Free OpenDNS rocks

[mancombseepgood]

Just thought this service was pretty awesome...

www.opendns.com

Great for home setups, business or otherwise. Services include:
° Dynamic DNS updates gives you a DNS name for a dynamic IP such as you get with a regular ADSL account.
° Content filtering - you decide what goes and what doesn't with MANY categories to choose from and whitelists, ban lists for specific domains
° Anti Phishing
° Stats and reporting

Cant believe I've just noticed it recently... It's pretty awesome if you want it for plain old parental filtering or LAN wide control...

 

[Syndyre]

I don't think you can use the filtering services unless you have a static IP?

 

[Defib]

when changing DNS setting in my router, doesnt that mess with my internet setup ??

 

[|tera|]

I don't think you can use the filtering services unless you have a static IP?

Yep

when changing DNS setting in my router, doesnt that mess with my internet setup ??

Depends, if you use a Local only account for instance, then it will mess it about, you won't be able to resolve sites.

I use opendns when I get bad gateway or DNS errors on Saix, it's faster to use usual SAIX dns servers, especially if you spend as much time as I do here

 

[mancombseepgood]

I have also found that the dynamic dns doesn't work with SAIX accounts (transparent proxy or such)... anyone else able to confirm this?
Why should the filtering service only work with a static account? I don't understand that bit...

 

[|tera|]

It's in the opendns faq I believe. I set up the whole thing once with rules and exclusions, porn filters the works, but couldn't use it.

I think dyndns.org should work with SAIX, but don't ask me how it works

 

[Asha'man X]

I'm tempted to switch over to OpenDNS anyway fairly soon at work, it's another layer of protection at the school.

If the filtering doesn't work on a dynamic ip, it will be a pity, but it's not the end of the world. At most, it would have just been another layer of defense. With adsl prices coming down, and costs in general being pushed down, I'm wondering if getting a static ip for our router wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Btw, DynDNS works fine for our adsl based on a Saix account.

 

[mancombseepgood]

I'm tempted to switch over to OpenDNS anyway fairly soon at work, it's another layer of protection at the school.

If the filtering doesn't work on a dynamic ip, it will be a pity, but it's not the end of the world. At most, it would have just been another layer of defense. With adsl prices coming down, and costs in general being pushed down, I'm wondering if getting a static ip for our router wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Btw, DynDNS works fine for our adsl based on a Saix account.

Asha'man... do it... get a static DNS, it's not that expensive for a school... OpenDns has awesome features IMO. Seriously, look at it. I saw this and that was the first major application I could see. This coupled with a secure proxy would prevent any fiddling from the student's side. Without the proxy, they might be able to override the DNS depending on your setup (unless you block the major DNS servers).

 

[mancombseepgood]

It's in the opendns faq I believe. I set up the whole thing once with rules and exclusions, porn filters the works, but couldn't use it.

I think dyndns.org should work with SAIX, but don't ask me how it works

Dyndns works well for the dns part on any setup afaik, but no nice filtering features like opendns... seriously thinking of static IP...

 

[Defib]

so basically the only point to opendns is to block websites?? Im not "catching" the point of this thing too well

 

[Syndyre]

so basically the only point to opendns is to block websites?? Im not "catching" the point of this thing too well

No its main purpose is to provide you with alternative DNS servers which can often be better than those of your ISP.

 

[mancombseepgood]

so basically the only point to opendns is to block websites?? Im not "catching" the point of this thing too well

Take a look, it gives you pretty good top level control over the content, a dynamic DNS offering, anti phishing, etc.

 

[Defib]

DDNS u say? Eish there help docs etc arent lekker

 

[HavocXphere]

it's faster to use usual SAIX dns servers, especially if you spend as much time as I do here

The browser remembers the last 20 or so dns resolutions, so it shouldn't matter either way with this site.

 

[noswal]

A lot of the iburst users already use this as a working alternative to ibursts dns

 

[hilton]

I'm tempted to switch over to OpenDNS anyway fairly soon at work, it's another layer of protection at the school.

If the filtering doesn't work on a dynamic ip, it will be a pity, but it's not the end of the world.

OpenDNS does work with dynamic accounts, you just have to download the client app that will update the site with your current IP address. So you would then use this on your server at the school.

The filtering takes a dew minutes to activate and it would be good to clear your local DNS cache first and any browser cache.

 

[carlnielsen]

As far as I am aware, the presence of a Dynamic IP address is not a problem for OpenDNS. As people have noted, there is a small system tray program that runs in the background and updates the OpenDNS servers whenever your IP changes.

What is a problem, is that Telkom has the whole country behind a proxy. Bang goes adult site and phishing filtering!

 

[Alan]

I think dyndns.org should work with SAIX, but don't ask me how it works

I'm busy with figuring it out at the moment