We recently mentioned that you can point your router or browser to OpenDNS’s DNS servers to protect your computers from the DNS Poisoned Cache vulnerability brought to light by Dan Kaminsky. While many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have patched their DNS servers, others have not yet done so.
There is another reason to consider OpenDNS, as you can use it as a free web-filtering service. How-To Geek posted a well-written tutorial describing this in detail.
What is Web Filtering?
Web-filtering allows you to specify which sites your computers can access. OpenDNS uses website categorization information from the iGuard service from StBernard.com, which St. Bernard calls “the only 100% fully human-reviewed URL database”.
Using OpenDNS as a Web Filter
Basically, after signing up for a free account and installing client software (and changing your DNS settings), you log into the OpenDNS Dashboard and select a filtering level.
You can customize the settings for whichever filtering level you choose. For example, selecting the “High” level will block sites categorized as Webmail. If you wanted access to those sites, you could choose Customize, then de-select that category.
You can also specify sites to “Always Block” or “Never Block” no matter which filtering level you choose. For example, if you choose the “High” filtering level, but want to be able to use Gmail, you could add “mail.google.com” as a “Never Block” site.
You can also enable statistics (from Dashboard > Advanced Settings) to view graphs of internet usage, blocked site requests, and more.
Takeaway: There are good reasons for selectively blocking adult (and other ungodly) sites from our own and our childrens’ computers. OpenDNS’s free service gives you control over which sites are allowed and blocked.
While there are commercial products available such as Safe Eyes ($49.95/year) which offer more features, take a look at OpenDNS’s web-filtering to help protect your and your loved ones while they browse the web.