in other regions too.

DNS over HTTPS has been available for quite a while in Firefox and can be enabled by anyone, to do so, head over to Preferences > General > scroll down to Network Settings > Settings… > Enable DNS over HTTPS. You'll then have to choose a provider, right now you can pick Cloudflare, NextDNS, or add a custom provider. Mozilla said that it’s looking to expand the list of trusted resolvers in the future.

DNS works in a similar way to a phone book, for example, if you type neowin.net into your URL bar, DNS is used to find the corresponding IP address which is what’s used to find websites. Unfortunately, DNS lookups tend not to be encrypted which means that third-parties can intercept them, this is essentially how most web filtering software works at the moment.

While DoH is great for security and privacy, those interested in restricting children’s access to adult websites may have to figure out a new way to implement bans or learn how to disable DoH.

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