IPhone/iPad/Mac “The network is blocking encrypted DNS traffic” / emails slow to load or don’t load

[#1]

Apologies for the long subject line. For a while now I have been having problems on my apple devices which bring up errors like the one in the subject line. After quite a bit of hunting around, I think that there are solutions to this issue and I thought this was probably the place to post them for comment.

What is the issue?

From what I can tell, more recent version of apple operating systems use encrypted DNS services to protect your privacy (their description, not mine). PlusNet provides, by default, a service which blocks access to a number of domains which stop you accidentally going to websites which are extremely dubious, to put it politely. As it happens, “extreme thought dubious” website use a similar technology to apple (and other VPN systems) in keeping privacy, and so all forms of privacy protection get blocked.

What are solutions?

I have found three, and I’ve put them in my order of preference. Your order of preference may be different.

Solution 1: Keep the safeguarding system on, but configure it to allow access to apple’s secure DNS servers.

• Log in to your plus.net account.
• Click on the Broadband icon
• Select “Safeguard” from the Help and Settings menu, bottom left
• Select “Allow websites” from the left hand menu
• Type “mask.icloud.com” into the “Add a website” text box and click “Add”
• Type “mask-h2.icloud.com” into the “Add a website” text box and click “Add”
• Click “Save”

Solution 2: Disable the option on each mac devices.

This will vary between OS versions and device. For email, on an iPhone, iOS 15:

• Run the settings app
• Go to Mail > Privacy Protection
• Set “Protect Mail Activity” to Off

If you have enabled “Private Relay”, turn it off.

Solution 3: Disable the safeguard provided by plusnet

• Log in to your plus.net account.
• Click on the Broadband icon
• Select “Safeguard” from the Help and Settings menu, bottom left
• Turn it off (top right of screen)
• Click Save or agree with the confirmation box.

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to Everything Else

[#3]

Does this issue only arise if BOTH Plusnet safeguarding and Apple private relay (in email settings) are enabled?

Does the issue only impact email operations?

If the answer to the second question is "Yes", would this be better placed under email?

My iPhone accesses all of my Plusnet email accounts without apparent issue - Private Relay is switched on, but I do not use Plusnet safeguarding services.

[#4]

I think that @townace is asking two, distinct, questions, so I'll try and clarify ...

1. The issue is most apparent in email. The solutions proposed are email related. (They may or may not solve the similar warnings on wifi. Logically I can see no reason why they would, but in practice they generally seem to, in my case.)
2. Newer iOS automatically use "Mail Privacy Protection" for downloading (some or all, unclear) message content. This is on by default, even when Private Relay (beta, has to be actively turned on by the user) is off. Mail Privacy Protection and Private Really are distinct and (currently) separate thing.

I hope hat helps, and as ever, this is based on my current understanding, which may, or may not, be complete!

[#5]

I encountered similar problems when I recently upgraded my various i devices from OS14.8 to 15.0 and had been wondering about it.

I don’t have a paid iCloud service so Private Relay isn’t an issue but I was still finding problems with Mail Privacy Protection not loading remote content (images).

The solution for me is @neiltownsend's option 1, thank you.

Apple reference the hostnames in a developer note here https://developer.apple.com/support/prepare-your-network-for-icloud-private-relay/.

[#6]

Thanks for your help concerning privacy warnings. Successfully cleared my issue, plus I’ve learnt more.