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DNS leak test (and quick fixes)

3 min read
Intermediate
Troubleshooting

Quick take

If a leak test shows your ISP’s DNS instead of your VPN’s DNS, fix that before assuming your connection is private.

What a clean result looks like

  • You should see DNS servers that belong to your VPN or to a resolver the VPN intentionally uses.
  • You should not see your home ISP, hotel Wi-Fi provider, or mobile carrier in the result list.
  • If you use split tunneling, test both the protected app and the browser you actually browse with.

How to test in under a minute

  1. Connect to your VPN.
  2. Open a DNS leak test site and run a standard test.
  3. Refresh once or reconnect and run it again.
  4. Compare the provider name in the results with the network you are actually on.

Fast fixes to try

  • Turn on the VPN app’s DNS leak protection if it has one.
  • Disable split tunneling temporarily and test again.
  • Reconnect after switching protocol.
  • Check whether IPv6 handling is causing a leak on your device or network.

Bottom line

Run a leak test after any big change to your VPN app, protocol, or split tunneling setup. One clean result is good; two or three matching clean results are better.