One of my favorite tweaks

PC World, and many other experts have said this is one of their favorite tweaks -- opendns.

http://www.opendns.com

IT is free, and provides a much faster DNS lookup then the traditional ISP ones, and allows you to tweak settings to block domains and porns. It also has antiphishing, antispam, and autocorrection built in. Pretty easy to change your router's DNS to their servers. I have used them since 06' without an outage our a single problem.

Faster than my ISP's dns.

Phil

 

Thanks Phil. I'll give it a go when I have time.

Have you measured the performance improvement?

 

For me versus my ISP's DNS servers it is about a 5 - 10 percent decrease in DNS lookup time.

http://www.opendns.com/how/faster/global-footprint/

 

That's quite good. I think I'll give it a go now. It'll be interesting to see if I'll gain any performance advantage given that I am in Thailand at the moment (and they don't have any servers in Asia). But I read somewhere that it will still make a difference as many ISPs can be quite unreliable.

I would be great if I gain some speed as my international connection in Thailand is terrible to say the least.

 

They have DNS servers in asia planned. OpenDNS has a bigger cache. The other cool thing is that it lets you (if you sign up for free) create dns shortcuts.

For example I type in bank in the address bar and it goes to my UBS account login page.

I really like it,

Phil

 

That's quite nifty.

What about the phishing feature? Do you use both the phishing funtionality of OpenDNS combined with i.e. that of Internet Explorer/Firefox/Opera or do you just stick to OpenDNS?

 

I stick with OpenDNS. I would rather have a third party to trust then Microsoft. Speeds up browsing in IE a lot! Did you register for your dashboard? Pretty cool stuff and free.

Phil

I have custom DNS error pages I made for use with Open DNS

 

Yes, I registered. And yes I also stick to the OpenDNS Phishing protection. I will put it to the test soon.

Unfortunately, the performance benefit is sporadic. I assume it is due to there being no Asian server yet. Interestingly some websites do load faster (it is easy to tell when you have slow broadband like I do) while some websites load a bit slower now. I will test some more and see what happens.

 

I suspect with the addition of the Hong Kong and Seoul DNS servers you will see a speed up in Q1 of 08.

Phil

 

I surf the unspeakables, nothing illegal, I am 18, and most if not all of the guys do it, would this be a problem if I use openDNS?

 

I don't see why it should, unless you enable the adult filter.

 

JabbaJabba is correct no problem unless you enable adult filtering which you have to turn ON. It is off by default. Just add the DNS servers, and you are good to go.

 

+rep for honesty lol

 

Cool....I set my DNS server to OpenDNS...let's see what happens...seems a little faster at the outset though.

 

If you use IE turn off the phishing filter, and use OpenDNS's and IE rocks.

 

Sorry, definitely not all guys do.

I am interested in trying this DNS server out as well. It sounds like it can be very useful. Thanks for posting.

 

Here are some cool shots of custom blocking and custom error pages you can create if you sign up for the free dashboard. It also allows you to log all your DNSlookups IF you want.





The logo and greenleafmarket IT department are my customizations.

 

Wow, that looks very nice. The DNS logging could be very useful as well. Definitely looking forward to trying this out. Thanks again.

 

Hmm, I entered the DNS numbers in my router settings, but on the settings page on OpenDNS.com I get the message "not using OpenDNS" :S?

EDIT: I fixed it!

 

hahaha! you're afraid that OpenDNS is going to make fun of you for whacking off?

hahaha

you just made my day


thanks for this though i'll be switching soon

 

Not all guys do.

You're 18, get over it

I'm 21, I don't watch porn anymore

 

the logging and porn blocking is useful for families as well. The DNS caches OpenDNS uses are very large. If you have a crappy ISP like I do (Charter) then you really notice a zip.

 

Hahaha,
thanks for the replies guys and the rep JackBoot.
@n0elia & Schluep, that's why it is "most if not all", instead of "all of the guys", you guys are the 1%ers. =P
I tried to get over it, but it is HARD; I promise I am working on it........
ahahahahahah.
@playnine9, Good to know I made someone smiled today.

I shall give openDNS a try, but do you has to have a router in order to use this feature? I live in an apartment and all it provide is a ethernet outlet for Cable Internet so I used my Local instead of wireless connection. Does OpenDNS function without a router?

 

Yes, you can simply change the DNS settings of your computer connection (i.e. Windows network settings). The web site has some very easy to understand instructions.