Domain names and DNS
DNS translates easy-to-remember site names (domains) into IP addresses.
Think of it like this
Like your phone's contact list: you remember "Alex", but the phone dials a number. DNS is that contact list, and your computer looks it up before opening any site.
In this setup
The subscription comes with DNS already set up: Chinese sites are looked up with Alibaba's and Tencent's encrypted DNS (DoH); foreign sites that are not on any list are not looked up locally at all — they are handed to your server. That is fast and does not leak which foreign sites you visit.
Common misconceptions
- "Changing DNS gets me around the firewall": DNS only looks up addresses; it does not carry your data.
- "DNS is encrypted": classic DNS is plain text and visible along the way; only DoH (DNS over HTTPS) is encrypted.
Related: DNS leak, Rule-based routing, IP address