April 1st is not the best day to announce a new product, as many might think it’s just another joke, but the Cloudflare team thinks otherwise. After all, this date is quite significant for them since the address of their flagship mass product—the fast and anonymous DNS server—is 1.1.1.1 (4/1), which was also launched on April 1st last year. In this context, the company couldn’t help but compare itself to Google regarding the launch of the popular email service Gmail, which was launched on April 1st, 2004.
So, once again clarifying that this is not a joke, Cloudflare announced the launch of its own DNS server based on the mobile application 1.1.1.1, which was previously used for automatically configuring the DNS service provided by the company on mobile devices.
Before diving into the details, the company blog couldn’t miss mentioning the success of 1.1.1.1, which showed a 700% monthly growth in installations and is likely to become the second-largest public DNS service in the world, trailing only Google. However, Cloudflare hopes to outpace Google in the future and take the top spot.
The company also reminds that it was one of the first to popularize standards such as DNS over TLS and DNS over HTTPS in collaboration with the Mozilla Foundation. These standards regulate the encryption method for data exchange between your device and the remote DNS server, ensuring that no third party (including your Internet provider) can track your online movements through DNS traffic by using man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. It should be noted that in several cases, the lack of DNS encryption renders the use of VPN-anonymization services ineffective, unless these services filter DNS traffic separately.
On November 11, 2018 (and again with four ones), Cloudflare launched its mobile app, which allowed anyone to use secure DNS with support for the aforementioned standards at the touch of a button. As the company claims, despite expecting only modest interest in the app, millions of people on Android and iOS platforms worldwide ended up using it.
After this, Cloudflare considered what more could be done to secure the Internet for mobile devices. As noted in their blog, mobile Internet could be significantly better than what it currently represents. Yes, 5G addresses many issues, but the TCP/IP protocol, in Cloudflare's view, is simply not designed for wireless communication, as it lacks the necessary resilience to interference and data packet loss caused by it.
Thus, during reflections on the state of mobile Internet, a 'secret' plan was born within the company. Its implementation began with the acquisition of Neumob, a small startup focused on developing applications for mobile VPN clients. The developments from Neumob ultimately enabled the creation of Warp — a VPN service from Cloudflare (not to be confused with the similarly named warpvpn.com).
What is special about the new service?
Firstly, Cloudflare promises that the application will provide the fastest possible connection speeds, supported by hundreds servers around the world with low latency access, as well as integrated traffic compression technology, where it is safe and feasible. The company claims that the worse the connection, the greater the benefit of using Warp for access speed. The description of the technology painfully resembles Opera Turbo, though the latter is primarily a proxy server and has never been positioned as a means for security and anonymity online.
Secondly, the new VPN service uses the WireGuard protocol, developed by Canadian information security specialist Jason A. Donenfeld. The protocol features high performance and modern encryption, while its well-organized and compact code makes it easy to implement and audit for high security and the absence of any backdoors. WireGuard has already received positive reviews from Linux creator Linus Torvalds and the U.S. Senate.
Thirdly, Cloudflare has made every effort to reduce the app's impact on mobile device battery life, achieved both by minimizing processor load through the use of WireGuard and optimizing the number of calls to the radio module.
How to gain access?
Simply install the latest version of the 1.1.1.1 app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, launch it, and you will see a prominent button at the top inviting you to participate in the Warp testing. After clicking it, you will take a place in the general queue of those wishing to try out the new service. Once your turn arrives, you'll receive a corresponding notification, after which you can activate Warp. Until then, 1.1.1.1 can still be used as a secure and fast DNS service.
Cloudflare claims that the service will be completely free and will operate on a freemium model, meaning the company plans to earn from additional features for premium accounts, as well as by providing services for corporate clients. Premium accounts will have access to dedicated servers with higher bandwidth, as well as the Argo routing technology, which enables rerouting your traffic through a number of servers, bypassing heavily loaded parts of the network, which, according to Cloudflare, can reduce latency for accessing internet resources by up to 30%.
It's still difficult to assess the reality of Cloudflare's promises in their quest to create the dream VPN service, but the overall concept and intentions of the company look very interesting, and we eagerly await the moment when Warp will be available to everyone so that we can test its performance and the ability of the company's servers to handle future loads, considering that there are already about 300,000 people wanting to test Warp on Google Play alone.
Source: 3dnews.ru
