What Is a DNS Leak?

What Is a DNS Leak?

A DNS leak occurs when your device sends DNS queries (domain name lookups) outside of the proxy tunnel, directly to your ISP's DNS servers. Even if your web traffic is routed through a proxy, a DNS leak reveals which websites you are visiting — and exposes your real IP address and location.

How DNS Leaks Happen

When you type example.com into your browser, your device must first resolve that domain name to an IP address. If your proxy is not configured to handle DNS, your operating system sends the DNS query through your normal internet connection. Your ISP sees the query, logs it, and now knows exactly which sites you are accessing — defeating the purpose of using a proxy.

This is especially common with HTTP proxies and poorly configured SOCKS5 setups.

How SOCKS5h Prevents DNS Leaks

The solution is SOCKS5h (sometimes called "remote DNS"). With SOCKS5h, you send the hostname — not the resolved IP — to the proxy server. The proxy performs the DNS lookup on its end, so your local machine never makes a DNS query at all.

This ensures that:

• Your ISP cannot see which domains you are resolving.
• Your real location is not leaked through DNS.
• The entire connection, including name resolution, passes through the proxy.

Check for DNS Leaks

Use the ipproxy.site proxy checker to verify that your DNS queries are not leaking. If you are not yet using a leak-proof setup, explore our SOCKS5 proxy plans or download the client for a properly configured connection out of the box.