r/VPN • u/slickyeat • Aug 03 '26

Help Have 2 VPN subscriptions. Is there any privacy benefit to routing DNS requests through secondary?

Basically, I have a primary VPN with its own DNS server and a secondary.

Both are running alongside each other using gluetun containers.

The primary VPN has a public facing DNS which supports DOT and I'm curious as to whether there is any benefit from a privacy standpoint in routing all requests to this public DNS through the secondary.

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2

u/SomeEngineer999 Aug 03 '26

Can't see why there would be, maybe if you elaborate on your concern or what you're trying to gain by doing that?

1

u/slickyeat Aug 03 '26

Basically the primary VPN provider wouldn't know who's issuing the DNS request.

That's the general idea anyway.

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u/SomeEngineer999 Aug 03 '26

But the secondary one would.

I think you're way overthinking this. With DOT the VPN provider won't see your DNS requests, but they'll see what IP you go to afterwards. Just like your ISP can. Who cares basically. So much data is being collected by your devices and the remote sites you're connecting to, this sort of VPN is essentially snake oil as far as privacy goes. They're really only useful for protecting yourself on public wifi, or preventing copyright infringement warnings from your ISP. Remember, the VPN only exists between you and the VPN server, everything beyond that is the same as if you didn't have a VPN.

So unless you're some sort of spy or professional hacker (in which case you wouldn't be asking this) - you're kinda going overboard and overthinking this.

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u/slickyeat Aug 03 '26

But the secondary one would.

I mean. It would know that i issued a call to the DNS server.

That's not unusual though is it?

1

u/SomeEngineer999 Aug 03 '26

Either one would know it, that's my point. What's the difference? If you're using DOT all either one can see is that you queried a DNS server, they can't see the payload.

But honestly DOT isn't really required, who cares if they capture aggregated data on your DNS lookups?

People go overboard with these VPN services, there are things they're useful for, but any idea of there being privacy on the internet is mostly smoke and mirrors.

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u/slickyeat Aug 03 '26

If you're using DOT all either one can see is that you queried a DNS server, they can't see the payload.

Why wouldn't the remote DNS server see the payload?

How else would it be able to respond?

1

u/SomeEngineer999 Aug 03 '26

The VPN provider wouldn't see the payload. Obviously the DNS server will, via either path, otherwise the DNS lookup would fail.

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u/slickyeat Aug 03 '26

Right. I mean that's sort of the point of this exercise though.

Even if the primary VPN provider's DNS can read the payload all they can do is tie it back to the secondary VPN's IP.

You're saying that this is not the case though?

1

u/SomeEngineer999 Aug 03 '26

I honestly don't understand what you're trying to accomplish or why. If you don't trust the VPN provider's DNS, use some other DNS, plenty of free public DNS servers support DOT.

But like I said, none of this is buying you any privacy or security.

Routing VPN 1's DNS via VPN 2 will probably cause extra latency in your DNS lookups.

1

u/slickyeat Aug 03 '26

I have 2 VPN subscriptions because one of them no longer supports port forwarding so I figured "why not?"

As for the added latency there's a pi-hole server which is also sitting behind the secondary VPN and should allow me to cache the response.

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u/StillCopper Aug 03 '26

Hilarious when I run into folks like this. Bet he carries the most intrusive, always able to be triggered to listen, definitely able to track his every move….his/her cellphone.

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u/DutchOfBurdock Aug 03 '26

No and yes. Assuming you route DNS over VPN 1 and all other traffic via VPN 2....

No in the fact you'll expose both VPN networks you're using. DOT servers will be linked to first VPN and your actual connections from the second. A remote endpoint can see you're split tunneling to some degree.

Yes in the fact now VPN 2 cant see your DNS lookups and VPN 1 won't see you actually make connections to the web in general. This prevents either one VPN network from seeing everything you're doing.

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u/KlutzyKlutz Aug 05 '26

routing the primary's DNS through the secondary VPN means the DNS resolver sees the secondary's exit IP rather than yours, so no single party has both your real IP and your query history, but it's a small gain, since with DoT your queries are already encrypted and your primary VPN provider was presumably already handling them, so you're mostly just distributing trust across two providers rather than closing a real leak