OpenDNS Home - safe browsing for the kids (and you)
Posted: 23 Dec 2013 08:10
Well, my daughter, Rachel, will be 7 in May. "They grow up so fast", as they say, and it hit me this week that my little, baby girl is an Internet user. What?! 
I watched her sit down at my computer, open a browser, and Google search for music videos. The Internet is a DARK, SCARY PLACE that wants to harm my daughter! 
The bad stuff will find her regardless of whether she is looking for it or not.
So I wonder what you parents do to keep your little kids from opening bad stuff on the Internet?
On Sunday, I setup OpenDNS Home (free), and so far it's awesome. It's a dead-simple and effective solution. All you do is log into your home router and configure it to serve these 2 Name Servers instead of the defaults you get from your Internet provider:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
By default you'll have no blocking except known malware sites. When you sign up at http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/p ... -controls/, you get a Dashboard that lets you configure the level of filtering. I chose "Medium" which blocks all adult content and illegal activity related sites. You can also block or allow specific domains as needed.
When a URL is blocked, you get a nice page in your browser letting you know it was blocked. Your users (family) can submit a form on that page will go to you and request that the URL be allowed. You can even customize that page your home users see when a page is blocked.
If your public IP is dynamic (most home Internet services give dynamic IPs that can change over time), they have a program you can download and run on one of your computers that will automatically update your account with your current public IP. (Don't run this on a laptop that you frequently take outside your home or you may update your OpenDNS public IP with the public IP from the coffee house network, etc.)
You can ignore everything I said and just go to http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/p ... -controls/, then click OpenDNS Home and follow the instructions. They walk you through it.
A nice side benefit is that the OpenDNS name servers are faster than the slow, crappy Surewest name servers. This means my browsing experience is faster now.
I watched her sit down at my computer, open a browser, and Google search for music videos. The Internet is a DARK, SCARY PLACE that wants to harm my daughter! The bad stuff will find her regardless of whether she is looking for it or not.So I wonder what you parents do to keep your little kids from opening bad stuff on the Internet?
On Sunday, I setup OpenDNS Home (free), and so far it's awesome. It's a dead-simple and effective solution. All you do is log into your home router and configure it to serve these 2 Name Servers instead of the defaults you get from your Internet provider:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
By default you'll have no blocking except known malware sites. When you sign up at http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/p ... -controls/, you get a Dashboard that lets you configure the level of filtering. I chose "Medium" which blocks all adult content and illegal activity related sites. You can also block or allow specific domains as needed.
When a URL is blocked, you get a nice page in your browser letting you know it was blocked. Your users (family) can submit a form on that page will go to you and request that the URL be allowed. You can even customize that page your home users see when a page is blocked.
If your public IP is dynamic (most home Internet services give dynamic IPs that can change over time), they have a program you can download and run on one of your computers that will automatically update your account with your current public IP. (Don't run this on a laptop that you frequently take outside your home or you may update your OpenDNS public IP with the public IP from the coffee house network, etc.)
You can ignore everything I said and just go to http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/p ... -controls/, then click OpenDNS Home and follow the instructions. They walk you through it.
A nice side benefit is that the OpenDNS name servers are faster than the slow, crappy Surewest name servers. This means my browsing experience is faster now.