What is OpenDNS?

Hi Bob -
I'm one of your satisfied readers in Uk. My comment relates to that on the OpenDNS topic.
So my query to Google would go out to my router, across our natiomnal carrier BT's DSL circuit, into BT's core, over to the ISP's central pipe, into the ISP's core, past the VLAN containing their DNS servers, out their POP onto their 'fat pipe' to the internet and across to the data centre presumably in the USA where OpenDNS has their nameservers, where a front end srever checks your request against your user config before passing the actual request to the actual DNS...and then the info travels back again. The benefits to us outside the USA seem mainly in in configuriong blocking policies as far as we can see.
Web address shortforms? The last 3 iterations of browsers already recollect your browsing history to the extent of auto-completing the address you are typing. No, not for us.

Hi Bob - everyone knows that nothing is free, and OpenDNS would need to run a pretty big, expensive data centre. I visited the OpenDNS website to try to get some insight into their value proposition - nothing obvious there....so, how do they make money?

EDITOR'S NOTE: They make money from the advertising on the page that appears when you type an invalid URL. Who'da think it? Big money in typos.

Hi - couple of things, one in repsonse to James Barretts' comment that using a DNS lookup service in the US would slow things down. I live in the UK and have used OpenDNS for over a year now, and I have never noticed any significant delay. This is because they have a "globally distributed network".

My only prob has been when using it in our church. We use a wirelss router to provide access to the internet, and use OpenDNS to provide content control. However since we have a dynamic IP address and OpenDNS uses the IP address to set the level of content control, every time the IP address changes we have to manually let OpenDNS know (we don't run with a PC permanently connected, just the modem/router). Good news is that, according to a recent newsletter from them, OpenDNS is linking with Netgear who will provide routers with OpenDNS configured to cope with dynamic IP addresses so that should take care of this issue. I don't have the problem at home as my PC runs an IP monitor which updates OpenDNS whenever my ISP assigns me a new IP address.

Thanks for this article. I have followed the instructions, have created an account and am giving it a try. With just a modem at the moment (and no router), the set up was straightforward and I haven't encountered any problems yet.

Much appreciated, particularly, are the 'parental' controls and the stats feature (disabled by default). I already have some protection against phishing and dangerous sites, thanks to Firefox/Google (I believe).

What concerns me is how they can offer this service free - TANSTAAFL! Are they selling net usage information? (Not a problem, so long as they don't sell identifiable information with it)

EDITOR'SD NOTE: As far as I know, their income derives from the ads on the OpenDNS Guide page, which appears when you type a keyword or URL that cannot be resolved. See http://www.opendns.com/privacy/

I tried it. It didn't work. I entered the required data into my router, I set up my account, but it kept saying I hadn't done it and still needed to enter the 208..... numbers. When I check the router the new information is there. Any ideas?

I too have experinced the same issue as Allan. But I think it's workng anyway. I went ahead and set up an account and I enabled STATS. I'm seeing a graph of statistics when I go in to view them, athough I don't know what they mean.

I have a Buffalo G54S router and connect via wireless and wonder if my router is operating much like Jim Lennon?

Thanks!

Like Allan I tries to configure my router for OpenDNS, but kept getting the message that I was not connected to their service. I subsequently determined that I had set the preferred DNS servers in XP previously, but had forgoten this. I then set these to to OpenDNS and have been using their service for most of a year flawlessly.
It seems that if a DNS server is defined in XP it over rides the setting in my Linksys router.
Hope this might help.

Thanks a lot Bob for this article. I tried OpenDNS in my Vista Laptop, but since I am a Linux fan I would want to know if: Can I set up my Ubuntu 9.04 operating system (installed via Wubi) to use Open DNS? Thanks in advance.

I've used OpenDNS for a little while and think it is a great service to add some protection for family surfing.

For Norman & a couple of others, look at downloading the "Dynamic IP" update software that OpenDNS offer (Windows, MAC & Linux). This runs on your machine and detects if your IP address has changed since the last time, updating OpenDNS's records. You just need to configure it with your OpenDNS account information and it will transparently keep your PC in sync with your account & preferences.

On many routers & ADSL/Cable modems there is an option to use Dynamic DNS already, you just need to put in your account information and point it to OpenDNS's machine (this option may be greyed and have dyndns.org as an example). If you have multiple PC's & laptops in the family, then setting up OpenDNS on the router is the easiest thing, as you'll only have to do it once! (all the machines will be able to get their settings as before from the router). Hopefully you have different password on the router to stop prying eyes from trying to circumvent the filtering...

Hector, of course you can use Linux! 80-90% of the world's infrastructure is using Linux or Unix. OpenDNS provide the ddclient package on their site for doing the dynamic update, although you may have to search for it, as the buttons on the webpage initially only offer Mac & M$. With ddclient you also have all the goodness of Open Source Software, you can examine it yourself to make sure it is not some trojan or spyware etc, and the writers even encourage you to give copies to your friends so that they can benefit too!

A final feature, for the struggling parent, individual sites can be blacklisted too. A fine-grained virtual "grounded" if you will, when their favourite online games/social network etc. site/s is/are put out of limits. Un-blacklisting is of course trivial allowing surfing privileges to be restored when the usual good behaviour returns - firm but fair me!

Okay, so let me get this straight: If I use OpenDNS, will I be getting free internet or will I be getting a faster connection for free (while still having to pay for my internet bill)?

EDITOR'S NOTE: No free Internet, just faster browsing.