4 ms·

I don't have a specific position on the use of DoH, but from a personal point of view I don't like that an application makes this choice for me and sends DNS tr

I don't have a specific position on the use of DoH, but from a personal point of view I don't like that an application makes this choice for me and sends DNS traffic to providers I might not trust. However, as a system administrator, I don't see in Firefox the equivalent of dig and nslookup: if a user reports an issue with Firefox, how can I ask him to verify which IP address a domain name resolves to? If I ask for a nslookup or dig result, I can no longer be sure that the OS resolver is giving the same answers that Firefox is returning.

Spivak 6y ago
You can ask the user to go to about:networking#dns and it will show Firefox's internal DNS cache. This is actually much more user-friendly today than asking them to open a terminal.
- EvanAnderson 6y ago
  Grizzled sysadmin / desktop admin perspective here: I can't easily remotely interrogate a user's Firefox process, as you describe, like I can w/ the OS by remotely running "dig", "nslookup", etc, on the user's computer. With the Firefox model I have to interrupt the user and ask them to become an active part of the troubleshooting process. I'd prefer fixing the problem "behind the scenes" without engaging the user, except to let them know when the problem is fixed. I consider it vastly more "user friendly" to enable support personnel to solve problems w/o distracting the user. I don't think very many developers consider that use case. Tools that enable "concierge" support for VIPs, executives, Customers who will pay more to be doted-upon, etc, is a valuable attribute in software to me. Moving toward user self-service is laudable, but not if it's at the expense of dedicate support personnel's capabilities. In my experience, at least, the satisfaction and praise users express from having issues resolved without bothering them has been significant.
- quicksilver03 6y ago
  Thanks, that is useful to know. I will add it to our standard troubleshooting procedures.
iso1631 6y ago
> If I ask for a nslookup or dig result, I can no longer be sure that the OS resolver is giving the same answers that Firefox is returning. Some OSes have broken that for a while. I'm sure I've seen ping, dig and applications reporting different results.

Spivak 6y ago

You can ask the user to go to about:networking#dns and it will show Firefox's internal DNS cache. This is actually much more user-friendly today than asking them to open a terminal.

EvanAnderson 6y ago
Grizzled sysadmin / desktop admin perspective here: I can't easily remotely interrogate a user's Firefox process, as you describe, like I can w/ the OS by remotely running "dig", "nslookup", etc, on the user's computer. With the Firefox model I have to interrupt the user and ask them to become an active part of the troubleshooting process. I'd prefer fixing the problem "behind the scenes" without engaging the user, except to let them know when the problem is fixed. I consider it vastly more "user friendly" to enable support personnel to solve problems w/o distracting the user. I don't think very many developers consider that use case. Tools that enable "concierge" support for VIPs, executives, Customers who will pay more to be doted-upon, etc, is a valuable attribute in software to me. Moving toward user self-service is laudable, but not if it's at the expense of dedicate support personnel's capabilities. In my experience, at least, the satisfaction and praise users express from having issues resolved without bothering them has been significant.
quicksilver03 6y ago
Thanks, that is useful to know. I will add it to our standard troubleshooting procedures.

iso1631 6y ago

> If I ask for a nslookup or dig result, I can no longer be sure that the OS resolver is giving the same answers that Firefox is returning. Some OSes have broken that for a while. I'm sure I've seen ping, dig and applications reporting different results.