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OpenDNS
Released July, 2006
The Pros:Fast servers. All OpenDNS features are free. Can use it to block adult content sites.
The Cons:Unable to change the default search engine for the OpenDNS Guide. Content blocking uses a third-party to categorize sites with no ability to correct mis-labeled sites.
OpenDNS is a free DNS resolution service. It provides the following two recursive nameserver addresses for public use, mapped to the nearest operational server location by Anycast routing:
- 208.67.222.222 (resolver1.
- opendns.com)
- 208.67.220.220 (resolver2.opendns.com)
OpenDNS was launched in July 2006 by hacker/entrepreneur David Ulevitch. It received venture capital funding from Minor Ventures, which is led by CNET founder Halsey Minor.
On July 10, 2006, the service was covered by digg, Slashdot, and Wired News, which resulted in an increase of DNS requests from just over one million requests on July 9 to 30 million on July 11.
On October 2, 2006, OpenDNS launched Phishtank, an online collaborative anti-phishing database.
In 2006, OpenDNS began using the DNS Update API from DynDNS to handle updates from users with dynamic IPs.
Since January 2007, OpenDNS provides geographically distributed servers in Seattle, Palo Alto, New York, Washington, D.C., London, with planned expansions to Chicago and Hong Kong.
On June 11th, 2007, OpenDNS started advanced web filtering to optionally block adult content for their free accounts.
User Reviews (9)
Pros & Cons
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7
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6
All OpenDNS features are free
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4
Can use it to block adult content sites
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4
Can create single word shortcuts to web pages (ex: typing mail in the address bar would take you to your web mail site of your choice)
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2
Can use it to block advertisement sites
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2
Can use it to block web tracker sites.
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2
Unable to change the default search engine for the OpenDNS Guide
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-3
Content blocking uses a third-party to categorize sites with no ability to correct mis-labeled sites.
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Comments (3)
Erik:
#opendns
Strange thing happened last Thursday for OpenDNS users living in certain parts of the world including the North East in North America. For a period of 2 hours, OpenDNS users couldn't resolve any domain hosted by the behemoth GoDaddy. Hence, a good chunk of the Internet was invisible to users like myself.
I was forced to change back to my default DNS entries and let my ISP do the DNS resolution so I could continue to browse. After I found out that GoDaddy was to blame, I started questioning the whole thing and my conspiring mind started to wander:
One of OpenDNS' crown jewels is typed domain traffic being handled by a Google-powered OpenDNS search (ad-supported). Typically, what happens with typed domain traffic is that it will resolve to the domain ending in .COM in the browser itself, likely landing on a ad-supported parked domain. This is likely a page hosted by GoDaddy with ad-revenue funneling into their pockets. Therefore, the success of OpenDNS directly negatively affects GoDaddy's pocketbooks. Was this 2-hour outage merely a technical glitch or a targeted way to try and shake up OpenDNS' adoption curve?
My friend actually called GoDaddy in the 2-hour outage to check on his website and they said that it was my friend's problem. You would think that GoDaddy would've been aware of such a widespread issue affecting their network.
Read more about it here:
http://system.opendns.com/2008/03/06/61/
Mar 10, 08
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Erik:
#opendns I've been using it as well for about the same amount of time (on Jan's recommend) and it's been great. I've seen spotty name resolution from my ISP (Roger's) and this is solid and fast. I use the shortcut features, and I like the anti-phishing option. It would be ideal for a family computer if you want to block adult sites as well.
Jan 2, 08
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Jan:
#opendns I have been using their servers for about 4 months now and their service is excellent. I setup an account with OpenDNS so that I can turn on the useful filters. Highly recommended!
Jan 2, 08
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