David Russell

For quite some time now, I’ve enjoyed the benefits of using OpenDNS on the networks at NCC and at my home. If you are not familiar with OpenDNS, allow me to briefly explain what their service does. Using the web has become quite dependent on the domain name system (DNS). In the very early days, we used IP addresses to navigate the web. Domain names solve the problem of the human factor by allowing text, numerals and hyphens to be used to translate IP addresses into something more friendly.

OpenDNS is a service that allows you to change the route of your DNS requests away from your ISP. This provides a number of benefits, as outlined in the OpenDNS features. You might also be interested in a very simple explanation of how OpenDNS works.

The features I particularly enjoy are:

• Adult-site Blocking - It’s important to have these types of filters in place even when no one on the network intentionally uses adult sites. It avoids embarrassment and potential accountability issues, especially in the work environment. It also is a general measure of security for a network frequently used by kids.


• Statistics - I am a statistics fiend, so I really enjoy measuring network traffic and gleaning useful tidbits of data compiled from my DNS traffic.


• Speed - In both of my personal cases, there has been a noticeable increase in speed of DNS requests when I switched from public ISP DNS to OpenDNS.


• Customization - For the office network, it is nice to have a solution we can paste our brand into.

Since I first signed on, OpenDNS has provided excellent service for me. I’d encourage anyone with a computer and especially anyone who is an administrator for a home or office network to get started with OpenDNS. If you have access to your wireless router, it is simple to apply one change to the DNS settings and have all computers on your network begin using OpenDNS.

For statistics to work on a home network, you’ll probably need to use an application to update OpenDNS with your dynamic IP address. It is rare for a consumer-level ISP to provide a static IP address to a customer. You may be one of the lucky few! If not, there is some additional assistance on setting up a service or application which frequently updates OpenDNS with IP address changes. This option is only necessary if you are interested in recording statistics. OpenDNS has created a web-based service called DNS-o-matic which makes simple the process of updating several services and networks at one. At work, we have a static IP so we do not need to update OpenDNS. At home, I use the INADYN service. The DynDNS updater might be a simpler solution for novice users and also has an option for Mac users.

Enjoy speed and security! This round is on me! :)

[tags]opendns, dns, isp, network, administration, security, speed, tweak[/tags]