Huevos said:
Like what? Also it is not a proxy. It is just a resolving DNS, used when necessary, not otherwise. Having the records held in the hosts file would have the same effect.
Apologies for the delay in replying, just got back from a business trip.
At hxxp://tunlr.net/status/ TUNLR gives a report such as....
Proxy server (United States) status
Proxy server (United Kingdom) status
Proxy server (Continental Europe 1) status
Proxy server (Continental Europe 2) status
I don't know precisely how TUNLR does what it does, but it's clear that it admits using proxies.
On their FAQ they say... "Tunlr is a DNS (domain name system) unblocking service. We’re using sophisticated technologies (a.k.a. the Tunlr Secret Sauce ©) to re-adress certain data envelopes"
And since I'm not privy to the internal workings of their systems, what it does has to be taken on trust, which obviously has risks and security implications, which they also advise of in their FAQ where they say...
"For speed, stability, privacy and security reasons we do not recommend to permanently set your computer’s or router’s DNS addresses to Tunlr"
I'd go further and advise of a potential risk even in temporarily changing to their DNS.
To give a rather poor analogy....
You might leave your back door open briefly because a trusted Aunt said she would drop by, but you would be aware that when doing so you were leaving the door open in a way that would allow others to enter more easily.
If a bad boy snuck in and hid while your Aunt was visiting, you might not notice any mischief he got up to after the Aunt's visit was over.
......If you change the DNS servers on a device, then you are not just changing DNS for the site (internet location) that you want to affect, you are also giving the new resolving DNS server the opportunity to translate any requests your device makes. So such a change could potentially affect domain name resolution for banking, system updates etcetera.
This is probably not a concern for a device that is only used for watching television, via an internet connection that is not used for any other purposes.
But it could be a concern if the device is your personal computer used for important stuff, or if the device is connected to a networked device that does access secure sites and data.
The security impact is surely obvious. For example, if your device were to ask for a bank web site, the dns resolver could direct it to an ip address that is pretending to be the bank web site (perfect for phishing). This is also how modifications to host files can have similar potential security implications and why firewalls and antivirus software typically try to lock access to host files..
So, my original point is valid. Users should be aware of the potential dangers when making system changes or using any software that makes such changes for them.
If you use such a service or software it would be wise to do so only on a device which is not used for anything that might be affected by potential security breaches. It might also be wise to isolate that device from the rest of your network.
Once again, I did not say that TUNLR (or any software that uses it) is currently doing anything bad, just that it could do so in a way that you would be unaware of if you had granted your device permission to use such software, or changed your dns resolution service away from your usual trusted service.