Enable DoH DNS-over-HTTPS in Google Chrome

Users can now enable DNS-over-HTTPS in Google Chrome. The DoH in Google Chrome will provide better privacy and security to the concerned users.

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DNS-over-HTTPS – DoH

Before I tell you how you can enable DNS-over-HTTPS DoH in the Chrome browser, it’s very important to understand what it is and how it works.

Whenever we enter a website URL in an internet browser or we enter a query online, a protocol performs the task of taking our request ahead. The common protocol for this task is the DNS protocol. The main objective of using the DNS protocol was to allow the users to avoid the hassle of going through numeric IP addresses, take a human-readable name, query, or domain from a user and look it up on the internet.

How DNS Works – Image Credits: Thesslstore

The DNS protocol doesn’t involve any encryption. It makes all the requests in a plain text. The requests you make on the internet are easily readable by the involved third-parties. This certainly puts the security of a user at risk. Not only the security, but it’s also a huge privacy concern as well.

The DNS-over-HTTPS aims to resolve this problem. It still uses the DNS protocol, but the resolution happens via the HTTPS protocol. This increases user privacy by preventing any possible eavesdropping. Your DNS data is prone to manipulation by the middleman.

Where the DNS protocol makes the requests in plaintext, the DoH makes the same requests packaged in encrypted HTTPS traffic. It hides all of your DNS requests. The third-parties are unable to look into the requests made from your computer.

The DoH also bypasses the DNS-based blocklists because the encrypted information cannot be filtered.

The DoH protocol was implemented by Mozilla in its FireFox browser long ago. Google was also testing it for its Chrome browser for a while. The feature is now available for the Chrome browser, but it’s a little bit of a hassle to enable it. This is the very reason I am going to show you the steps to enable DNS-over-HTTPS in Google Chrome browser.

How to Enable DoH DNS-over-HTTPS in Google Chrome

Time needed: 2 minutes.

Follow these simple steps to enable DoH in chrome browser.

Open Google Chrome Properties.
First of all, locate the Google Chrome shortcut on your computer’s desktop or in all programs. Right-click the shortcut and click on Properties.
Access “Shortcut” in the Chrome Properties.
In the properties of Chrome, navigate to the “Shortcut” tab. You should see a number of options in the tab including the “Target” field.
Enter the following text at the end of the Target field in Shortcut.
Copy the following text:
–enable-features=”dns-over-https<DoHTrial” –force-fieldtrials=”DoHTrial/Group1″ –force-fieldtrial-params=”DoHTrial.Group1:server/https%3A%2F%2F1.1.1.1%2Fdns-query/method/POST

Paste this text at the end of the text field appearing in front of “Target”. Click on Ok or Apply now.
Restart the Chrome browser now.
If the Chrome browser is already running on your PC, shut it down and restart it. If it was close, you can just start it.
Test DoH support as it should be working. That’s all.
Now open this address in chrome: https://1.1.1.1/help and you will see “Yes” written next to “Using DNS-over-HTTPS DoH”. This means your privacy is intact now. That’s all.

The procedure above uses DoH server from Cloudflare. You can also pick a DoH server of your choice by visiting this page.

That’s all. If you have any questions or queries regarding this tutorial, feel free to use the comments section given below. I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Usama M

Usama is a software engineer by profession and at TechBeasts.com he uses his expertise to solve everyday consumer tech problems with his main areas of interest being Android, iOS and Windows.