Google affords a VPN by way of its “Google One” month-to-month subscription plan, and whereas it debuted on telephones, a desktop app has been obtainable for Home windows and Mac OS for over a yr now. Since lots of people pay for Google One for the cloud storage improve for his or her Google accounts, you may be tempted to strive the VPN on a desktop, however Home windows customers testing out the app have not appeared too pleased recently. An open bug report on Google’s GitHub for the undertaking says the Home windows app “breaks” the Home windows DNS, and this has been ongoing since at the very least November.
A VPN would naturally route all of your site visitors by way of a safe tunnel, however you’ve got nonetheless received to do DNS lookups someplace. A whole lot of VPN providers additionally include a DNS service, and Google isn’t any totally different. The issue is that Google’s VPN app modifications the Home windows DNS settings of all community adapters to at all times use Google’s DNS, whether or not the VPN is on or off. Even should you change them, Google’s program will change them again.
Most VPN apps do not work this fashion, and even Google’s Mac VPN program does not work this fashion. The customers within the thread (and those emailing us) count on the app, at minimal, to make use of the unique Home windows settings when the VPN is off. Since operating a VPN is usually about privateness and safety, customers need to have the ability to change the DNS away from Google even when the VPN is operating.
Altering the DNS can lead to a number of issues for sure setups. As customers within the thread level out, some individuals, particularly these utilizing a VPN, need an encrypted DNS setup, and Google’s VPN program will simply flip this off. It may well break customized filtering setups and can stop customers from accessing native community IPs, like a router configuration web page or company intranet pages. It can additionally make it inconceivable to log in to a captive portal, which you usually see on public Wi-Fi at a lodge, airport, or espresso store.
Apart from that habits, the thread is filled with all types of stories of Google’s VPN program getting screwy with the Home windows DNS settings. A number of customers say Google’s VPN app continuously resets the DNS settings of all community adapters, even when they modify them after the preliminary set up units them to eight.8.8.8. As an example, one reply from ryanzimbauser says: “This program has completely no enterprise altering all current NICs to a separate DNS on the startup of my pc whereas this system will not be set to ‘Launch app after pc begins.’ This current change interfered with my pc’s capability to entry a community implementing a personal DNS filter. This has damaged my belief and I cannot be reinstalling this program till that is remedied.”
A number of consumer stories say that even after uninstalling the Google VPN, the DNS settings do not revert to what they was once. Possibly that is extra of a Home windows downside than a Google downside, however a number of customers have hassle altering the settings away from 8.8.8.8 by way of the management panel after uninstalling. They’re resorting to registry modifications, PowerShell scripts, or the “reset community settings” button.
Google worker Ryan Lothian responded to the thread, saying:
Hey people, thanks for reporting this behaviour.
To guard customers privateness, the Google One VPN intentionally units DNS to make use of Google’s DNS servers. This prevents a nefarious DNS server (that may be set by DHCP) compromising your privateness. Go to https://builders.google.com/velocity/public-dns/privateness to study concerning the restricted logging carried out by Google DNS.
We expect it is a good default for many customers. Nevertheless, we do acknowledge that some customers would possibly need to have their very own DNS, or have the DNS revert when VPN disconnects. We’ll contemplate including this to a future launch of the app.
It is fairly uncommon for Google, the online and Android firm, to make a Home windows program. There’s Chrome, the Drive syncing app, Google Earth Professional, this VPN app, and never an excessive amount of else. You will discover it by going to the Google One web site, clicking “Advantages” within the sidebar, after which “View Particulars” beneath the VPN field, the place you will discover an exceedingly uncommon Google Home windows executable.
If you’d like a VPN and care about privateness, there are in all probability higher locations to go than Google. The corporate can nonetheless see all of the web sites you are visiting by way of its DNS servers, and whereas the VPN knowledge may be non-public, Google’s DNS holds onto your net historical past for as much as 48 hours and is topic to subpoenas. There are a number of accusations within the thread of Google altering DNS for knowledge harvesting functions, however should you’re involved about that, perhaps do not do enterprise with one of many world’s largest user-tracking corporations.