Some of the top Web Browsers have announced recently that in order to better protect their users' privacy while browsing the web, they will be turning on a feature called DNS over HTTPS by default. This 'feature' is being implemented in an attempt to better address issues regarding users privacy when browsing the Internet by masking the server names your are looking up by encapsulating the server name look-up process inside an encrypted tunnel across the internet.
Wanna know more about the plusses and minuses of DoH, check out this video from Sophos
Better Security? What's the problem?
Yeah, well, the problem with DoH is that for a computer within an Enterprise network that uses Active Directory and maintains their own internal web servers, this process of securing Name Resolution within an encrypted tunnel will most likely break your ability to access internal Web applications as it ignores the internal network in lieu of external, Internet accessible, names only.
While it remains to be seen what the exact impact will be on Enterprise users, Fluid Networks is trying to get out in front of any issues our business clients may encounter with this new change by providing a way for you turn off this new DoH feature in your browser if need be.
Currently, there are two browsers who have announced they will be implementing DoH as a default setting:
1. Mozilla (Firefox)
2. Google Chrome
Mozilla has announced a timeline for when they will turn on this feature in this article, however, Google is only piloting this technology now (adding to the browser around October 31st) and has not implemented a way to turn it on and off within the browser as of this article, but they have announced a roadmap and plan you can read about here.
Below, you will find how to disable DoH in your browser. If you do not see your browser listed, it is because they either have not implemented this feature yet, or it is not expected to be an issue that you will need to disable.
How to disable DoH in your browser
Here is how to disable DoH for the browser you are using today
What Browser are you using?
- In your browser, goto Options by clicking on the "hamburger" icon in the top right:
2. Under Options, scroll to "Network Settings" at the bottom and click "Settings"
3. Uncheck the box next to "Enable DNS over HTTPS" and click "OK"
4. Now close your browser and re-open it again. You should now be able to access your Internal Webservers from within Mozilla (Firefox).
Chrome has not enabled this feature yet
For information on Google's plans to implement DOH and how to enable/disable it, reference this link: